Speeches

Madam President! Ministers! If Ursula von der Leyen were to want to appoint her dream prime minister, the choice could very well fall on you, Mette Frederiksen. A prime minister who says one thing to his constituents and does the exact opposite when Brussels calls. You called common EU debt a red line. Nevertheless, the Danish government voted in favour of EU loans of 750 billion euros, and now the support is there for even more debt. You said: "We need a smaller EU budget", but now the Danish president is working on the largest EU budget in history and a gigantic extra bill for the Danish taxpayers. And on top of all that, we are now supporting a huge eastward enlargement with express speed, without the necessary thought or reform. This will have consequences: wage dumping, welfare tourism and organised Eastern crime. It is neither responsible nor national, it is federal, and it is dangerous. But you have not only failed politically, you have also failed democratically. While we are dealing with Ursula von der Leyen's Pfizer-gate scandal these days, you found the recipe for avoiding responsibility. When your government illegally ordered mink killing during the coronavirus crisis, the Constitution was broken. But instead of a trial and an investigation, we got deleted text messages and a central government that shut down the whole case. That's impressive! You delete and release. Ursula, she refuses and is hanged. So yes, Mette Frederiksen, you are truly "European by heart". At least if it masks an uncritical support for a federal monster that the EU has evolved into with your help. And the Danish leadership is not leadership, but submission, which is why Ursula von der Leyen is a happy woman today, when Denmark takes over the EU Presidency.

Mr President, before we open the door to yet another massive EU enlargement, let's take a sober look at the facts. We are talking about eight candidate countries with a combined population of more than 90 million people, and at extra cost for the European taxpayers of above EUR 75 billion. And all the countries are below EU standards in all key areas. Take corruption: according to Transparency International, these countries rank among the worst in Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina is at 108th place, lower than countries like Algeria or Zambia. Ukraine and Serbia share 104th place, and Albania ranks 98th. By comparison, Denmark is number one! In terms of median income, these countries are light years behind: Ukraine has an average monthly salary of only EUR 380, Moldova EUR 330, and even the most developed, Montenegro, has an average below EUR 800. Opening the single market to these countries will only lead to massive social dumping and welfare tourism in Europe.

Mr President, we meet here today to discuss NATO and European security, but what is the value of those words if this Chamber refuses to name the real and rising threat to Europe? The greatest danger we face is mass migration and the following Islamisation of our societies. And behind these external threats stands one radical force: the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran is not just a middle eastern problem, it is a European problem. It has carried out assassinations and terrorist plots on European soil. It openly calls for war against the West, and it funds jihadist movements and sows division and violence on our streets. And now it's only a few weeks away from getting a nuclear bomb. With its long-range missile programme, it will have the means to hit the heartlands of Europe – Paris, Berlin, even Copenhagen. And yet, what is our response? Moral confusion, strategic blindness and European leaders that line up not to confront Iran, but to condemn Israel: the one nation that defends our values and does not lack the courage that we should have had long ago. Let's be honest, Israel is doing our dirty work. They are striking at Iran's terrorist proxies. They are confronting a regime that we know all too well is a root cause of instability. And for this we repay them not with applause, but with lectures and accusations. It is shameful and it is hypocritical. No European is safe as long as the ayatollahs rule Tehran. There will be no peace, no stability and no safety until the Iranian regime is overthrown and its nuclear missile programme is disbanded completely and for good. That must be our political objective: not appeasement, not dialogue with tyrants, but actions guided by principles and the hard lessons of history.

All centralisation, harmonisation of powers to the European Union creates infringement against the national Member States, and Denmark has an opt-out on this area, and I'm very happy to have that, exactly because the Danish police are at the forefront of fighting against child abuse and sexual exploitation of children. It is quite funny that Denmark, being the only EU Member State except Ireland who has this opt-out, has been asked by Europol to head several cases against child abuse. So, if Member States were so bad at this, why are you asking for our help instead of solving it in your centralised powerhouses? That is my question. I can see that Member States work, national control works and national police work, and I believe in them.

Madam President, let me be clear: this legislation is not only about fighting abuse, it's about harmonising criminal law and creating a brand-new EU agency. And we know exactly how this ends: where the EU has been given more power, it turns into a disaster. Look at anything from the Common Agricultural Policy to fisheries, or the economic disaster called the eurozone. More centralisation doesn't solve problems, it creates them. This is not only about helping children, this is a federalist power grab, an excuse to expand Brussels bureaucracy at the expense of national democratic control. But let me be clear: if it was up to me, sexual offences against children would lead to medical castration. That's a real deterrent, that's real justice. But oftentimes in Brussels, this is considered barbaric and the criminal must be understood and the victim is expected to quietly move on. We don't need another EU centre. We need local action, national laws and strong borders because child protection against child abuse begins at home, not in Brussels.

Madam President! Today marks the 80th anniversary of the capitulation of the Nazis. A historic moment when Europe's free nations and courageous peoples defeated one of the most brutal ideologies the world has known. It should be a day dedicated to those who fought, suffered and died for a free Europe. But instead, this house has turned it into an urge to promote your own federal project. Nothing symbolises it better than the grant you have given to the House of European History. A so-called museum, which you have spent more than 400 million kroner of taxpayers' money on. Here you are trying to write the story. It appears that the history of Europe begins in 1945 and that it is not the nation states that are the starting point for the civilisation, peace and prosperity that Europe has known. It is historical manipulation and ideological propaganda, and it is an insult to the generations that have built those nations for over a thousand years, fought for the freedom and created the cultural heritage that Europe represents. The EU is washing it all out in search of a federal superstate.

Madam President, let's be honest: Greenland doesn't have a million options to choose from. It has to be part of the Kingdom of Denmark, or absorbed into the United States of America. It is quite a clear choice between a universal welfare model with free healthcare and education, or a declining super power flirting with default. And they're still figuring out in the US whether they should grant democracy to their overseas territories and how to treat indigenous people. In Denmark, Greenland enjoys full self-rule. It's overrepresented in the Danish parliament, and it keeps control of its own natural resources. In the US, they would be lucky to have a non-voting Member of the Congress and a status with a military base and a gift shop. Sure, Washington loves to talk about freedom, but maybe it should try to give it to Puerto Rico and leave Greenland alone. Denmark isn't perfect, but we offer rights, respect and a real partnership. The Americans offer a slogan and an airstrip. So unless Greenland wants to be trading hospitals for hamburgers, the choice is quite obvious.

Mr President, once again, the EU has managed something truly incredible, spending billions of euros without being able to explain exactly how. I mean, it takes a certain talent, doesn't it? For 30 years, the European Court of Auditors has refused to fully sign off the EU accounts. In any normal place that would be a scandal – here, it is just an ordinary Tuesday. Imagine a small business owner in Denmark telling the tax office: 'sorry, we lost track of a few million, but trust me, everything is fine'. He would be in jail, but here in Brussels, we call it standing up for European values. And instead of fixing it, year after year the Commission just asks for more money. I mean, it's like rewarding my kid with candy every time he fails to do his homework. So here is a truly radical thought: maybe, just maybe, the EU should learn to count before it tries to govern.

Madam President, it's very nice that you can say that even before I said anything. This is a point of order under Rule 188. We have introduced amendments from the Patriots for Europe Group where we wanted not only to pause the very harmful directive we are voting on today, but abolish them altogether. It is a shame that this very, very young legislation that has not even entered into force, that we today cannot vote on taking back that initiative. And it is a shame that the Commission and the majority who adopted it will not allow us to show who is in favour of repealing it and who is not. But the point of order is in reality also going on the fact that even on the plenary website, the amendments are not shown, and we can see other amendments that have been rejected from the services are shown on the website. So we would like an explanation in our group on why we cannot prove to the people that the Patriots for Europe introduced these amendments. Why have they been taken away from the website? We are looking very much forward to get an answer from the services.

Madam President, there is not any real doubt that Russia have committed atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity during their occupation of Ukraine. The big question for this debate should then be, how do we hold them responsible for that? And the fact of the matter, when we look throughout history, is that we have not been able to prosecute war crimes unless there has been a military victory ahead of it. Lots of war criminals all around the world have gotten away with atrocities simply because conflicts have ended with their victory or with a frozen conflict of sorts. So, therefore, I think it's all very good that we can sit in this room, debate the issue, and agree that it would be good if all war criminals around the world were captured and kept responsible for their actions. but I think for this to matter for the Ukrainians on the ground, we should instead use our time debating how we are going to end up in a situation where that is possible. And at the moment, I don't see any realistic prospects of Ukraine invading Moscow. And in that sense, it becomes a little bit redundant to have this debate. So let's focus on helping Ukraine with preserving what they have instead of having lofty debates that will lead nowhere.

Mr President, Ursula von der Leyen wants to be remembered for her Green Deal, the migration pact and the ReArm Europe project. And yes, we will remember them, but not as a success. Her Green Deal has made European energy more expensive, especially after her own government shut down functioning nuclear power plants. The results: Europe is less competitive and Europeans can't pay their electricity bills. Her migration pact was sold as a solution. Yet just weeks after its adoption, even her own colleagues in the EPP turned against it. It was weak, inefficient and without real impact – just as expected. Her ReArm Europe plan is nothing more than a power grab – another attempt to centralise power here in Brussels. But let's not forget that Ms von der Leyen was the defence minister who ran the German military into the ground, and now she wants to rearm Europe. It's a joke! One hundred days were all we needed to confirm that her leadership truly means expensive failures, power abuse and a Europe that pays the price.

Madam President, in September, a 19-year-old girl was found raped and murdered in Paris. In January, a two-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a city park near Frankfurt. In February in Munich, a two-year-old girl and her mom were killed by a car terrorist. What do these events have in common? Every one of them and a 100 more were committed by illegal migrants who have arrived illegally to this continent, been denied asylum and not been deported. Time and time again, we have warned about the dangers of illegal migration, and time and time again we have been dismissed, ignored and vilified. How many more Europeans must die, be raped, robbed, attacked before you wake up? How many more grieving families must be left behind in sorrow and despair before we take this serious? For every victim, every shattered family, we must say: naïve policies cost lives.

Madam President, EUR 35 trillion in loans for the Ukraine Recovery Mechanism. EUR 100 trillion in Corona loans, EUR 750 trillion for the recovery funds. And now the Commission is considering EUR 150 trillion for rearmament. But none of this would have been necessary if we had a Commission that was more preoccupied with creating growth instead of bureaucracy. If you had a Commission that was willing to prioritise within the EUR 1.2 trillion budget. Ursula von der Leyen, you are making the Europeans into welfare junkies and you're doing it from borrowed money. So let me put this very simple. We want our money back! When we look at it from a Danish perspective, one has to say that the EU has done very little. Time and again, Denmark has supported Ukraine militarily and economically, and again and again we have seen how the largest EU Member States; Germany, France, Italy and Spain have not followed suit. So it's easy to blame Trump for the situation Ukraine is in. But if you really want to understand why, three years into the war, we have an EU that is incapable of defending itself, an EU that is incapable of defending Ukraine, then we need to look inward. There has been far too little action and too much talk, and unfortunately it continues.

Mr President! 13,000 new laws, regulations and executive orders, this is what we have managed to spray on the European business community since 2019. If you look at just three harmful directives, the Working Time Registration Directive has cost Danish companies two and a half billion kroner a year in administration. The ESG Directive seven and a half billion and the infamous GDPR Directive 8 billion. Then it is not a great surprise that European industry suffers. And what is the solution? It's putting the fox to guard geese. That the same European Commission that made this myriad of rules now says they want to simplify the rules. The truth is, there's one molbo story after another. The Packaging Directive has led a small Danish company to ask for data from 150 different suppliers in order to continue its operations. Now let's be honest; The problem in Europe is too much regulation, too much bureaucracy, and we only get rid of that when the European Commission takes a fundamentally different direction.

Mr President, well, isn't it marvellous? Marvellous to see the same politicians who have built Europe's economic future on politics from communist parties, from extreme green parties, now blaming the right for the lack of competitiveness in the European Union. But please, look within. You have explicitly, in election after election, day after day, in this House, removed us from influence, removed our input from being taken into account. And that is the reason Europe is at a standstill. The German economy is in ruins, the French economy is in ruins, and we are seeing the lack of prosperity everywhere in Europe and higher energy prices than in the US. You, my dear colleagues, have adopted and implemented 1 300 new laws since 2009. Four times more than the US has. Maybe that is the reason you are not able to compete. Maybe your ideological blindness, your stupidity in economy is the reason that you are not allowed to compete with the US, not the right that you never let in. But when we come into power, we will fix it. So take it easy.

Mr President! The situation in the Baltic Sea is quite serious. We have seen everything from the demolition of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to the damage that has now been done to critical infrastructure and submarine cables, that we as European NATO allies have been completely unable to monitor and defend our interests in the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, it is a whole series of disastrous military decisions that make us so helpless in the situation that is currently taking place. In particular, we can point out from the Danish side that it was a monumental mistake to cut down boats on patrol vessels, but especially on the submarine weapon under the Danish Navy. This has meant that we don't have the eyes and ears we used to have to control what foreign powers did in our neighbourhood. Therefore, we can only hope that the NATO-aligned European countries around the Baltic Sea, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Baltic States, Poland and Germany come together in a much stronger naval defence. But at the same time something is nagging, and that is that we in the EU, on the Danish side, have not been able to impose sanctions on the Russian shadow fleet. It has emerged that Danish shipyards have an obligation to repair precisely ships from the Russian shadow fleet, despite the fact that they both help facilitate Russia's war effort in Ukraine with their exports of Russian gas and oil and are suspected in parts of these attacks. Let us now join forces and get the sanctions in place so that European and Danish shipping companies are not obliged to support this activity by repairing the ships.

Mr. President, I have a few words for dear President Trump. The list is very detailed: Greenland has been part of the Danish Kingdom for 800 years. It is an integrated part of our country. It's not for sale. Let me put it in words you might understand: Mr Trump, fuck off. Mr President! That said, we must say that both Danish and Greenlandic politicians have been flirting for far too long with an independence idea that turns out to be very dangerous. Dangerous because it is completely unrealistic. No one believes that such a large territory can be maintained by 55 000 Greenlanders, but also because Greenlandic politicians have kept talking irresponsibly about independence without doing their homework. You have a self-government law, where you have the right to take area by area home to yourself, but have opted out of doing so. You do not maintain your own sovereignty, not your own judiciary, not your own police, not your own health care, yet you keep talking about independence. It is not serious, and it causes a great deal of unrest around your country and around the Reich community. At the same time, you have had a rhetoric against Denmark and the Danes, where everything from colonial rule to genocide has been used. That is not acceptable and it is not in line with reality. Now clean up your own house. Look at the third of your children who have been abused before they leave your home. Look at the big problems with alcoholism that prevail in Greenland and clean it up. And let us together strengthen the Kingdom of Denmark and remain a Danish kingdom.

Mr President, the antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam were horrifying, but not really surprising. They come after a long period of time where we have seen terrorist attacks targeted against Jews in Europe, we have seen demonstrations and riots in the streets calling for the eradication of the State of Israel, and antisemitic shouts going out to the streets in all major capitals of western Europe. And let's be honest, today, nobody wants to address the real core issue. The core issue is that after Europe's experience with antisemitic behaviour in the past and the awful crimes of the Holocaust, today, the threat comes from newcomers. The threat is based in the vast number of Islamic migrants coming into Europe. We have seen it in the people perpetrating the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen, terrorist attacks in France, and now also the riots in Amsterdam. And when we refuse to talk about that, we really refuse to talk about the issue of modern‑day antisemitic behaviour in Europe. Unless we can talk about the alliance between fanatical Islamists and the friends to the left in this House, we cannot really combat antisemitism here in Europe. So please wake up and please take action instead of continuing to ignore the core root of antisemitic behaviour today in Europe.

Madam President! One thing is strikingly clear when you have heard the debate here today, and that is that Trump's biggest fans do not exist in the United States. They can be found here in the Hemicycle. Not on the right, where we would really like to pay tribute to the fact that the Americans want a new direction with less wakeism, with less illegal immigration, with more room for private initiative. But among all of you who conjure up scares because you've missed Trump, you've missed Trump's ability to scare Europeans into handing over even more power to the EU. And that is why you are standing here today crying out for the last remnants of foreign policy to be left to the EU. The last remnants of defence policy must be left to the EU. The last vestiges of national self-determination must be left to the EU. Trump is your favorite hat object. Because without Trump, you know very well, and the intimidation campaign that you and the mainstream media are waging against him, you know very well that there will never be a popular demand, support, desire to leave that kind of competence to Brussels. But I am afraid we must disappoint you because the electorate is tired of the bureaucracy of the European Union, of the patronage, of federalism. So, just like in the United States, they will continue to vote for parties that put Europeans first, not you to decide everything.

Madam President! One in three Muslims in Denmark responds that they believe that Hamas' terror attack on October 7 was either fully or partially justified. This is the biggest attack on Jews in the world since the Holocaust. An event in which whole families, women and children were slaughtered. Where innocent festivalgoers were raped, tortured before being mown down by military weapons. It goes even further. Almost every second Muslim in Denmark replies that the state of Israel has no right to exist. These polls are not unique to my country. They are also seen in the UK. See you in France. I would venture the claim that in any Muslim population in Europe we will see similar support for the kind of Islamism that movements like Hamas, like Hezbollah, like Iran, stand for. And so we just have to say it crystal clear, where Islam is gaining ground, religious tolerance recedes. We see it in the Middle East, where in 100 years we have gone from large Christian and Jewish minorities in a number of countries, to today it is almost impossible to find a Christian or a Jew in the Middle Eastern countries outside Israel. That's why we have to say it crystal clear. We will not have better religious tolerance if we do not stop the import of Muslim immigration into Europe. You can say it in Mads Skjern's words. No one shall come to my house with their religion and cause strife. No one should be allowed to come to Europe and destroy the tolerance that exists here towards different believers, different-thinking sexual minorities. And that is what we must stand by at this time, otherwise the whole foundation of the Christian cultural Europe we know will erode.

Mr. President! Unfortunately, the memory of this House and of the institutions of the European Union is extremely brief. I remember when I first came here in 2014 how, even after the invasion of Crimea, policies were implemented that clearly benefited Russia economically. Policies that were supported by the vast majority of the House because they said: Let's deal with Putin, then there will be no war. Right up until the invasion of Ukraine, decisions were made in this house, which were remote from the world. It was about how the United States was the main opponent in the geopolitical controversy. There was – not Russia, not China – the United States. It was about how this House voted through resolutions that France and Britain should dismantle their nuclear arsenal because we wanted Europe to abolish nuclear weapons while we still had a threat from Russia. That was the reality. And that, after all, remains the reality when you look at the action and the debate that we have today, namely the support of the Member States for Ukraine. Because it is almost non-existent. A small country like Denmark contributes more to Ukraine's defence struggle than major European economies like Spain, like France, like Italy. It is absolutely insane, when you look at the toasts given from the very same countries, that you can't even, in whole kroner and cents, or euros and cents for that matter, contribute what 6 million Danes do. And now we even see Germany, as the only major country that has contributed significantly to Ukraine's defence, saying that next year it will cut aid by half. Not only that, but the German Chancellor is talking about starting peace talks. Not as has been said in the past on Ukrainian terms, but peace talks because he is weak in German domestic policy. So drop the toast and get into the game. If you really want to help Ukraine, then come up with action instead of big dreams of European military, which contribute nothing in reality.

Mr President! The EU’s green transition has been a disaster. A human catastrophe for the many Europeans whose jobs are being sent to Asia and to the United States. A human and personal disaster for the many Europeans who struggle with high inflation every day, find it difficult to pay the bills on their energy prices and can barely afford food. And a personal disaster for the youth you have made so frightened that they are now talking about that they do not even dare to have children. The truth is, your transformation has been headless. It has sent jobs, growth and jobs to Asia and the United States, while here in Europe we have just paid the bill for your bureaucracy, your taxation and your bans. But the truth is that the EU is now emitting less than 7% of global emissions, while China is approaching 30. So the only thing you've won from your green transition is that you've made us all poorer. It's stupid, it's bad. And those who sit in this Chamber and bow and applaud the most, it is after all you who have dismantled European nuclear power and are fighting to have it eradicated in the last countries. So your concern for the green transition goes no further than your own nose tip. It's disgraceful, and it's wrong!

Mr President! For decades, the EU has acted as Iran's useful idiots. For decades, we have watched as Iran has come closer to developing nuclear weapons day by day. For decades, Iran has been allowed to dictate an Islamist movement without putting its foot down. In this house, it took years before one would even recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Even today, it can be debated in the European Union whether the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, with all its weaponry from Syria to Yemen, to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, is a terrorist movement. Imagine that here in the European Union there is a so-called High Representative for Foreign Affairs. A man who believes himself to be the EU's foreign minister, who cares more about criticizing the only democratic country in the region, Israel, than he cares about limiting the influence of Islamic Iran. Iran is not just in the Middle East. We have examples in France, in Denmark, in lots of European countries that Iran has tried to hit us with terror. Sometimes it has even succeeded. We know that Iran works here on the continent through movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb ut-Tahrir by spreading the disease of Islamism in Europe. And yet we do nothing. We are useful idiots of Islamism.

Madam President! The idiocy of the EU strikes again. Once again, here in Europe, we manage to make legislation that is so bureaucratic, so cumbersome, so impossible that we scare European growth, European jobs out of the continent. There's a reason Tesla isn't in Europe. There's a reason Facebook isn't in Europe. There is a reason why there are no major IA or chip manufacturers located in Europe, and the reason is you. The reason is too much bureaucracy and too much bad regulation. Especially when we look at the pharmaceutical sector, at the pharmaceutical sector, there is reason to defend what we have in Europe. But one of Europe's largest companies, Danish Novo Nordisk, has now announced that it will move a large part of its future development from Denmark to the US precisely because of poor European legislation, poor European patent protection and too much difficulty in getting its investments back after a long development period. Can we be familiar with that? No, no, no. Will it cost prosperity? Yes, yes. Unfortunately, however, this is the consequence of leaving the responsibility to the Commission and to the European Parliament.