Speeches

Madam President, According to Rule 167 of the Rules of Procedure, this Parliament can and should deal with debates that shape our time, with debates that move the 450 million citizens in the EU. While we are discussing all sorts of things – the rule of law in distant countries or racing mice in the Sahara or what do I know – many things that outrage people have not yet been taken up by this Parliament. This includes, for example, rightly discussing the power of big oligarchs – not only Elon Musk, but also Mr Zuckerberg or Mr Gates – over our communication infrastructure. But at the same time, there is an EU Commissioner, Mr Breton, who, after only four months in office, is now in charge of Bank of America He changes and puts himself in the service of a major American bank, although he was well paid by the people here. This is a scandal, and we should discuss this once in this Parliament, and not just about any other aberrations in other countries.

Mr President! Not only do we have a terrible and avoidable war in Ukraine, which is a great tragedy for Europe, but we also have hybrid warfare, for example in the field of energy infrastructure – in my country, Germany, the Nord Stream pipeline has been blown up. We had a US president, Joe Biden, who, in the presence of the German chancellor, announced in principle that this pipeline could be taken out of the game. We now have research by journalists pointing out that there is Ukrainian authorship in this demolition, and the alleged mastermind was able to leave Poland, although the German Federal Prosecutor General is investigating. Poland will soon take over the presidency of the Council, and that is why we here in Germany, the alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, expect that the EU Commission will help to clarify these grievances, that the perpetrators of these attacks will actually be named. We have more and more reports about flying objects, about military installations or energy infrastructure, and citizens deserve to know who is responsible, who is responsible, and not to be fed with any speculation.

Madam President, I'm referring to paragraph 206 on the standing committees. We were informed that there shall be installed two standing committees: one on public health and one on defence. These two have been lumped together. We support, indeed, a Committee on Public Health, but we firmly reject further armament and escalation in Europe. That's why we want to ask for a separate decision on those two standing committees.

Mr President! Ladies and gentlemen, I summarise the debate so far. Firstly: Loans for Ukraine's debt service to the G7 countries and the continuation of an endless war and thus the destruction of infrastructure are good. Secondly: Loans for civilian investment and infrastructure development in Europe are bad. This madness will continue to depend on Europe economically. While the EU wants to borrow for the endless proxy war, France is supposed to cut its budget by 110 billion euros. However, Mario Draghi recommended increasing investment in the EU by 800 billion euros. Meanwhile, Ukraine is devoured by corruption. It is insisted that it privatizes further state-owned enterprises and becomes an economic colony in the long term. The EU has no strategy to end the illegal war in Ukraine. Parliament is calling for far-reaching weapons – against the line of the US president and the German chancellor. Radical phrases about a complete victory over the nuclear power Russia are foreign to the world. The EU does not play a role in the Brazilian-Chinese peace initiative, which is supported by Switzerland. The price is paid by Ukrainians: The country is destroyed, over a million people are dead, the old and the injured are left behind. Ukraine needs to be built, but this requires a realistic strategy with security guarantees and a neutral Ukraine. If Donald Trump wins the US elections, he will turn a broken country at our feet.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! After the Second World War, even the German Christian Democracy warned in its Ahlen program against the concentration of economic power in the hands of fewer people. But for decades, wealth concentration in Europe has been on the rise again, while the middle class is under pressure. During the coronavirus crisis, the number of billionaires continued to rise. Few 1,000 billionaires on our planet control our technological infrastructure. With the development of artificial intelligence, we continue to deliver our societies to this economic power of an oligarchy. It's just untrue: While inequality increased, while profits and wealth as a share of national income continued to rise, the propensity to invest declined because the mass of the population lacked purchasing power. Brazil's initiative with the G20 states for a minimum tax on 2,500 billionaires worldwide therefore points the way. In addition to Brazil, Spain and France also support the initiative, but the German government and the US government torpedo it. It is therefore time for this House to act and put itself at the service of the 99 percent of the population.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Ten years ago, the Luxembourg leaks revealed how large international corporations often pay less than 1% tax on their profits in the EU, while our middle class and our employees are being scooped up. The state aid procedure and litigation with Apple and Ireland also took almost a decade. In the case of Amazon and Starbucks, the EU Commission has lost proceedings because state aid law requires extensive proof that other companies are discriminated against, for example because transfer prices are incorrectly set with artificial loans and royalties. The international minimum tax also has a number of loopholes. However, Apple sells its iPhone mainly in large markets such as Germany, France, Italy or Spain, not in Ireland or Luxembourg. Through the international reporting obligation, we know how high the sales and profits of these companies are in each country. That is why we finally need a coalition of willing states, which finally takes the failure of the EU in the fight against corporate tax dumping into its hands and does something about it and finally sets a sign with punitive taxes or withholding taxes against artificial financial flows in tax havens. Let's get the money back and protect our middle class!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! For the first time under Brazilian leadership, the G20 countries have decided to make the ultra-rich more accountable. Only 2,500 billionaires worldwide, using tech companies for example, to determine how 8 billion people work, read the news or pay with which technologies. This economic power is a threat to democracy, and sooner or later it culminates in the oligarchy. Inequality has increased in the context of the coronavirus crisis; our infrastructure is lost – in Germany, in my home country, a bridge has recently collapsed. Inequality – yes, it also contributes to migratory pressures worldwide. I therefore welcome the fact that Gabriel Zucman, a renowned economist, is calling for an internationally coordinated minimum tax for billionaires of 2% of wealth that preserves national tax sovereignty. France, Spain and South Africa support this proposal, but the German government and the US government sabotage this plan. This Parliament should represent the interest of 800 million people in the EU and not of 2 500 billionaires worldwide, and support this plan.