Speeches

. – Madam President! The EU must finally tackle corruption and fraud. At the heart of the Qatargate scandal are two well-funded Brussels NGOs: and . In 2018, the European Court of Auditors published a shocking report on the lack of financial transparency of NGOs. Although NGOs receive tens of billions of EU funds, they remain exempt from EU money laundering rules as so-called non-mandatory entities. Therefore, the Commission claims that it does not have sufficiently detailed information on how EU funds are spent by NGOs. It is precisely for this reason that the Court calls for the immediate introduction of an EU-wide definition of NGOs in order to improve transparency and control. But the Commission and Parliament remain idle. In the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, my proposal to extend the definition of politically exposed persons to managers of EU-subsidised NGOs is rejected by the self-declared champions against corruption in other political groups. Whether von der Leyen's text to the CEO of Pfizer, a socialist MP who receives bribes from Qatar and Morocco, or the ECB's ties to BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, one thing remains clear: Representatives of the prevailing opinion are not persecuted, only from time to time there is a peasant sacrifice.

Mr President! Commissioner Ylva Johansson promises to deport more rejected asylum seekers. Currently, it is only 23 percent. In fact, it is less than half and in Germany a few thousand or at most 1 or 2 percent annually. At the same time, the Commission and the sham democratic Conference on the Future of Europe want to abolish the notion of illegal migration. According to studies by Jan van de Beek and the Danish Social Democratic government, every African or Muslim migrant costs a modern welfare state almost 700,000 euros for life. If every rejected asylum seeker were also deported, 1.5 times as many migrants remained because they receive asylum despite illegal entry and are just as expensive. We cannot take in tens of millions of migrants without the welfare state collapsing. Immanuel Kant said: What we should, we must be able to do. Only Merkel said: We can do it because we should.

Mr President! The Commission estimates that €35-70 billion per year is lost in the EU due to corporate tax avoidance, in part due to abuse of shell companies. Letterbox companies are often used by multinational corporations and individuals to shift profits and assets to low-tax zones, thereby bypassing or evading taxes. The EU-wide introduction of minimum substance requirements creates a filter of indicators to identify and prosecute potential tax evaders and money laundering companies. However, I kindly remind you that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is leading an international network of 14 offshore and shell companies based in the Caribbean and Cyprus. The Pandora papers revealed that Zelenskyy received $41 million from the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyy via this spider web from offshore companies. To date, Maltex Multicapital Corporation, registered in the Virgin Islands, pays untaxed dividends to CEO Olena Selenska, Zelensky's wife. We support all appropriate measures in the fight against money laundering and tax crime. But the measures must actually be implemented, and the EU must not exempt people who are well-pleasing, even those who are victims of the war in Ukraine. The EU must avoid the impression that there are good and bad money launderers.

Madam President, More than two months after the sabotage attack against the Nord Stream pipelines, the authors are still being veiled. German media say it's Russia. But why would Russia damage the assets of its most important energy company and deprive itself of the profits from the remaining European energy business? Was it Poland that was always against Nord Stream, or the Ukrainians because they see the pipeline as Russian military infrastructure? Or was it the US, as the US-related Polish EU politician Sikorski announced shortly after the attacks, because they want to sell their liquefied natural gas? Answers are not yet available. Such suspicions are detrimental to good neighbourly relations. That is why we need enlightenment, the most brutal possible enlightenment, as it was once said in the corruption scandal in the CDU. Only here should deeds follow words. The Commission in particular should be informed. It has seized the power of government over Nord Stream, and now it has lost the valuable piece. It is as if you have to give up your coat in the theatre and are told after a bad performance that the expensive piece is now unfortunately untraceable, and no one is to blame. Germany has probably investigated, but laymanly and without divers. Sweden and Denmark have evidence, but they do not want to share it. Here we have a typical case for European cooperation. The EU should pool and disclose the findings. Let's talk plainly: Russia most likely has nothing to do with sabotage, because there is no evidence or motive. Alongside Russia, Germany is the main victim, but the federal government is afraid of the real authors, and the commission is shrouded in opacity. But perhaps you will surprise us and have some concrete answers for us here in plenary.

Mr President! The Russian army has destroyed critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, i.e. power plants, energy and transport infrastructure. The result: Substantial damage to over 40% of energy installations in Ukraine and power outages, partly planned to facilitate repairs and avoid overloading of the remaining electricity grid. Well, targeted attacks on energy supply and critical infrastructure also exist in the EU. The Federal Government has legally decided to shut down all nuclear power plants, thus endangering and exorbitantly increasing the energy supply of its citizens and industry. Now it is warned of winter outages in the power grid. In France, there are already planned power outages. The events in Ukraine are terrible, but it is superfluous that even with us people can freeze or no longer pay their bills.

Madam President, Commissioner! The EU is in stagflation: zero growth with around 10% inflation across the EU and over 20% inflation in some regions. That is why wages should be increased, profits taxed more heavily and speculation – you say – put an end to. However: You can't stop speculation! We certainly need higher wages, but they are also known to spur inflation, and profits should at most be taxed more when prices rise more than costs. The EU claims that the war in Ukraine is to blame for everything. In fact, it is your climate policy and the so-called monetary policy of the ECB. Prices rose sharply even before the outbreak of war. The fact that hardly any Russian gas is now flowing is not Russia's fault, but the fault of your sanctions and the acts of sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines, which you do not want to investigate, but obscure. Germany had the highest electricity prices in the world a year ago. In addition, under Draghi and Lagarde, the ECB increased the money supply by at least 70%. Every preschooler knows that prices rise when the central bank creates too much money. Therefore: End their senseless climate policies, whose impact on the global climate is zero with an EU share of 8% of global emissions. Tame the ECB, which can only save the eurozone through inflation, and end the economic sanctions against Russia, which harm us more than Vladimir Putin. In other words: Do everything differently than you've been doing for ten years, and don't do anything the way you've done so far!

Madam President, the US Inflation Reduction Act is a misnomer. The Federal Reserve is taking care of inflation and, unlike the ECB, appears to be succeeding. The act itself is promoting new energies, including nuclear energy. But, above all, it is a protectionist measure to promote US industry and to attract foreign and especially EU investment because soaring inflation and energy costs weaken EU-based producers. The EU’s response has been predictably weak. EU leaders are appealing to the US not to put America first, while they are putting Europe last. The EU is using COVID-19 and the Ukraine war to accelerate its own self-destructive climate change and pro-migration policies, which make us a laughing stock of the whole world. The Chinese even have a word for it, baizuo, Europe’s ‘woke’ ideology, which compulsively draws us to self-destruction in the way a moth is drawn to and consumed by the flame. Europe has recovered from two World Wars, but we will not recover from baizuo unless we face the reality of our decline and put our economic interest and our own people first. For, as Immanuel Kant said, ‘ought implies can’ and, as Machiavelli noted before, we often have to make tragic choices between saving ourselves or others: it is called the truth.

Madam President, Last week, the German Constitutional Court declared the NextGenerationEU package and the incurrence of fabulous more than €800 billion of debt in line with the EU Treaty, despite the fact that three Treaty articles prohibit the EU from taking on joint debt: Articles 310, 311 and 125. After all, the judges complained that almost 300 billion euros had been misused by the Commission and not for the post-Covid reconstruction, but the financing of the nonsensical climate rescue. But as long as rescue programmes are adopted unanimously in the European Council and are limited in scope and time, abuse is not a problem. Thus, the court immediately provides a blueprint for further debt programs. If the judges had ruled that only the continuation of politics by other means is right, they would at least be honest.

Madam President, Earlier this year, Ursula von der Leyen asked: What does the EU really mean for our youth? She would have asked better: What has the EU done for our youth? Because there are clear answers to that. In Germany, more than a quarter of all children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, more than the EU average. In Germany, almost 6% of 25-29-year-olds suffer severe deprivation today, twice as many as in 2019. This puts Germany in the poorest quarter of the 27 EU Member States. Only 73% of all Germans have completed secondary education, well below the OECD average of 80%. In 2019, Germany’s education budget was the highest in the EU, at almost EUR 230 billion, or 6.6% of gross national product. However, the money is plentiful only for German lessons for migrants and the indoctrination of youth. For example, the linguistic and mathematical skills of primary school pupils and 15-year-olds are constantly falling compared to the previous year's international level; This applies to Germans vis-à-vis Europeans and to all Europeans vis-à-vis Asians. European universities are also falling behind. And despite massive public borrowing, youth unemployment is still between 35% and 50% in many regions of southern Europe. European women today have less than 1.5 live births, while women in West Africa have an average of five – of course you want to bring them all here. Conclusion: The European Union is also failing our youth. The fact that young people are now allowed to vote from the age of 16 and that more members of parliament are elected before graduation does not change this at all.

So, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying that more debt hasn’t exactly given rise to higher growth levels, but it’s kind of helped us to avoid the very worst. So could I infer from this that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the European Union now, that we can’t grow any longer and we’ve got to incur more debt just in order to defer, shall I say, the worst of all possible worlds?

Dear Commissioners, With Britain, the eurozone has the highest inflation rate and the worst growth data and forecasts in the developed world. According to the Commission and the ECB, this is not due to EU economic and monetary policy, but to unfortunate circumstances: Covid, the war in Ukraine, the climate, etc. etc. Therefore, the debt reduction guidelines for Member States should now be made more flexible, i.e. debt should be reduced more slowly and, for the time being, more debt should be incurred. Since 2008, Member States' debts have escalated, with no effect on growth. Nevertheless, the Commission is confident of creating more growth with more debt. But where – my question – do you take this certainty from? In other words: What have your predecessors and national governments done wrong since 2008, the great financial crisis? And what exactly are you going to do right now, what your predecessors did wrong? After all, your predecessors were just as sure as you were to make more growth with more debt.

Madam President, Laws against money laundering, against offshore tax evasion and for crypto-asset regulation are the few still sensible EU projects. But how seriously do you take your own plans? Ukrainian President Zelensky, as we know from the Pandora Papers, has received 40 million euros from oligarchs and secured tax-free on offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands and Belize. In addition, Zelensky seems to have wasted hundreds of millions of euros on the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX for military and population of Ukraine certain EU aid money. The money of our German and European taxpayers disappeared in an American Ponzi scheme. Apparently, you do not take the fight against money laundering and crypto speculation seriously, because how else do you explain your support for Zelensky?

Madam President, DORA is a commendable initiative to make our digital market more resistant to terror and hybrid attacks. But it is important not only to protect our critical infrastructure from such threats. To close this gap, I would like to ask you to vote on the ID Group amendments to the Digital Corporate Resilience Act. The European digital market should also be protected for ICT service providers controlled by third countries. We don't need Trojan horses at this time. That's why I'm asking for your cooperation.

Mr President! Italy and Greece bear pro rata the highest debt burden of the OECD. The other highly indebted OECD countries are also mostly euro-area countries. Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the loose monetary policy of the ECB, debt in the euro area will continue to rise. The ECB is trying to reduce debt through inflation. The result: Mass impoverishment, devaluation of small savings and an increase in large assets. Really, our public finances can only be rehabilitated by stopping migration, ending green energy policy and imposing a wealth tax on states with high levels of private wealth. But does anyone want this? No. Therefore, Germany will continue to pay, because the German state is richer than others, because its citizens are poorer. The problem: At some point, the Germans will run out of money. And then what?

Mr President! Since Angela Merkel, Germany has pursued a truly fantastic energy policy: away from domestic coal and nuclear energy, towards solar and wind energy. The result: dependence on Russian natural gas. Now the EU Commission is setting up a grant fund, the so-called REPowerEU, of EUR 20 billion initially, in order to reduce dependence on Russian gas. The foreseeable costs in the long run: Many times the $20 billion. Commission President von der Leyen wants to distribute the money according to the Corona Fund key. This means: Germany gets little; Hardly any Russia-dependent countries, on the other hand, would get much more. The European Court of Auditors replies: Wrong. If the purpose is to reduce dependence on Russia, the extremely dependent Germany should get more. European solidarity means: Germans are paying for the failure of other eurozone countries. However, if our own government fails, the Commission denies us Germans the solidarity so often praised. The EU Parliament even wants REPowerEU funds not to be invested in fossil fuels and nuclear energy, but only in weather-dependent solar and wind energy. This means: Instead of Russia, we become dependent on the whims of Helios and Aiolos, on the sun and wind gods. This does not save the climate, but only creates more dependence on nature, civilizational backwardness and mass poverty here in Europe.

Madam President, At the beginning of October, the heads of government of all European and Caucasian countries, as well as Turkey, but not Russia and Belarus, met in Prague for the first meeting of the European Political Community (EPG), a new body – new but unclear in its purpose and exactly what distinguishes it from the Council of Europe. The only issue: The war in Ukraine. Was the purpose to condemn illegal wars of aggression? Then why was the President of Azerbaijan present, instigating a war of aggression against Armenia? If it was a matter of unity with Russia, Hungary and Macron's stance show: The EU also disagrees. And better Franco-British relations don't need 41 other heads of government. Actually, it was only about shaking hands and non-binding smiles in difficult times. Gasoline and fuel for the Prague trip could have been saved – given the energy crisis, it certainly makes more sense.

Mr President, Commissioner! In every plenary session, this Parliament deplores the existence of the so-called extreme right. Paradoxically, any party that respects the interests of Europeans or freedom of expression, laments mass immigration into the European social system or does not approve of impoverishment and civilisational regression in Europe through green phantasmata is considered anti-European and extreme right-wing. And because they take citizens' concerns and plight seriously, right-wing conservative government coalitions are becoming increasingly popular. According to polls, my party, the AfD, is now the strongest party in East Germany. But all the other parties refuse to cooperate with us because we are elected, but not democratic. According to Brussels, this should be the case everywhere in the EU. Because, according to Brussels, in democracies, only what pleases is allowed – not the citizens, but Mrs von der Leyen.

Mr President! Oil prices have doubled since the beginning of 2021, coal prices have tripled and gas prices more than fivefold. According to the International Monetary Fund, prices will continue to rise sharply until at least 2026. One main reason: doubling the price of CO2 certificates and, more generally, the EU's climate rescue policy. It benefits from price increases for energy companies and the EU itself. You now want to partially absorb company profits – so far right. But to whom for the benefit? Not to consumers, but to the EU itself for even more ambitious climate targets. Only the EU's share of global CO2 emissions is around 8%. No other region of the world, not even the United States, shares its climate goals. Our impact on the global climate is zero. You know what? Their goal is not world rescue at all, but mass impoverishment and civilizational regression for Europe.

Mr President! The German government has provided the Germans with record energy prices and now wants to compensate them with 200 billion euros. It's absurd, but not unjust. Immediately, however, Italy's Prime Minister and Goldman Sachs banker Mario Draghi complains that Germany violates competition law and the internal market. That's nonsense. Draghi only likes to leave the Germans – and I would like to add: Northern Europeans pay for all financial and state crises. Nevertheless, Chancellor Olaf Scholz immediately promised Draghi, whom Francesco Cossiga once called a miserable financial servant, more money for Italy and the EU, although Germany still finances the 750 billion EU Corona Fund. Germans have low pensions and the lowest private wealth in the euro area. Only her government suffers from helper syndrome. She is rich and generous because she has been pulling money out of the pockets of the Germans with both hands for years.

Mr President! You don't play with food, children say. However, the EU Fertilizer Regulation makes sufficient harvests a gamble. Because without fertilizer, our agriculture cannot produce food in sufficient quantity or in the desired quality. Green politics is the attack on our livelihoods. Greens oppose the production and consumption of energy, the basis of our civilization. Greens are turning against mobility, without which our economy cannot exist. Greens are now turning against food and farmers. Food is exactly the means of life. The Greens are said to be like watermelons: Green on the outside and red on the inside. Mrs. von der Leyen, on the other hand, resembles an avocado: Black on the outside and green on the inside. There are even hatred avocados – the most coveted variety among greens, by the way.

I don't know what's going on here, because the question wasn't entirely clear to me. There was talk of insult. As far as I remember and look at my notes here, I basically said two things: First, that the accession of Romania and Bulgaria could favour mass immigration. That seems out of the question to me. Secondly, I have said that Romania and Bulgaria continue to be susceptible to corruption. I am referring to Transparency International. I wish it were different, and I would make the same criticism of every other state. So I didn't particularly have Bulgaria and Romania in mind, but the information I found unfortunately seems to support my statement. I didn't mean to offend, and I'm very sorry if you think so.

Madam President, When Bulgaria and Romania applied for membership of the Schengen area in 2011, the EU Council of Ministers refused. Germany and France, among others, expressed concern about shortcomings in the fight against corruption and the rule of law. Suddenly, Macron and Scholz support the accession of both countries and Croatia, even though, according to the Corruption Index of Transparency International, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania have not made progress in the last ten years, but have made regressions in the fight against corruption and crime. So why the green light now? The reason seems clear: With its new EU migration pact, von der Leyen plans to create new, so-called safe access routes for migrants to the EU, which will save them the dangerous sea route. The Bulgarian-Turkish border fence has been an effective obstacle so far. In the future, however, migrants will be redistributed directly to northern and central Europe at the EU's external border. Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area will allow non-EU citizens to: Migrants – also receive Schengen visas in Bulgaria to settle illegally in deportation-proof countries such as Germany after their visa has expired. Instead of expanding Schengen to include three corrupt Member States, we should rethink Schengen as soon as possible. We need two major reforms. Firstly, the enlargement of internal Schengen border controls. The coronavirus crisis has shown: This is legally harmless. And secondly, effective protection of the EU's external border. Because what you are planning here are by no means travel facilitations, but new convenient access routes for the mass immigration of the population surplus of the Orient and Africa. (The speaker agreed to reply to a statement using the blue card procedure.)

Mr President! This parliament wants to fight the supposedly Russian, so-called anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda. This raises, inter alia, the following question: When is criticism of the EU and the Ukrainian government anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda? Here are three facts and three questions for you. Firstly: Radek Sikorski, former Polish Foreign and Defence Minister and currently a member of this House, thanked the US on Twitter for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines. He and his wife have close ties to the White House and the Biden administration. Do you really think Mr. Sikorski is spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda or has been paid by Russia? What if he had other donors? Secondly: The European Parliament rightly wants to curb money laundering and tax evasion. But Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has received $41 million in offshore accounts from oligarch Kolomoyskyy. We know this from the ‘Pandora Papers’, which reveal secret offshore accounts of 35 heads of government. Are they Pandora papers Is this anti-Ukrainian propaganda? Thirdly: According to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine is by far the most corrupt country in Europe. Is this anti-Ukrainian Russian propaganda? All these facts are concealed by Western governments and state-affiliated media. It seems to me that our problem is more state-funded pro-EU opinion-making than Russian EU criticism or anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

Madam President, in Princeton, Ursula von der Leyen blatantly interfered in the Italian elections. She said, ‘if things go in a difficult direction – and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland – we have tools’. Put bluntly, she threatened Italy with Article 7 legal proceedings and the withholding of EU funds. It’s not normally my style to use coarse metaphors, but there’s a time for figures and another for calling a spade a spade. The unelected, anti-democratic EU Commission, which is violating the EU treaties left, right and centre, is criticising fairly and democratically elected governments as undemocratic. I’m afraid, though, it rather resembles a seasoned prostitute chastising women for pre-marital cohabitation as right old slappers.

Madam President, Commissioner! In the summer, major damage to the ecosystem occurred in the Oder region on the German-Polish border. Tons of dead fish and shellfish as well as countless birds and beavers. Probable causes include man-made water pollution and heat, which led to low water levels, increased water temperatures and excessive salinity. Polish officials already attribute negligence or even guilt to German authorities or companies. However, water-ecological studies point to polluters upstream of the Oder. The first tensions seem to be beginning. EU environmental law has clear guidelines: the ‘polluter pays’ principle and the minimisation of damage. Therefore, the scientific investigations should be completed before blaming. This is because if two Member States cannot agree on the proper use of a few hundred kilometres of river and are almost overwhelmed, it does not look good – it is not good that 27 Member States agree on the management and future of 4.5 million square kilometres of the EU.