Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I could start this speech in many ways, but I choose to do so in the only way worthy of this Parliament: with deep respect for the victims. 230 people died in a modern European country with technology, resources, promises of security and speeches of progress. They died in garages, they died in cars dragged by the current, they died in circumstances that no warning should allow, but that all the signs announced. DANA wasn't just a weather storm: It was a human collapse. It was a disaster that exposed system weaknesses, delays in alerts, coordination failures and a vulnerability that transcends borders and governments. Today is a time of solidarity, with the families who cry, with the communities who have lost everything, with the firefighters, technicians and volunteers who have resisted to the limit. But it is also time to learn. We do not yet have a true culture of readiness, we do not have a solid and integrated structure to respond to crises of this dimension, and when luck replaces preparation, risk ceases to be chance and becomes destiny. And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, this tragedy should not be remembered only with tears, but with shame: civic shame, moral shame, shame that we have created a time when catastrophes are repeated and responsibilities are diluted. Perhaps this is the true test of our time: If we can turn pain into duty, memory into action, and power finally into service.

Mr President, today we remember Daphne Caruana Galizia, eight years after her brutal assassination. Eight years of struggle, eight years of promises, eight years of illusions. Each year we return to this Chamber, each year, the same reality confronts us. In Malta, justice is still delayed. The rule of law is still eroding. The system remains captured by power. The culture of impunity that made her death possible still governs the country. The Commission's latest rule of law report flags no real progress on convictions, no effective protection for journalists and blocked media reform in Malta. Eight years on, justice is still incomplete. Justice for Daphne means more than arrests, it means dismantling the corruption she exposed and ending the impunity that killed her. Anything less is complicity, anything less weakens the rule of law at the heart of our Union. When a journalist is silent, society is blinded. When impunity prevails, democracy decays. Daphne was murdered for telling the truth but the truth does not lie. It waits, it resists, it returns. Our duty, this Parliament's duty is clear to make truth impossible to kill – for Daphne, for her sons, for every journalist who still dares to write. Let Europe prove that courage cannot be killed.

Mr President, few professions carry as much weight as a police officer, often at risk of his own life. Europe has changed. Crime today is transnational, technological and borderless. And those on the front lines of our cops feel that change every day. The new internal security strategy, Commissioner, is a decisive step. Criminals are already operating without borders. It is time for justice and security forces to do so too. European justice must be as agile as the crime it fights. This also means equipping police forces with modern and effective means. We do not fight the crime of the future with instruments of the past. But, Commissioner, no strategy wins if it is left behind by those who implement it. Without respected, trained and valued police, there is no European security. Today, the number and violence of attacks against law enforcement officials increases. What was once an exception has become routine. What once shocked me was tolerated. And a Europe that wants to be strong must start by respecting those who defend it.

Mr President, my condolences to the victims and to all those affected by the fires, with gratitude for the courage of those who fight these tragedies. Ladies and gentlemen, when we talk about forest fires we are not just talking about hectares of forest or statistics - we are talking about people. Entire villages evacuated, families losing homes, farmers seeing life's work reduced to ashes, ecosystems and fertile soils that take decades to recover. This summer, the European Union burned like never before: more than 1 million hectares destroyed, two thirds in Portugal and Spain alone. Every year we know that the Iberian Peninsula will burn. Summers are longer and warmer. We are the front line of climate change. We are the place where Europe burns the most and we must also be at the forefront of European prevention. The European response can no longer be the routine of eternal emergency; We need prevention and preparedness. Commissioner, the rescEU mechanism must become a truly permanent firefighting force, with air assets and multinational brigades pre-positioned in the most risky regions, such as the Iberian Peninsula, ready to operate in hours rather than days. At the same time, the next Multiannual Financial Framework needs to channel significant funds to clean up fuels, rebuild resilient ecosystems and support the rural world. But let's not forget the other front: justice. A significant part of the ignitions is arson crime. This is a serious crime that destroys lives, villages and natural heritage. The law exists – what is lacking is firm justice, without complacency. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a moral and generational imperative. Either we rule the territory in the winter, or we will be ruled by the flames in the summer.

Madam President, if there is a risk that in my country, Portugal, we know too well, it is that of forest fires. In 2024 alone 137 000 hectares were burned, 16 lives were lost. The burnt area was four times higher than in 2023 and 2025 has already given us the hottest June ever. It's time to break with reactive logic. Europe needs a new culture of structural preparedness. There is a lot of talk about defense today and well. But if we talk about defense, then we have to talk about forest fires, because today, in Portugal, in much of southern Europe, defense begins in the forest, begins in the protection of the territory, begins in the anticipation of risk. In 2024, almost 5 000 Portuguese soldiers were involved in firefighting, army surveillance patrols. drones of the Air Force. This is the new theatre of operations. It's not a conventional battlefield, but it's about the same thing: the security of the population, the territorial integrity of the national territory. The real defense actually begins before the fire. It begins in the managed forest, in the care field, in the attentive communities, in the inhabited territory. And yes, we need to accelerate rescEU, more air assets, especially for frontline countries: Portugal, Spain, Greece. European readiness cannot be delayed when the risk is cyclical and predictable. We also need to mobilise cohesion, agricultural, prevention-oriented funds, not just reconstruction. And we need a European education campaign to prepare the school, the municipality. Resilience has to enter into everyday life. Resilience is a battle and it is a battle we have to win, before the flames, not after the ashes.

Mr President, how many scandals fit into a single government before it ceases to be a government and simply becomes a mechanism of self-protection? When judges, prosecutors and the Supreme Court itself raise their voices, it is not institutional formalism. The rule of law, gentlemen, does not negotiate, it does not adapt to the whims of those in power. In Spain, Sánchez heads a survival scheme where loyalty is bought with amnesties and silence is rewarded with impunity. It's not government, it's capture. Mr President, Spain has become a theatre where corruption is not denied, it is relativised; the crime is not committed, it is interpreted. And the rule of law, that old pillar of European democracy, is nothing more than an institutional and empty adornment. Democracy waits suspended as one who observes, with some shame, that no one dares to put an end to the farce. Because the Spaniards know it: Justice is not amnesty, let alone impunity. When Justice is manipulated from within, it ceases to be an internal matter of Spain to become a European crisis. Ladies and gentlemen, from that famous PSOE club there is only one man left to fall: Pedro Sanchez.

Honourable Member, let me remind you, because sometimes the memory is short when it is convenient, that you have been a staunch supporter of a government – the government of Geringonça – which has been responsible for the largest disinvestment in defence in decades. And, from our point of view, defence investment is politically viable, socially responsible and even strategically necessary, because much of what you are talking about is not possible without security.

Mr President, Portugal sends a message to the NATO summit: We are ready to comply. For too long Portugal has fallen short of what was required, and that has changed. We are making up for lost time with an ambitious, solid and coordinated plan between the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces, fully aligned with NATO's strategic objectives. This investment is not only a response to external demand; it is a conscious national choice, with a direct impact on our security, international credibility and the economy, by boosting the defence technological and industrial base. Portugal has finally taken a big step in the dignification of our Armed Forces and in the valorization of the military condition. After years of investment, today we seriously recognize the essential role of those who serve the country in uniform, a sign that we honor those who protect us. Portugal does not want war; Portugal wants peace, but knows that there will be no peace without strength, nor strength without investment, preparation and political will. We owe NATO more than seven decades of stability. Europe has too often failed in its commitments, and the time has come to deliver.

The CDS, the party of which I am a member, has, as you know, a history in this area. We were among the first parties in the Assembly to propose criminalising the possession or use of pornographic material with minors. In this regard, I also invite the honourable Member to read pages 145 and 146 of the Government's programme, which will be discussed today in the Assembly of the Republic.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a technical or ideological debate. It's a theme that doesn't belong to the left or right. It belongs to decency. In Portugal, three children per day are victims of sexual abuse. Many of these aggressions occur where the child should be most protected, and we continue to debate, often with velvet gloves, as if there was room for ambiguity, as if it were possible to legislate gently about monstrosity. There is no more heinous crime that a society can tolerate, no deeper pain, no more serious institutional failure. We take this fight as a political priority. We want to correct the legislative flaws that leave children more exposed today than ever before. We are witnessing the digital industrialisation of child abuse with a detection system so limited that, in practice, most illegal material goes unpunished. We want to toughen sentences with the equalization of crimes online e offline, we want to ensure that victims have real support, that aggressors face justice without exception. We want the criminal law framework to be tightened and the prescription for sexual offences against minors to be increased. The CDS goes even further; we support criminalising the exposure of minors to pornographic content, where there are no effective age verification mechanisms – a gap that the text does not yet cover. If there is one line that no society feels it can cross, it is this. May this Parliament live up to the courage that every child victim has deserved and never seen.

Madam President, a blackout originating in Spain plunged Portugal into darkness. Millions of people ran out of electricity, rail networks stopped, traffic lights stopped working and hospitals used emergency generators. The truth is that the restoration of normality happened in Portugal first than in our neighboring country, and the government communicated with the Portuguese by the means available. The Iberian Peninsula is energetically surrounded, a true island in an interconnected continent. Last week's blackout exposed the risks of this isolation. The light returned in the middle of Tuesday morning, but Portuguese and Spanish were in the dark, not only literally, but also as to the causes of the failure. We therefore call for clear answers. We want a truly independent investigation, at all levels, and immune to political interference. In Portugal, the government responded responsibly, quickly and clearly, and avoided total collapse. But we want explanations, because in the neighboring country, in Spain, the blackout was not only electric, it was also political, and when leadership fails, the darkness extends long after the light returns.

Madam President, her name is Mykola, she is 19 years old. He grew up in Kharkiv, to the sound of sirens, under Kremlin attacks, but never lost hope. He dreams of being an engineer, not to flee the war, but to rebuild his free, secure and fully European homeland. Mykola believes in a Ukraine where the will of the people is worth more than the force of arms, where borders are not redrawn by violence, but respected by democracy. He looks forward to the day when the Ukrainian flag joins that of the European Union, not only in buildings, but in values. But for that day to come, peace cannot be synonymous with silence; It has to be fair. It cannot legitimize occupations or reward aggressors. Mykola does not ask us for compassion; calls for courage – the courage to support true peace, with guarantees, with justice, with consequences for those who have tried to erase the freedom of a people. A just peace is to draw a clear line between dignity and surrender. It's refusing to let Putin write borders or history. It's to make sure Mykola's dream and millions like it come true.

Mr President, Commissioner, I come from a country where the sea is part of our identity: Portugal. For centuries, my country has seen the oceans not just as a means of subsistence, but as a strategic asset. The future of our planet depends on the health of the oceans in Europe and beyond, be it trade, security, innovation. The ocean is at the heart of Europe's future. That is why we are here today, to move forward with an Ocean Pact. More than a political commitment, it is a moral obligation to future generations. The oceans are more than waves, they are the blue lung of the planet, the engine of the global economy, a source of clean energy, food security and knowledge. With 90% of global trade passing by sea, healthy seas are synonymous with stable supply chains, energy sovereignty and climate resilience. Portugal wants to be one of the main ambassadors of the Pact for the Oceans. Not out of vanity, but out of responsibility. The blue economy already accounts for 5% of Portuguese GDP, three times the European average. And my country, with one of the largest exclusive economic zones in Europe, embraces this strategic responsibility: Protect, innovate and lead.

Mr President, Commissioner, I would firstly like to congratulate you on the strategy you are bringing to us today. It is a decisive step to face the reality that we all recognize. Threats no longer have borders and are increasingly fast, intelligent, interconnected. We are dealing with an explosive combination of organised crime, terrorism, hybrid threats and even acts of sabotage promoted by hostile states. But let's be frank, as we discuss strategies, criminals don't waste time with bureaucracies to cross borders. In this context, information sharing between Member States is absolutely crucial. If criminals continue to share information faster and more effectively than we do, Europe will have lost the battle before it starts. Dear Commissioner, this strategy is a unique opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past and demonstrate that Europe can respond to the threats it faces.

Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, defence policy must be guided by realism, not illusions. The European Union has recognised the obvious: Europe is not ready to defend itself. Peace depends on strength, and Europe does not have enough. For decades, we have believed in a world without war, a rules-based order and a safe continent, with no investment in defence. NATO remains the pillar of our security, imagining an isolated European defence of the Alliance is a dangerous fantasy. We do not need a European army, but 27 effective, interoperable armed forces with common standards and coordinated response capability. This means more harmonisation, advanced air defence and a robust defence industry; securing strategic dominance in space and cyberspace, these are all choices that will shape the future of Europe. The challenges we face are not theoretical, they are real, and history does not wait for those who hesitate. We need a defence policy commensurate with our time.

Madam President, Commissioner, a fair and credible migration policy rests on two pillars: welcome those who really need protection and ensure that those who have no right to stay in the European Union return to their country of origin. Those who do not return remain in legal limbo, vulnerable to human trafficking, labour exploitation and marginalization. This is not sustainable for migrants, for our citizens, for Europe itself. The alternative is chaos, the loss of credibility of our institutions and the growth of extremism. And if there's one thing history teaches us, it's that when the center fails, the extremes win. We need agile procedures so that decisions are not lost in bureaucratic labyrinths; firm cooperation with third countries, linking partnerships; we need to ensure that migration policy is not a patchwork of uncoordinated approaches. There is no fair reception without clear rules, no successful integration without controlled borders. Because a continent without order cannot be solidary, a policy without credibility cannot be human. It is this balance that we must defend, it is this Europe that we must build.

Mr President, three years. Three years of destruction, resistance, courage. Three years since Russia tried to crush Ukraine, believing that fear would weaken our response. They failed. Three years of devastated cities, broken families, children who have only known war. Three years of bombing of schools, hospitals and homes. Three years of war crimes. Three years that tested Europe, because this war was never just about Ukraine, it was always about us, about what we accept, about what we tolerate, about whether we are willing to stand up for the values we proclaim. Three years that have shown us that this war is not just about tanks and missiles, it's about the future of the international order. If Russia wins, they will prove that force rewards, that Europe retreats, that dictators can cross borders off the map without consequences. Three years of Ukrainian sacrifice, a test of our determination. Three years of choice, and Europe has only one possible choice: Stand by Ukraine until the end.

I'm not going to answer that overly populist question, to which I have no answer. It seems to me that without security there is no freedom, and without freedom there is no European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, from Stockholm to Paris, from Berlin to Brussels, we have seen the rise of organised crime cartels operating as genuine terrorist groups. And in the face of this, Europe has too often been slow and hesitant. Freedom of movement, one of the fundamental pillars of the European Union, has been instrumentalised to facilitate human trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling and money laundering. We know that more than 70% of criminal networks operate across borders and that seven out of ten of the most dangerous involve citizens of multiple nationalities. First, these organizations must be recognized as a direct threat to national security and countered with the same measures applied to terrorism. Secondly, we need to strengthen European cooperation. Crime knows no borders, and neither can our response. No criminal can find refuge just because he has changed country. We advocate the extension of powers for the confiscation of assets and the restriction of the movement of criminal groups, including the imposition of entry bans and limitations for citizens convicted of serious crimes. There is also an urgent need to strengthen the European Arrest Warrant and to step up the fight against illegal arms trafficking, which is fuelling this escalation of violence. Europe is founded on freedom and the rule of law. Without security, freedom is just an empty concept, crushed by fear and violence. We cannot accept that our response is shy when criminals act without fear.

Madam President, Commissioner, organised crime networks are abducting the hopes of defenceless immigrants. It is a trade of exploitation and death. Smuggling of migrants on the central and western Mediterranean routes is no longer just a problem of illegal crossings. It is a highly sophisticated operation of migrant smuggling networks that are also involved in the trafficking of drugs, firearms and human beings. These networks not only exploit human suffering, they pose a much broader threat to our security. We need a robust system of intelligence sharing between Member States to track, attack, dismantle these criminal networks at their root. We need to update the legislation and confiscate the assets used by these criminal networks. We all know how difficult this work can be, but progress is possible. It is a matter of political will.

Mr President, without light, without water, without food, this is a country where 94% of the population lives in poverty, where more than seven million people have fled, not out of choice, but out of desperation. A country where the minimum wage does not buy even a kilo of rice, where hospitals without medicines and without electricity are places of despair, not cure. In Venezuela, Maduro does not rule legitimately, but by force, fraud and fear. This regime, ladies and gentlemen, usurps; does not lead, oppresses; Don't talk, lie. Today, there are more than 1 900 political prisoners in Venezuela, men and women who refuse to kneel before tyranny, who have sacrificed everything – freedom, family, future – so that Venezuela can be free again. Maduro will fall because oppressive regimes are condemned by the very force of freedom. And when that day comes, because it will, let history record that we defend without hesitation the right of the Venezuelan people to live in democracy. We democrats reaffirm our commitment to support the people of Venezuela and to ensure that power belongs to those who actually won the elections. We are and will always be on the side of free Venezuela, on the side of the people who do not give up.

Mr President, this is a war that is not declared, but that strikes where we are most vulnerable. The sabotage of submarine cables in the Baltic Sea is not just an incident. These cables carry 99% of international data traffic, form the backbone of global communications and the modern economy. Let's think about what that means. Our economies, our governments, our societies, everything depends on cables resting on the seabed. Russian sabotage, China's growing involvement and the attacks now spreading to Taiwan question whether we are ready to face a new era of hybrid warfare. The answer is obvious. This is not a mere carelessness. Europe needs a strong strategy, to strengthen our alliances, to invest in advanced technology, to create robust rules against increasingly sophisticated threats. In Portugal, the increase in Russian ship traffic in our waters is not a coincidence, it is a sign. We are one of the most important ports for connectivity between continents and that makes us a target. Protecting submarine cables is, above all, ensuring that our sovereignty is not held hostage by a battle at the bottom of the sea and a hybrid war that has already begun.