What Mieke spoke about.

Mr President, this Parliament continues to support the United Nations as the heart of the international legal order. But how credible is that legal order when international institutions continue to disqualify fundamental criticism of mass ‑ immigration and regimes that oppress women continue to exert influence within UN ‑ bodies? Meanwhile, the following is happening: a regime that oppresses women, a regime that persecutes women, a regime where women are even killed for refusing to submit to Islamic coercion, precisely that regime, Iran, is once again being given a place within a UN ‑ Commission on Women's Rights. That's absurd, isn't it? What should women who fight for their freedom think of this? How can an organization that claims to defend women's rights seriously justify this? What are human rights worth when women's oppressors are allowed to talk about women's rights? As if that were not enough, this report also calls for a permanent EU seat in the UN Security Council, as if the European Union were a state. But the EU is not a country. There is no European people. The EU is a bureaucratic power project with increasing powers. As far as the Party for Freedom is concerned, foreign policy belongs to sovereign states and democratically legitimised national governments, not to the EU.

"Democracy in action!" is the slogan of the EU. But where was that action when the European Parliament tried to ban this debate on possible electoral interference? Where was that democracy when the Commission misused the Digital Services Act to censor the internet and deprive millions of Europeans of free speech? Where is that democracy when this Parliament excludes my group, the Patriots, the largest opposition group? Under the guise of protecting democracy, this europhile elite tries to silence every critical voice. It is time to wake up from this Brussels nightmare and stop the moral shop window politics. Anyone who tries to censor the voice of the people is diametrically opposed to democracy.

Mr President, the European strategy for the crisis in the Middle East has one very concrete consequence: skyrocketing energy prices. The Netherlands adds to that, with excise duties that are among the highest in Europe and well above the EU minimum. Who's gonna pay for that? The ordinary Dutchman. People leave the car because it is no longer payable. The left-liberal Dutch government is abandoning ordinary citizens. Years of EU mismanagement have made us dependent on foreign countries for our oil and gas supplies, while we have deliberately phased out our own energy production. The blind belief in the ideologically driven Green Deal has eroded our industry and increased our vulnerability. What does Brussels do? $90 billion to Ukraine, and even more commitment to sustainability and electrification. Who ultimately pays the bill? Again the ordinary citizen, who is already in the cold. Mr President, where are your priorities? Finally use those billions for our own citizens, for serious burden reduction and for affordable and reliable energy. Build nuclear power plants and replenish the dramatically low gas reserves. Stop subsidies for windmills and advanced electrification. Stop policies that make our people pay for the mistakes you make.

Mr President, the Iranian people are fed up with Islamic tyranny, and after decades of oppression, the Iranians are demanding their freedom back. They oppose a regime that violently controls its own population, deprives women of their freedom and responds to any form of opposition with repression. The Iranian regime sponsors and facilitates terrorism, including in the Netherlands. Those who take freedom seriously cannot continue to treat such a regime as a normal state. This makes closing Iranian embassies and expelling diplomats logical and necessary, and requires the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be labeled a terrorist organization. After all, a free Iran is not only in the interest of the Iranian people, but directly affects the security and survival of free societies.

Mr President, the US government published its national security strategy last week. This document provides a clear strategic warning for Europe. The greatest danger that threatens our continent, President Trump rightly notes, is not only external, but above all internal: ‘civilizational erasure’ means: The Eradication of Our Civilization. Let's face it, that warning doesn't fall from the sky. Mass immigration threatens our European identity. Our Judeo-Christian European civilization is disappearing under pressure from a large-scale influx, especially from Islamic countries. As the US Vice-President warned at this year's Munich Security Conference, mass immigration has become Europe's most urgent strategic challenge. Citizens see this every day in cities and neighbourhoods that are increasingly similar to North Africa and the Middle East than to Europe. This is the strategic challenge of our time. But it is precisely for this reason that both the EU and NATO seem blind. Europe can only give direction again if it is willing to look in the mirror again. Self-reflection is not a weakness of a civilization, but refusing it is. We must defend our civilization, not put it into perspective, not apologize. This is what citizens expect from us. And it's good that America is pointing that out to us again.