Speeches

Today's only vote is on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund: assistance to Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Greece and France further to natural disasters that occurred in 2023.

The next item is the vote. I would like to remind Members who are on the speakers' list for the first debate in the afternoon to remain in the Chamber, as the debate will start immediately after the vote.

The minutes of this sitting will be submitted to Parliament for its approval at the beginning of the next sitting. If there are no objections, I shall forward forthwith the resolutions adopted at today's sitting to the persons and bodies named in the resolutions.

We now have the explanations of vote on the devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe, the loss of lives and the EU's preparedness to act on such disasters. exacerbated by climate change.

I have been listening to you during your whole minute, and I haven't seen the relationship with the case that we are discussing, the Paul Watson case. But in any case, thank you for your minute.

The next item is the debate on the Commission statement on the possible extradition of Paul Watson: the danger of criminalisation of environmental defenders and whistle-blowers, and the need for their protection in the EU (2024/2808(RSP)).

Madam President, according to the UN, almost eight million Venezuelans have had to leave their country, more than Syrians or displaced Ukrainians; More people are fleeing the Maduro regime than the war. But here some do not dare to recognize that this is a dictatorship. It is only because I am a Member of this Parliament that I have been arrested, held incommunicado and expelled twice from Venezuela, a country to which Europeans can enter without a visa. But here some believe that it is not a dictatorship. In Venezuela, for doing politics, for saying what you think, for speaking without fear or simply for asking for bread, they kill you or you disappear, they lock you up and torture you. Exactly what happens in dictatorships. I would be ashamed of myself if I had no courage, dignity or independence to say from this rostrum what is obvious: Maduro is a dictator. How I will feel ashamed if we are not able to put the moral before the partisan, the decent before the utilitarian, what is true over what is false. If we do not declare what our eyes have seen, that Edmundo González and freedom won the elections in Venezuela. Since when do truth and lies depend on our convenience? Why would we rather be understanding and negotiating with the torturer than return humanity to its victims? The height of moral principles is not only proclaimed in speeches, it is also demonstrated by the vote. And the Venezuelan people need us not to fail them, they need us to vote in their favor next Thursday. In the words of María Corina Machado, "the struggle for freedom is until the end". We have known this since World War II, although some here have forgotten it.

Your colleague Mr Saudargas was asking for a blue card, but I have to remind you that blue cards from the same political group are not allowed.

Thank you very much, Mr Brandstätter. Allow me to remind you that we are not allowed to show books or any other objects when we are at the rostrum.

Good morning, dear colleagues, the first item is the debate on the Commission statement on continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (2024/2799(RSP)).

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the basis of the Commission statement on the results of the strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture in the European Union. European Union (2024/2797(RSP)).

Mr. President, I have a minute as short as minutes of silence. But if we kept a minute's silence for every victim of Putin, we wouldn't utter a word this morning. And, if we read the list of those killed by Putin, we wouldn't be done in four hours. This is not a war, this is a genocide. This is a crime against humanity and it is not happening at the gates of Europe, it is happening in Europe, here and now. Ukrainians, today, are as pro-European as were the French or the Germans after World War II. And for the same reasons. Young people are being told that there is no peace without paying a price. To the Democrats, that freedom is won every day. And, to the Europeans, that there are those who are willing to die for what the Brexit despised: a Europe of brothers working together. There will be no peace until we defeat the tyrant. Europe is the hope of those peoples who are massacred. That's why we're not giving up. We know that war can be long, but we cannot and will not give up. Oh, oh, oSlava Ukraini!

Madam President, for years, we have tried to avoid any kind of conflict with Moscow, but we can’t anymore. This is not the time for speculation or cheap political talk. Putin has made his intentions clear to Ukraine, to Europe and to the world. He insists that diplomatic options are still on the table, but his troops are prepared for the invasion of an independent nation. Negotiating with tanks and with a gun to our heads is not negotiating. It is blackmailing. Make no mistake, the target is Ukraine, but we, the European Union, are the goal. The threat is there, it is now, and it is a real one. The only question that we have to answer is: what are we going to do about it? Do we stand down? Are we going to be prisoners of a dictator or do we unite, put our political difference aside and stand together against this act of aggression? Rather than being afraid, let’s hold our heads high and make him understand that he will never divide us. Last, I don’t want to forget that yesterday a new trial began against Alexei Navalny. Please remember that today, more than ever, Navalny represents Russia’s hope. Let’s not condemn Russia to suffer a dictatorship forever.

Mr President, I thank Vice-President Schinas for his work in recent weeks, which has meant the end of mafia flights to Belarus. Every day that passes, Lukashenka shows better his true face, the face of a tyrant, the face of a dictator who takes orders from another dictator: Lukashenka is today just another brand of the crime multinational that Putin has turned Russia into. To understand Belarus, we must call Russia, because nothing is accidental: neither cyber attacks, nor the spread of fake news, nor support for independence movements in Catalonia. As long as we Europeans entertain our debates, Putin's Russia continues its policy of consummate invasions, as it did with northern Georgia and Crimea. Russia’s most recent act of aggression is happening right now on Ukraine’s eastern borders; It is no coincidence that, in the heat of the conflict with Belarus, Putin has seized the opportunity to deploy close to 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine: Belarus is the excuse; Ukraine is the target. And some still wonder if we're in a hybrid war... Let's respond with temperance, not recklessness. Our principles and values are an existential threat to Russian autocratic power. Putin cares not about our soldiers, but about our freedoms, and he does well to fear our freedom because we have historically proven it to be invincible.

Madam President, the humanitarian crisis we are going through is different and more serious: This is different because Lukashenka pushes migrants against our borders with the intention of turning them into weapons of hybrid war and more serious because Putin is behind Lukashenka. Lukashenka is just the puppet, nothing happens between Belarus and us that Russia does not want to happen. The truth is that Putin with one hand gives us gas and with another hand pushes migrants against our borders in a clear strategy to divide us. The worst thing is that we are facing an escalation of tension that does not have de-escalation possible because we have no dialogue with Lukashenka and, therefore, we can only de-escalate this tension if we negotiate with Russia. Lukashenka has decided to become our hybrid enemy, but they are not hybrids, they are real, the thousands and thousands of people who will die of cold on the border: With them Lukashenka behaves like a criminal. We must show unity with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, we must increase sanctions and, above all, we must take care of refugees and migrants: We must show how humane we Europeans are. Believe me, hybrid peace doesn't exist: Peace is peace, or it is nothing. This time it is not only about the freedom of migrants, it is also about our freedom.

Mr Morawiecki, during your speech I was not sure if I was listening to you or to Nigel Farage. If you are going to talk about justice and rule of law, at least be honest with us. The truth is, not a single court in Europe has challenged the supremacy of the Treaties – only your government and the Constitutional Court appointed by your party. You can question the law and the competences, but if you question the supremacy of the Treaties, you are questioning the whole European foundation. Let me be clear, this is a road to exit. There is no room for alternative solutions. In other words, what you are proposing here today is a constitutional Brexit. Your vision of Poland is driven by fear, but you are not scared about losing Polish identity; you are only scared about losing your power. Mr Morawiecki, the mission of Poland that the Polish people have is made by hope and dreams. Poland was already a great European nation before you, and it will continue being a great European nation after you and your party. For the Polish people, Europe and freedom mean the same.

Mr President, those who took to the streets of Belarus a year ago were not rioters, nor radicals, nor extremists, but anonymous citizens, teachers, students, lawyers, housewives, retirees; non-MEPs. And they only asked for two things: freedom and just democracy. More than 7,000 men and women were persecuted, detained, tortured and sent to prison without trial. We don't even know today how many people are still imprisoned on Lukashenko's orders. Now the Belarusian dictator has gone a step further and started using thousands of Iraqi and Afghan refugees as human weapons against neighboring democracies. It used to be the hybrid war of electoral interference. Now it is a question of destabilizing our eastern borders by using people living in extreme disgrace as projectiles. Putin and Lukashenko have become human traffickers. Putin and Lukashenko are bosses of the mafia that buys and sells people in the east. Sanctions against Lukashenko must not only continue, but be increased. And we should not rest until we bring Lukashenko to the International Criminal Court. Many times from this rostrum I have asked for solidarity for the south. Today I ask for solidarity for the east. Just as Spain, Italy and Greece are borders of the European Union, so are Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.