What Stelios spoke about.

12 Mar

2024

EN Speech

European Media Freedom Act (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, I think we could dedicate this historic act to our colleagues that are not here, to the journalist colleagues that are not here, that have been assassinated, like Daphne Caruana Galizia, like the Slovenian journalist and the Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, the murder of whom is not yet clarified. We haven’t found the perpetrators. This act tries…

17 Jan

2024

EN Question

Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (debate)

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Well, you are a member of the EPP, and I guess you know Mr Kyrtsos, who was a member of the EPP while he was being spied on by the Greek secret service. So every member of your group who was talking with Mr Kyrtsos was also spied on – probably you or somebody else. So is this a problem, a moral and political problem for you, or just ‘stuff happens’ – something normal, you know?…

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Rule of Law and media freedom in Greece (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Mr Commissioner, unfortunately, the rule of law is declining in Greece, and Greece is becoming a kind of banana republic. The perpetrators, the rapists of the rule of law and of democracy, are taking now revenge. I’ll give you an example. You know, Mr Demetriades is the nephew of the Prime Minister and was the centre of the spying scandal. You know what he’s doing now? First of al…

16 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

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Madam President, I am surprised that some people are only crying about the Israeli victims – correctly, they are crying – but they are saying nothing about the massacres of thousands of Palestinians. But this is not my point right now. The point is that the European Union is losing another opportunity to play a role in international affairs by not following the United States, by not supporting or …

16 Jan

2024

EN Question

Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

Watch

Dear colleague, you mentioned correctly the atrocities of 7 October as well as the hostages question. I am very much surprised you said nothing about the thousands of Palestinians assassinated in Gaza, including thousands and thousands of children. Why not? Are you thinking those victims and the killings are justified? And another question: you know the South Africans know something about aparthei…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Urgent need for a coordinated European response and legislative framework on intrusive spyware, based on the PEGA inquiry committee recommendations (debate)

Watch

Mr President, you know, sometimes there are very ironic historical coincidences. One hour ago, a Greek journalist, Stavros Malichudis, was awarded, among other journalists, the Daphne Caruana award we give in Parliament. The same person – Stavros Malichudis – was a victim of the spyware scandal in Greece one year ago. And you know, the pretext was that he was spied on because of national security …

3 Oct

2023

EN Speech

European Media Freedom Act (debate)

Watch

Madam President, you said, Mr Commissioner, that when we started working on this act, it looked like mission impossible. What we managed was exactly what is happening in the cinema. We succeeded in a mission impossible. And, well, you know, in in my country, Greece, we have all the bad symptoms we were having all over Europe. We have control by the state, by the strong financial interests, we have…

14 Jun

2023

FR Speech

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, we are very happy to see you here, for once, because for a year and a half, when there were repeated scandals, the Commission was completely absent, without any statement. Meanwhile, we were under attack. The Chair of the Committee was driven like a spy of Russia, as an enemy of the people. The Catalans, we have heard now, are the enemy of the people. Ms Sophie in 't Ve…

29 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Order of business

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Mr Weber, why have you left the poor colleague, Mr Lenaers, to argue, exactly again, as you said two minutes ago? One last thing, the rule of law in Greece is not a national issue. You know, two of our colleagues have been spied on here. All of us who were talking with them, including Mr Kyrtsos, who was in your party before you, and the Greek secret services were listening to you, Mr Weber. Are y…

16 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Resumption of the sitting

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Mr President, these days is the 20th anniversary of the criminal and unlawful invasion in Iraq. So some days ago we voted and we did well to bring in justice the Russian leader, Mr Putin, for each invasion. Don't you think now, dear colleagues, it would be a good idea to bring in justice the Mr Bush and Mr Blair for their criminal actions? (Noises off) I know you like him, I know you like him, don…

16 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Lack of actions taken by the Commission in the context of the duty of sincere and loyal cooperation (debate)

Watch

Mr President, I say to the Commissioner that we have to stop this theatre of pretending the Commission collaborates with the Parliament. There is no collaboration at all. It's an operation to cover up the scandals. I am surprised you are talking about individual cases. Well, they were spying on two Members of the European Parliament. This is not an individual case. This has to do with democracy. I…

1 Feb

2023

EL Speech

Transparency and targeting of political advertising (debate)

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Madam President, it is very positive that we have managed to reach an agreement on this draft regulation, despite the reservations and objections of the more conservative wing of this House. It is very important that this agreement was reached despite the reactions of the big platforms, which want to monopolize information and advertising on the internet and want to treat citizens not as real citi…

18 Jan

2023

EN Speech

Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, I’m not challenging your good intentions, but, you know, sometimes good intentions cannot prevent hell. And what’s happening in different countries of the European Union is hell. We just heard the spokesmen of Italian hell just now. And I know what’s happening in my country, Greece, where it is hell that the people that will express solidarity with the refugees ar…

22 Nov

2022

EL Speech

New EU strategy for enlargement (debate)

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Madam President, it is very positive that almost all parties are in favour of enlargement, as the rapporteur proposes. There is an exception for the imperialists of the extreme right – they are not here, they are gone now – but the rest of us agree that we must move ahead with the Copenhagen criteria firmly and with a renewed desire to enlarge. And we must, in this effort, overcome nationalism and…

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Surveillance and predator spyware systems in Greece (debate)

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Mr President, Mr Commissioner, let’s say you are taking as your personal responsibility the secret services of the Commission. And you say, ‘No, no, no, it does not belong to the Commission, it belongs to myself’. That happened with Mr Mitsotakis. And then it appears that the secret services of the Commission are tapping Mr Androulakis. It also appears that the results of the Predator system that …

12 Sep

2022

EN Speech

Surveillance and predator spyware systems in Greece (debate)

Watch

Dear colleague, I would like to ask you, because the government says that it was following Mr Androulakis because of a national security issue, whether you could also agree to launch an appeal to the Greek Government to disclose to us what kind of security national security issue it was. I talked with Mr Androulakis as a deputy, and a lot of people here were talking with him. So they were also bei…

19 May

2022

EN Speech

Resumption of the sitting

Watch

Mr President, colleagues, thanks a lot for your patience. I wanted to ask for the presidium to make an inquiry, because yesterday we had a very sad event in the European Parliament, on the site of the European Parliament, the official site. There was a report published by Reporters Without Borders – the annual report – and then yesterday it was removed. This is one of the first times there is cens…

18 May

2022

EN Speech

2021 Report on North Macedonia (debate)

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Mr President, we have in the European continent a barbaric invasion nowadays, because of nationalism and history, and the question with North Macedonia is what happens if we leave it again to nationalism and history to prevent the future, to destroy the future. North Macedonia and the government have done everything we have asked, but still the case is not going on. We have to fight the nationalis…

4 May

2022

EL Speech

Use of the Pegasus Software by EU Member States against individuals including MEPs and the violation of fundamental rights (topical debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, there is also a Commissioner for the European way of life, and I would like him to be here today and ask him what this European way of life is. Because in Europe, one is watching the other. Is this the European way of life? Is this the Europe we want? And it's not just Pegasus, there's another system, Predator. A Greek journalist, Mr. Koukakis, was monitored by this sys…