What Guido spoke about.

Turkish President Erdoğan has the 1000th. Condemn the opposition. And what does the EU do? It continues to send billions of euros to the Bosphorus because Turkey is a candidate country. A country where human rights are systematically violated, where there is no political opposition, no independent media and no free judges, is a candidate for EU membership – it does not matter that it occupies part

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are once again talking about the European pillars of social rights. I always say the same thing. According to the Treaties, the EU is not responsible for social policy. But the treaties have not interested anyone for a long time, just like the fundamental values of this EU. It was about prosperity, peace and democracy. Prosperity: The Green Deal It is d

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are talking about sexual violence in the workplace; and what is particularly important to the Greens: that the LGBTIQ community and migrants are particularly affected. What the Greens don't want to talk about is Malte Gallée. Malte Gallée, the youngest member of the Greens, who has mainly noticed walking through Parliament in a clown costume – this gree

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are talking about combating inflation, food prices and their social consequences and root causes. Food prices have actually risen by a dramatic 29 percent in the last two years. Crass examples: Sugar 74 percent, wheat flour 69 percent, margarine 50 percent. What does that mean? People are driven into poverty. Poor people are starving. Particularly affec

Mass rape and subsequent beheading of women: We must be able to speak openly about this, including in this European Parliament. Because I'm not willing to tolerate such a thing.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Today is the International Day for Combating Violence against Women. And as every year, we find warm words – but they do not help, because things are getting worse. More domestic violence, more murders, more rapes, much more gang rapes, more genital mutilations. And who are the perpetrators? Yes, they are men; But unfortunately, far too often these men are migra

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today is the International Day of the Rights of the Child, and I would like to focus on a topic that is particularly important to me: child poverty. This is so important to me because as a child I was affected by child poverty myself. I know what it means to have no money for the cinema, for the swimming pool. I know what it means to be bullied because you ca

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. We have Thursday, October 19th, it's a quarter past three and we're discussing the future of the social industry today. And only ten MEPs have asked for speaking time, and not even these ten are all there. To tell the audience out there: We are here in Strasbourg, we have week of sitting. This week of meetings starts on Mondays at 5 p.m. and ends on Thursdays at

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today we are talking about adequate housing for all, an important issue, because rents are exploding, and housing is becoming increasingly scarce. In Germany, 11 million households have a residence permit, but only 10 percent of them have a social housing. The traffic light government has promised to build 400,000 new apartments. It's been 20 so far, and it w

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Only 28% of Roma youth achieve upper secondary education, compared to 83% on average in Europe. Why is that so? Roma children are discriminated against. That is what the Roma say, and that is what the majority in this Parliament believes. That's why a lot of money has been invested in the past to solve this problem. Did we solve it? No. We have failed complet

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today we are talking about improving the working conditions at the fire brigade. An important topic, and a lot of right things have already been said. But no problem was raised. A problem we didn't know before. I am talking about acts of violence against the fire brigade and emergency services: in 2021, 2,160 acts of violence against firefighters. 42% of fire

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are talking about the social system of the future. And what a surprise – after the Social Climate Fund, we are now also talking about a green social protection system, which should be developed. Unfortunately, green and social do not fit together. Green means the loss of trillions of high-paying jobs, rising rents, rising energy costs and rising food co

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! It's getting crazy. Last month we decided to phase out the internal combustion engine, which means the loss of 600,000 well-paid jobs in Germany alone. Yesterday we decided on the energetic forced renovation of real estate, which makes living unaffordable, older buildings practically worthless and expropriation, i.e.: Forced mortgages are possible.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The EU wants to introduce a European minimum income. This is surprising, because each Member State already has its own legislation. In Germany it used to be Hartz IV. Hartz IV was introduced to enable the long-term unemployed to return to the labour market. It worked very badly: In 2022, only 1.6% of Hartz IV recipients made it. This is also exciti

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are talking about the accession of the EU to the Istanbul Convention; This is about protecting women against violence. This is an important issue because it is getting worse and worse: Violence, murder, rape, gang rape, genital mutilation – everything is getting worse all the time. And we talk about it. We are talking about the victims – quite rightl

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are talking about strengthening European works councils. A topic that is very close to my heart, because I was a works councillor. I was elected as a youth representative in my first year of apprenticeship, later as a youth spokesperson with responsibility for 10,000 trainees – there were so many trainees in mining in Germany in the early

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today we are talking about promoting the competitiveness of the industry and creating quality jobs. Thank God there are still quality jobs at the former export world champion Germany, for example in the automotive industry and in the chemical industry. But above all, industry needs affordable energy to be successful. Unfortunately, she no longer has it. This

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are talking about the European Child Guarantee. It is therefore a matter of combating child poverty, a very important issue. I do not know child poverty from reports, but I have experienced child poverty in my own body. I was poor, I know what it means to be marginalized and bullied because you're poor. But we've been talking about fightin

It is a predominant part of the cultures from the countries of the people who have come to us here. And this is Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, this is Eritrea, Somalia; and again and again Syria – again and again the countries from which the people who seek protection with us come. These people always stand out with incredibly heinous atrocities against women. And that must finally end. And these are

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today is International Day for Combating Violence against Women. And as always – everything has gotten much worse. And as always, we don't want to talk about the real causes of these problems. On the situation in Germany: Domestic violence increased by 50% in 2013. The women's shelters are completely overcrowded, and 70% of women in the women's shelters are n

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Today is the International Day to Fight Poverty. It was a very important day for me because I was poor as a child. And my home, the Ruhr area, is the poorhouse of Germany. One in five are poor there, and 40% of the children receive Hartz IV. And Commissioner Schmit, you have raised many problems correctly. More and more workers are poor, more and more pension

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, We are talking today about the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, and many in Germany are now thinking: Yeah, that's the way it is! That's why there are now about ten times as many Romanians and Bulgarians living in Germany as there were ten years ago. And these people often receive social benefits, often receive child benefits for childr

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Germany is experiencing the biggest energy crisis in its history. This means: historical inflation, a historical loss of purchasing power. A wave of bankruptcy is rolling towards us, which will cost millions of jobs. Millions of people probably have to freeze. We have to get used to blackouts. Who's to blame? It's not Russia. Germany had the highest energy pr

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The Commission wants to strengthen the social economy. That is fundamentally correct. But is it about making the social economy more social, making it more humane, for example improving the working conditions of carers? No. The Commission wants to make care climate-neutral. What a surprise! The German workers' welfare is particularly enthusiastic about this. She

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Forced labour is the slavery of the 21st century and must be fought. A ban on imports of products manufactured under forced labour conditions is a good approach; That is why, of course, I will agree. Nevertheless, a few critical suggestions. Who is it against today? Is this against Bangladesh? Is this against Qatar? These would be good examples. No, it's against