Speeches

Mr President, only in Ukraine do you see missing persons. For the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, not a word. Fifty-one years after the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus, which also led to thousands of dead, missing and displaced people. It is unacceptable after so many years of families of missing persons with their associations in Cyprus and Greece to shoulder the burden, not only of the absence and loss of their people, but to assume responsibilities borne by states and governments for gathering evidence, ascertaining the fate of missing citizens and soldiers, alongside the Committee on Missing Persons. This investigation is undermined by the attitude of the Turkish state, which keeps closed the military records for the mass burial sites of the missing with alterations of burial sites, movement of remains, hindering investigations. The Turkish government must now open the state and military archives. To conduct an effective search in the occupied territories for the identification and restitution of the remains, the compensation and support of the families of the missing, until the last missing person is identified.

Madam President, today's debate, in the midst of hollow and inexpensive reports of transparency, cannot cover up the stench that is emerging in the European Parliament, the European Union, the Commission of lobbies, the NGOs that are trading for the interests of the groups, the side of the scarred amendments that are dripping billions of euros. The examples are many and heavy the bill people pay in all ways as a war economy, green and digital transition. The additional conditions for some green NGOs from the LIFE programme after a crazy long party for which the EPP and the far-right are now demagogizing, while the Social Democrats and the Greens are bemoaning, testify to the intensification of competition over which lobbies will be funded and which will not. Which business groups and urban states will be favoured? This is why only the two MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece voted against considering lobbies as a vital element of your European democracy. Because we are with the peoples and their struggle against the EU of the monopolies, the lobbies of the big interests, the rotten system of exploitation.

Madam President, 5 000 refugees and migrants have arrived on the coast of southern Crete in Greece since the impoverished last year. Most of them on the small island of Gavdos. Floating coffins, repeated shipwrecks as the next dead shipwreck, such as that of Pylos. Port nude from suitable rescue boats, lack of financial resources to receive and support them from the European Union and the government, responsibilities that have borne the municipalities almost improvising. Modern slave trade of cheap, flexible workforce for big employers, such as the Greece-Egypt agreement, which not only did not stop the problem, but exacerbated it. The hub of this modern slave trade is Libya's Tobruk, which the European Union and the governments have dismantled and what we are living today, that is, also in Syria. Imperialist wars and interventions cause tragedies and the European Union is complicit. Measures now and funding for temporary accommodation with decent human conditions. Access to care, legal assistance, interpretation, asylum procedures, so that they can go to their countries of final destination with all travel documents and asylum.

Mr President, the ceasefire in Gaza is fragile. The aggressiveness of the state-occupier Israel and the escalating antagonisms in the Middle East are here. The Israeli crimes of genocide against the Palestinian people are not time-barred. Out of place and time is the position that change of government in the United States is a factor of peaceful re-sharing of the world. The pistol remains on the head of the Palestinian people. Even this truce is the result of his heroic resistance, the anti-war mobilizations inside Israel, the huge wave of internationalist solidarity worldwide that pulverized the gold-paid Euro-Atlantic propaganda, the pretexts for Israel's self-defense, exposing the European Union, the Greek government and the other political forces that support the upgrading of relations with Israel. It is only through their struggle that the peoples can force an end to the Israeli occupation, for the Palestinian people to have their own homeland and for all governments – including the Greek government – to decide on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the border before June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr President, the European Union's criminal policy against struggling farmers is now hypocritically concerned about their mental health. It and its governments, all bourgeois parties promote all revised versions of the CAP and accelerate the concentration and centralisation of land production for the benefit of big farmers and agri-food groups. They finance the war economy, impose sanctions and lose markets for a range of agricultural products. The soaring energy costs of water due to the energy exchange and the so-called green transition increase production costs. As for the tale of exports and the extrovert economy, it is now crushed with Mercosur, because in the interests of the groups they are condemned to leave untapped great productive potential. The savagely exploited agricultural workers are also the victims of this policy. The only way forward is the continuation of this year's great struggles, as well as the mobilization today in Greece of small and medium-sized farmers to meet their demands, for cheap production costs and guaranteed prices that business groups require to lose.

Mr President, the imperialist intervention and the advancing partition of an independent state, Syria, have been initiated in the Middle East by the United States, the European Union, NATO, Turkey and Israel. They are a continuation of the genocide of the Palestinian people by the state-occupier Israel, the attacks against the Lebanese people, the threats against Iran. The US, the European Union, as well as the Greek government, along with all the bourgeois parties in Greece, welcomed the occupation of Syria by the jihadists, calling them rebels and guarantors of the democratic transition. We, despite our chaotic differences with the anti-people capitalist regime of Assad, condemned from the first moment both intervention and revisionism. You only rip your clothes off for the revisionism of capitalist Russia, while turning a blind eye when it comes to the United States, Turkey and Israel that have invaded Syria, and not once. Solidarity with the people of Syria and the peoples of the Middle East. Disengagement and struggle against the system of imperialist interventions, wars and exploitation.

Mr President, fifty years now the crime of invasion, occupation by Turkey in 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, with accomplices NATO, the USA and the European Union, of which Cyprus is a Member State. A country crushed in imperialist antagonisms as a Euro-Atlantic bridgehead, British NATO bases as a base for imperialist wars, dangerous political-military agreements with the United States and NATOization of the island. In these conditions, the occupation, the method of recognizing the pseudo-state, the promotion of partition are perpetuated. The responsibilities of the Cypriot and Greek governments have come to support the occupation of Israel, which condemns the Palestinian people to genocide. Unacceptable compromises with Turkey for joint exploitation in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and the confederal solution of two constituent states lead to new adventures. Solidarity with the Cypriot people and struggle against any dichotomous solution. Cyprus independent, unified. One, not two states, with a single sovereignty, citizenship and international personality. No foreign bases and troops, no foreign guarantors and protectors. A common homeland of Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, with the people as their landlord.

Madam President, Mr Niinistö's report is a cynical manual of war preparation, at a time of more conflict and since the end of the Second World War. The aim of the European Union is the psychological preparation of peoples to face an environment of danger and instability with their only victims. To get used to living in the world of imperialist antagonisms and wars between the USA, NATO, the European Union, Russia and China, in the bourgeois classes. Hence the dangerous link between military preparation and civil protection, with instructions for every popular household to secure three-day supplies. As well as the 20% of the European Union budget that goes to war planning and almost 400 billion euros for military infrastructure, paid by the people with taxes, hunger wages, accuracy and energy poverty. At the same time, we have mobility and flexibility of workers for wherever the EU war industry needs them. Against the war nightmare that the peoples are already living and the worst that they are preparing for. With their struggle they must oppose the imperialist war and the involvement of the European Union and governments.

Mr President, the prescribed crime of Tempi in Greece with 57 dead has irreparably exposed not only the New Democracy government, but also the previous ones. All their responsible ministers bear heavy responsibilities for the fact that the railway is bare of safety and fire safety systems, "danger-death" for passengers and workers. But the same miserable situation prevails throughout the European Union because of the political liberalization of the railways, its guilty directives that consider safety measures a cost, demanding cynically fast and full trains, to kill wherever it finds the profit of the groups. The result in Greece was 3 railway accidents in just the last two months and another three that were avoided at the last minute, but also 11 500 accidents that can lead to a major accident in the last five years across the European Union. No cover-up of the crime, no "entanglement" of the culprits' responsibilities. Against the policy of the European Union and the governments, the Greek people demand punishment of all those responsible through the struggle, guided by the slogan "Either their profits or our lives".

Mr President, those who support and attempt to legitimise the genocide of the Palestinian people, the atrocities of the state-occupier Israel, leading to an escalation of imperialist wars in Ukraine and the Middle East through their war economy and arms rally, are jointly responsible for the armies of refugees and migrants. Part of the problem is aggravating factors and certainly not a solution. The savagery of the European Union's migration pact, the repression of the expanding Frontex of shipwrecks, were shaped jointly by liberals, social democrats, the Greens, with the collaboration of populist far-right forces, together with which they have voted both the Schengen Treaty and its exceptions, while accelerating deportations and entrapment in miserable concentration camps in the first host countries or in third countries. The common denominator of all the refugees-tool of competition, the imperialist penetration in their third countries-homelands, the controlled flow of cheap labor for the profits of big employers. Now, an uncompromising fight for the right to asylum in the countries of final destination of uprooted people under the Geneva Convention, against racism.

Madam President, the peoples persistently and unceasingly, with massive rallies, condemn the State of Israel and its crimes, the occupation of decades and the one-year genocide of the Palestinian people with 43 000 dead, the occupation of Lebanese and Syrian territories, the bombing, sabotage and new ground invasion of Lebanon, the murder of political leaders, the attacks on Syria with the support of the United States, NATO, the European Union and the Greek government. The attack by Israel and its allies on Iran's retaliation feeds a nightmare vicious circle that the peoples are paying for again. The aim of this criminal action is the energy and commercial control of the region with the victims of the peoples, which triggers the dangerous escalation. The government of New Democracy in Greece, against the will of the people, disregarding the mass popular condemnation of Israeli atrocities, assumes huge responsibilities, implicates the country in the war, as well as in the massacre in Ukraine. Even more, more decisively, we are on the road to freedom in Palestine, to disengage from the war slaughterhouses.

Mr President, the letters on energy accuracy sent every now and then by the Greek Prime Minister to Mrs Von der Leyen are a mockery for the people. Because the European Union, the New Democracy government and its predecessors, with their guilty green strategy, are responsible for perpetuating the galloping accuracy in energy, fuel, food and - of course - with a rally of military equipment in preparation for a generalized ignition. Liberalization and the energy exchange, REPowerEU, as well as calls to accelerate the same strategy as the Draghi Report in the name of competition with the US-China, are leading to celestial group profits, not "sky-dropping" as you claim. False and the dilemma "or expensive LNG or unapproachable RES", since the people in any case pay a heavy bill. For the people to win, energy groups must lose; with a cap on the price, the abolition of the excise duty on energy and fuel and an increase in wages, in conflict with the strategy of liberalisation and the profitability of the monopolies.

Putin was just your ally, and you got along and did business together, and together you overthrew the Soviet Union. But now you have your own competition and the people will not pay for it, with their own blood and with their money that is for their own needs.

Mr President, the peoples are facing the escalation of the imperialist war in Ukraine. The continuation of the Russian invasion, the entry of Ukrainian military forces into Kursk, the direct involvement of the US, NATO and the European Union in the war and the supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine for attacks on the Russian mainland create conditions for a generalisation of the war – even with the use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, Israel is leveling Gaza and now the West Bank with genocide against the Palestinian people. The transformation of the European Union economy into a polemic with a dowry of €500 billion from the Draghi report – but also the strengthening of engagement with bases, weapons and ammunition by the New Democracy government in Greece, and with the support of other parties – is adding new fuel to the fire. In the conditions of imperialist antagonisms and wars for the division of markets and resources, the great importance of the common struggle of the peoples for their own independent interests, against any involvement of their countries, is highlighted.

Mr President, the so-called enhanced economic governance framework introduces, in the midst of a deepening recession and high deficits, new, even more reactionary rules of the European Union's Stability Pact. On the backs of the peoples are loaded the burdens of war armaments for NATO and the involvement supported by the government and all other parties, and are among the main causes of Greece's state debt. The exclusion of war expenses from the calculation of the deficit favors the escalation, the support of the imperialist NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, and the genocide of the Palestinians by the state-occupier Israel. The consolidation of bloody surpluses and the cut of social spending, with the prerequisite of accelerating the reactionary reforms of commercialization in education and health, is complemented by the direct new bilateral memoranda between the Commission and the Member States, with strict surveillance for up to 7 years. People's struggle now against the imperialist war and the mechanisms of bloodshed of the peoples for the profits of the groups, with a much more powerful KKE in the European elections.

Mr President, we condemn the inhumane pact. You call crisis response pre-trial detentions, the file, the taking of biometrics by six-year-old children, with new fences, pushbacks, Frontex and the mockery of voluntary relocations. So you feed circuits and new tragic shipwrecks, as today in Chios with three dead girls. You're sorting out terrorists who aren't destined for on-demand cheap, flexible labor in the groups. You are burying the Geneva Convention by abolishing the individual asylum examination. You are sending the uprooted back to the hell of imperialist wars or to third countries "warehouses of souls" of the European Union. You are calling it an internal protection alternative, for example, for Palestinian refugees, victims of genocide by your ally Israel, to move from Gaza to the West Bank. All governments, including New Democracy in Greece, embrace Orbán and Meloni and officially end the fairy tale of the European Union, supposedly the rule of law. The people should punish the parties that beautify the barbarity of the European Union of capital with a stronger Communist Party of Greece in the European elections.

Mr President, we also condemn from this step the attack on two young transgender people by a group of thugs in Thessaloniki. Such unacceptable actions must be dealt with decisively, condemned en masse and isolated. Discrimination, racist attacks and attitudes based on sexual orientation are treated with solidarity, which was demonstrated by popular forces that helped the victims of the attack. The reality itself shows that the government of New Democracy and the European Union neither want nor can tackle racism and homophobia, all kinds of discrimination and bullying groups, nor also the gangs of rapists and pimps that with the outrageous prosecutorial proposal are acquitted and fostered. All these are integral elements of the decay of a barbaric system and are fueled by their own politics. We demand that there be no cover-up. The culprits of the attack in Thessaloniki and the child violence ring in Sepolia should be punished.

Mr President, the forthcoming European Council is an invitation to escalate the involvement of the European Union and the governments in the imperialist war in Ukraine, even by sending troops, but also in the inconceivable genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state-occupier. The basic direction is the premium of the EU war industry paid by the peoples, while stifling their needs. The European Union and the US are the largest arms exporters to the Middle East and Israel's first customers. Energy and trade corridors, critical geopolitical interests and antagonisms between the USA, the European Union, NATO and capitalist Russia and China are passing through the war fields that are watered with the blood of the peoples. The EU imperialist operation "Shields" with the Greek government as coordinator, enjoying the support of all bourgeois parties in Greece, sends to the fire of the war in the Red Sea and a Greek frigate for the interests of the shipowners. To strengthen the independent struggle of the peoples for no military mission outside the borders, no involvement in the wars, for freedom in Palestine!

Madam President, while you are talking about the rule of law in the European Union, there are 57 dead, living in memory of an entire people. One year since the predetermined crime in Tempi, guilty of the policy of the European Union served by those who ruled and still govern this country. In the "stool" the four directives of the European Union liberalization of railways, segmentation and commercialization of OSE. Non-profit groups do not have security systems in place. They see it as a cost at the expense of their profits. At 202 000 km of full rail network across the European Union, only 15 000 km have been equipped with the required modern ERTMS telecommand and light-signalling technology and the European Union's goal is to establish this by 2050. In a word: or their profits or our lives. No cover-up of political and criminal responsibilities. To shine the truth, as the relatives of the victims demand, against the zeal of the government to seize the space, to hide evidence from the fire. Here and now not to close the parliamentary committee of inquiry, which was established with the insistence of the KKE.

Madam President, the European Union, together with NATO and the United States, is protagonist at the expense of the peoples in the two-year imperialist war in Ukraine against capitalist Russia, in the genocide of the Palestinian people by the state-occupier Israel, is pouring oil on the fire in the war in Yemen. The CFSP provides billions for equipment, artificial intelligence and ammunition. Also, the processes of a new escalation for the sending of NATO and Euro-army troops are intensified, with Macron's statement as a "rabbit". The Commissioner for Defence is also appointed. Risky are the EU Operation Shields, the assumption of its coordination through the Headquarters of Larissa by the Government of New Democracy, as well as the mission of the Greek frigate Hydra; all for the interests of shipowners and transit groups, including SYRIZA and PASOK. Now cancel Operation Shields and return the Greek frigate. No involvement. The people's uncompromising struggle against the European Union and the governments that suppress the people's needs on the altar of imperialist wars and exploitation.

Mr President, the broad popular forces understand that the policy of the European Union is spurring inflation and accuracy. See in the courtyard of the Council building, in Brussels, farmers protesting against the CAP. With this strategy, the green transition, the energy exchange, the Recovery Fund, which all of you voted for, agribusiness and supermarkets are hoarding, wiping out struggling farmers. Your budgetary limits are “rubber” when you give EUR 50 billion to Ukraine. The renegotiation of the CAP invoked by the New Democracy government in Greece and the European Union is also a mockery, because with some postponements of individual measures and controls, struggling farmers cannot emerge from poverty and deadlocks. Your unpopular goal is to save and perpetuate the CAP from the wrath of struggling farmers. But they continue in Greece, demonstrating with the workers in the strike on Wednesday, demanding substantial relief with tax-free oil, electricity at 7 minutes, compensation for floods and disasters, guaranteed prices against the CAP and the accuracy of the European Union and governments.

Mr President, in Greece the mass demonstrations of teachers together with their pupils and students, all the people, send a clear message to the New Democracy government that the bill on private universities should not be tabled, it has already been rejected. Teachers teach the lesson of the struggle so that it is not a criterion whether their students will study with their parents' wallet. Teachers have lost almost 6 salaries in 12 years in Greece. They are demanding increases so that their income does not disappear in the middle of the month due to the outrageous accuracy of their income and they are demanding an organized distribution of housing. To make permanent the more than 50,000 substitutes this year, 1/3 of all teachers, instead of replacing themselves. Teachers demand a reduction in the number of students per class, adequate state funding, health coverage, cleanliness, because the thick of the recovery fund goes to the groups. At the same time, once again, the New Democracy government is dragging teachers to court, attempting to illegally take the strike-abstention from individual evaluation. The criminalization of their just struggle will not pass.

Madam President, across Europe and in Greece, the grand rural mobilizations incriminate the European Union's CAP and the grey-green transition strategy. These were presented by the European Union as a solution and proved, on the basis of a plan, to be mechanisms for the extermination of struggling farmers. The farmers came outside the European Parliament to the scene of the crime, because here in plenary, all together and from Greece, New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK, Velopoulos' party, all except the KKE, voted for the CAP that wipes them out. Because the cuts in aid and their green standards are the ones that throw them out of the field and from their place. They demand tax-free supplies and oil, as Greek shipowners have, a ceiling on electricity, against the EU energy exchange and compensation at 100% from the floods. Minimum guaranteed prices in conflict with the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Union. Because, while they sell their products at humiliating prices, the agro-industrialists and the big merchants treasure by selling multiples, taking off accuracy for the people. Solidarity with the just struggle and the demands for survival of the struggling farmers.

Madam President, the responsibilities of the New Democracy government and the Prime Minister for the surveillance of parties such as the KKE, politicians, journalists, everything, with the systematic use of spyware, are enormous. But all this is the tip of the EU iceberg, which is the dark legislative framework that all governments have shaped over time. In the media, the fact that in Greece and everywhere they are owned by business groups results in preventive censorship, such as the silencing of the genocide of the Palestinians by Israel and the serving of Israeli fake news. It also leads to unequal promotion of the KKE, with crushing labour rights and journalists targets of pressure, business interests and blackmail, which life has shown some of them pay with their lives, such as Karaivaz. Investigate all cases politically and criminally. We defend workers' rights and the information of the people as a social good and not as a commodity that is incompatible with capitalist ownership in the media.