Speeches

Madam President, Officially, one in four people in the EU is at risk of poverty. On average, prices rose by 11.5%, but wages did not. In the EU average 3 % real wage loss. So today we can talk about poverty despite work, child poverty, old-age poverty, homelessness and horrendously high rents. But we can also talk about the downside, about the super-rich and shareholders. The ten richest EU citizens own about €539 billion, according to Forbes. While the normal people are supposed to tighten their belts, they are expanding their power and influence. In every crisis, they make even more money out of their money. But money does not work, but the workers create the riches. But the workers and the very poor are no longer able to make ends meet: Heating, butter, bread, vegetables – everything will be more expensive. Super-rich speculate on all this and even more at their stock market casino. That must end. We need a ban on speculation on food, a ban on trading with housing, a ban on tax havens for the super-rich. It is not about Christmas gifts or alms for the poor and workers, but about their right.

. – Mr President. A Christmas song in Germany is ‘Alle Jahre wieder’ and children like to sing it. But then I think of the children in Syria and Rojava. They are currently singing mourning songs, because every year bombs fall on their heads again. Once again, the Erdoğan regime is attacking the Kurds in Iraq and Syria under a pretext. And every year there are only quiet reactions to it from the EU. Mrs Dalli, you are even talking about Turkey's legitimate will to respond to the terrorist attack. I ask you: What do the Kurds in Rojava have to do with the terrorist attack, except that these Kurds fought the IS terrorists just a few years ago? While the EU lacks any diplomacy with regard to the Russian attack on Ukraine, it becomes mega-diplomatic and quiet with regard to the aggression of NATO partner Turkey. Why, one might ask? Unfortunately, the answer is obvious: The EU is not worried about the crying children, but about its refugee deal. She wants to protect herself from people who are fleeing. One minute is not enough to talk about the double standards of the EU and also about the suffering of the Kurds and Syrians. Colleagues, the Erdoğan regime now wants to extend the attack to ground troops in order to maintain power. This must be prevented, and this can only be done with a clear attitude. The EU could do so much, but it is silent. Mr Borrell did not even attend this meeting. That, ladies and gentlemen, is unacceptable.

Mr President! The silence about the injustice that has been happening to the Palestinians for years and decades is actually deafening. Although we have a solution that provides for a two-state solution, and this decision-making situation has existed for years, we do not see two equal states here, instead we continue to see displacement and suffering for the Palestinians. The settlement policy is being expanded further and further, the Israeli government is drifting to the right. More and more right-wing politicians are gaining traction in Israel. That's a big problem. As long as this is the case and as long as we continue to experience legal policy in Israel, we must also speak a clear language in the EU. For me, this clear language also means that European states can no longer carry out arms deals with Israel as long as settlement policy does not actually end.

Madam President, "Europe is a garden surrounded by a jungle", Mr Borrell said recently in a speech. He meant that the EU was a garden that had to be protected from the savages of the jungle. But with arms exports, gag and trade agreements, the rulers of the garden have been plundering the predators, the treasures of the African continent, here for decades. In old and new colonial manner, they take away the air to breathe, the seas to fish, the bread to eat from the people of Africa. They create permanent causes of flight. It was the NATO bombs that made Libya a hotbed of civil war. It is EU funds that have been used to build the brutal Libyan Coast Guard, which organises illegal pushbacks and is responsible for brutal human rights violations. It refers to the whole ‘externalisation of borders’. In countless inquiries, I have found that the EU has turned Africa and Libya into a testing ground for new foreclosure technology – a policy that does not leave the EU as pure and beautiful as Mr Borrell claims, but rather degenerate and wild. As long as this political economy does not change, the question remains where the true predators sit.

Mr President! Historical events are taking place in Iran: A popular uprising, a revolutionary movement that has set out to abandon the old, oppressive and reactionary in order to replace it with something new. How far the new will go is still unclear. Nevertheless, a lot has already been won. It is about self-determination: Women and men in urban and rural areas take to the streets despite martial violence – young and old. Workers are also organized in the factories. Our full solidarity is with the Iranian people, who have also had their brutal experiences in the past – with the regime inside, but also with outside interventions, such as that of the CIA, which has helped to promote today's regressive regime. It is clear to all that the regime will be more bloody if the popular movement withdraws. This is why international solidarity from below is now crucial – rejecting local geopolitical interventions as well as calling for effective action against the regime. The people of Iran show us: Resistance is life; They say: Jin – Jiyan –Azadi!

Mr President! Mr Borrell, you said at the beginning: Sooner or later this war will end. I hope that it will end as soon as possible, not only because of the skyrocketing prices for the population worldwide, but above all so that the dying and destruction in Ukraine will stop. But I would like to ask you what you are actually doing to ensure that negotiations take place, that a ceasefire takes place? I have noticed that the EU has not set up an exit strategy, has not sent diplomats and has done nothing at all in this regard. But this is actually a serious question in the interest of the people in the EU. What is the EU doing besides supplying weapons? What does the EU do other than impose sanctions? And finally, a question: I noticed that Mr. Danilov, who is the secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine, a few days ago in The Voice of America Ukraine will not be satisfied with either Crimea or Donbass, not even with reparations payments, but that it is about actually demilitarizing Russia and fueling its disintegration. I want to know: What does the EU say about such a strategy? I criticize the war of aggression without ifs and buts. But I also find such a strategy fatal.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Poor in spite of work, this is the bitter reality for 25 million workers in the EU. Poor in spite of work means working and still denying the child a lot – in this rich EU, which always boasts of being a haven of prosperity. Prosperity does not apply to everyone. It is the workers who create wealth and prosperity. But more and more people in the EU are working without a collective agreement. This means: poorer working conditions, poorer wages. In the vast majority of Member States where there is a statutory minimum wage, it is not enough to live on. Some say: Too much to die, too little to live. But this state did not fall from the sky. It was also fuelled by the EU: Troika policy attacked trade unions, called for the sale of social infrastructure and the dismantling of collective agreements. At that time in the pandemic and also currently the gap between rich and poor is widening. Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad that this directive finally takes up an important demand from the left too and states that we do not need weaker, but stronger trade unions and more collective agreements. I am glad that we hold that the minimum wage is that it protects against poverty. A matter of course, which in this House always sounded like a revolutionary demand. But that's not enough, colleagues. If, for example, the minimum wage in Germany now rises to EUR 12, but rental prices, heating prices and the cost of living continue to rise, then that is not enough. The current inflation and also the crisis have long since been carried out on the backs of the working people and the poor. And that's why I say very clearly: The protest against the rising cost of living, social security and peace remains inevitable.

Mr President! When I was a young student, a professor said: “Capitalism is the end of history. The era of crises and wars is over.” I don't know how many wars and crises I've counted since then. But what I do know for sure is that after each crisis, the gap between rich and poor widened further. The euro crisis, the coronavirus crisis, the war of aggression against Ukraine and the EU’s geopolitical sanctions are all carried out on the backs of ordinary people, on the backs of workers. Bread, fruit, vegetables, energy, electricity – everything will be more expensive. With billions, corporations have been and will be saved and workers are now to do without real wage increases. They are to work more to finance gigantic arms projects. The super-rich get richer, the poor more numerous. What a mockery, what a mockery, dear colleagues! No, we no longer need wage cuts, but an EU-wide price brake for oil companies, a taxation of perverse wealth, no rearmament. I hope for a hot autumn of social protests, where we make it clear: We are not paying for your crisis and for your wars.

Mr President! What can be said about the EU's Indo-Pacific strategy in one minute, except that developments there are highly dangerous? The surges of militarization that are taking place in the region are blazingly dangerous. The fact that proxy wars are coming to us in this region can already be seen now, because the Asian market is the market of the future. And what we see is that the contradictions in capitalism are intensifying, and that great powers are now fighting in their own interest for markets and resources, and here also in the Indo-Pacific region. The hegemonic power of the United States says: China, as an emerging new power, is my biggest competitor, and the situation continues to escalate here. And the EU goes along with it in the wake of the United States. And what makes them different? Yes, in fact, I criticize that China considers the Asian market, the Asian countries as its backyard. What is the EU doing with Africa? What is the US doing with Latin America? What makes it different here? This is an imperialist policy that must be rejected profoundly. What distinguishes the war of the Russian Federation, for example, from the war of the United States in Iraq? And I am not saying this to relativise what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but to make it clear that different imperial powers are waging wars on the backs of peoples around the world – and that must be rejected.

Madam President, In Belarus, workers and trade unions have sabotaged arms supplies and supplies for the Russian war of aggression as a sign against the war. They are now facing massive repression. But it is clear: Workers must have the right to organise in trade unions for their position. This applies to both social and political demands. Repression is unacceptable. But trade union rights are eroded, especially in times of crisis and war – in Belarus, in Russia and, unfortunately, also in Ukraine. No matter where, no matter what war, workers and the common people pay the highest price in these wars that are not waged in their interest. That's why it's right for them to defend themselves against it. For example, port workers in Italy have also stopped the EU's arms exports to Saudi Arabia with a strike, which were used in the brutal Yemen war. My solidarity is with Belarusian, Italian and workers around the world – they can stop wars. Finally, I would like to quote a poem by Wolfgang Borchert – which sums it up: “You. Man at the machine and man in the workshop. If they order you tomorrow to stop making water pipes and cooking pots – but steel helmets and machine guns, there is only one thing: Say no!’

Mr President! Lifelong for Kavala, that is lifelong for the Gezi protests. The Kavala ruling, like the rulings against Demirtaş and other political prisoners, is arbitrary. But it's not surprising. Polarization and oppression serve to maintain power. When asked whether the verdict will have an aftermath in the Human Rights Court, Erdoğan replied confidently: The thing's gone. But one thing should be clear to all of us: The positive agenda created by the EU for its own geopolitical interests and NATO's ensnaring of the Erdoğan regime in the conflict with Russia support the regime. It exploits this with internal repression, but also with bombings on the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. The EU is silent on this. I say it clearly to the heads of state and to the EU: You have to decide. Either you change your policy, you draw consequences, or you stop whining about values. Because the double standards are now unmistakable.

Mr President! With every technological advance in warfare, the force of destruction increases, and civilization threatens to relapse. A cyber war means that critical infrastructure, hospitals, etc. can be destroyed at the touch of a button. You have to be able to protect yourself against that. But above all, it must be clear that these technologies must not be used for warfare – to prevent uncontrollable escalation spirals. Because what escalation means instead of détente policy is what we see in Ukraine: a brutal war of aggression by Russia to be condemned, for which there is no acceptable justification, but the causes of which have not been dismantled in advance. Russia needs to get out of Ukraine immediately. But it is now obvious that NATO is using this disgusting war of aggression for its own geopolitics: For example, to massively upgrade here or to prolong the war with arms deliveries in order to drive up the price of an imperial rival. It is and remains an inner-imperial power struggle, which is fought with the blood duty of the Ukrainians, but also on the backs of the peoples worldwide. The risk of a wildfire continues to rise. The big politics decides to go to war. But it is rarely the sons and daughters of the elites who bleed in these wars. That is why I say clearly: Finally, return to the table of diplomacy so that more people do not die and are not taken away! Stop this war! This can only be done at the negotiating table.

–Mrs President! My solidarity belongs to the people of Ukraine. But the suffering of the Ukrainians is being exploited here for their own geopolitics. The EU is moving towards a military union because the current struggle is democracy versus autocracy. But those who believe this may also believe in Santa Claus. Because militarism always goes hand in hand with the dismantling of liberal democracy. The EU is detaching itself from Russian gas, it says. But at the same time, they are expanding deals with Qatar, as in Germany. Is Qatar not an autocracy? Is Qatar not waging war in Yemen? Yes, the war of aggression of the Putin regime is to be condemned without any ifs and buts. But with the military union, with the billions for high-tech war equipment, no Ukrainian is now saved. The armaments here are supposed to pay for the poor and the workers. They should work more. You have to accept higher prices. She already said EU Global StrategyWhat the upgrade is really about: The EU must be able to defend important trade and maritime routes, including militarily if necessary. Now, in the strategic compass with a flexible combat force, it is to be elevated to the throne, the military union. The EU has always boasted of being a power of diplomacy. The message to other major powers today is clear: The EU is equipped not only as an economic power, but also as a military power to the teeth, prepared in the fight for future spheres of influence. This does not meet the security needs of the peoples of Europe – not all sides. We, the peoples, the working people, the workers, do not want to pay for these wars or fight for them.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, you present an endless wish list for a more offensive military appearance of the EU, from the Indo-Pacific to outer space. Despite Afghanistan, we continue: Mali, Mozambique and the world's oceans. Huge sums of money were decided for rearmament in the shortest possible time. At the same time, there is a lack of hospital capacity. That's why there were massive civil rights cuts in the pandemic. The fact is that the competition for rearmament is not about the security needs of the peoples of Europe, but about spheres of influence, sales markets and resources. Colleagues, in the current negotiations with Russia and the escalation around Ukraine, the ongoing tensions are justified only with the autocrat Putin. Is that honest? With Turkey, with Saudi Arabia, with Egypt or just today with Colombia one cultivates best relations. Isn't that hypocritical? Not a word about NATO or EU enlargement. I say it clearly: The longing of the peoples of Europe is peace and social security, the policy of détente, not the cry of rearmament and war for markets and resources.

Madam President, Jean Ziegler once said: ‘It is not a matter of giving more to the people of the Third World, but of stealing less from them.’ He is right. The EU now wants to launch an investment plan, build partnerships in Africa and help people – say you, Mr Borrell. But is that really true? If it were about the people, then you would release the patents for the corona vaccines. Why don't you do that? Not until today. Mr Borrell, you say you want to create security and stability there. But the EU military missions in Mali and throughout the Sahel have not reduced the suffering of the people there either. On the contrary: A corrupt military has trained the EU. Why? For uranium, for the European nuclear reactors, especially in France! No, the EU has always regarded Africa as its backyard. They steal the valuable resources and use the continent as a sales market. They are destroying existences, and not just since yesterday. And then you wonder about people on the run. Then, to prevent people on the run from coming to Europe, work with Libya, a corrupt regime, and the Libyan Coast Guard. I say quite clearly: Stop it. Stop robbing the people of Africa with your foreign, economic and security policy. Give them a chance for a real future!

Thank you, Mr President, and congratulations on my part! Colleagues! More and more people around the world are unable to make a living. Rising cost of living, energy prices and food prices, the gap between rich and poor is drifting apart, middle classes are eroding – and even more so in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is one of the most important oil and gas exporters in the world. But the ordinary people of Kazakhstan can't even afford a full tank. Western companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Eni and the Russian group Lukoil are exploiting Kazakh oil and gas reserves. U.S. companies are the most important investors. China is stepping up. A small clique of corrupt people rules, plunders and sells the land while the population impoverishes. The people are resisting this. Workers' strikes in oil refineries against mass layoffs have led broad sections of the population to a social uprising. They demand social security, the right to independent trade unions, fundamental freedom of organisation. However, the reaction from the EU against this martial state power against protesting, striking workers was remarkably hesitant. Social uprisings, which could possibly negatively affect one's own capital interests, do not seem to be so popular here either. One refers to the power struggle of the corrupt cliques in Kazakhstan. Yes, there are, and yes, they are trying to instrumentalise the uprising – but that does not change the character, that it is a popular uprising, that it is workers who strike. And my solidarity belongs to them and their legitimate demands.

Mr President! Ms. von der Leyen stands here and talks about apparent hybrid threats, but means people on the run. However, it is silent about the real dangers that the population in the European Union has to deal with. With the inadequate health policy, with social upheavals and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. She speaks tacheles against alleged geopolitical competitors, but is silent when it comes to Big Pharma and their boundless profit interests. No, on the contrary, it even protects them by not demanding patent approval and standing up for it. We keep talking about the pandemic, about new virus variants. Here we are talking about booster vaccination. In Africa, only 7% of the population is vaccinated. We all know: If we want to fight a global pandemic, we need to tackle it globally. And then it's not enough to donate a few doses of vaccine to Africa. No, we must finally release the patents so that the security and freedom of the people are protected and not always only the security and freedom of the great capital.

Mr President! Dear colleagues! Mr. Guido Reil from the AfD, i.e. right-wingers from Germany, always likes to stage himself as a workers' leader in Germany. But it is precisely here that he opposes co-determination rights and the strengthening of trade unions. I think it's a mockery, and you have to work it out clearly. Especially since the German workers' movement was also the movement that enabled, for example, strong participation in Germany. But this strong co-determination in Germany, Commissioner Schmit, can be circumvented by European law, for example, and that is indeed a problem. The EU's single market guarantees freedoms to businesses, to capital. It guarantees capital interests, while the rights of workers are treated as secondary. That needs to change, and this report is very important for that. It is clear that EU company law is being abused to circumvent employee representation co-determination. How do you do that? It's very simple. Businesses are transformed into European companies and - zack: Employee representation on supervisory boards has shrunk or disappeared. There are countless companies that practice this in Germany. Deutsche Wohnen, ADAC, Tom Tailor, Zalando, LEG or Rentag are just a few examples of 58 European companies that do just that and make co-determination impossible for 236 000 employees in Germany. Democracy also belongs in the workplace.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. You rightly point out in the report that there is a massive lack of control and democratic control and transparency in trust funds. But that is exactly why we have these funds as a shadow budget. Whoever says that we need democratic control, whoever demands it, must reject this instrument in principle, instead of issuing a free pass to the Commission. Let me make it clear by two examples: The EUTF Africa finances the Libyan Coast Guard, which is responsible for the most serious human rights violations. The Turkey Facility, the EU-Turkey deal, gives a free pass to an anti-democratic regime. It also has the potential for blackmail. In summary, these trust funds are used to also work with despots, for example, to keep refugees out of the EU. Now I am fighting for a humane migration policy, and I want a world where no one is forced to flee. That's why I say: Stop working with despots. And in Turkish there is a phrase that says: Show me who your friend is, and I'll tell you who you are. Applied to the EU and with regard to trust funds, this is a clear statement.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! EU-US relations are contradictory: on the one hand, led by a brutal competition for economic supremacy and on the other hand led by an incredible pragmatism for the assertion of their own interests – also jointly and militarily in need. And that is exactly what we see in the Indo-Pacific strategy of NATO, the US and the EU. The internal contradictions between the US and the EU have not been overcome, not even the trade wars. But there is agreement that one wants to push back China's economic supremacy and secure one's own supremacy. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let me say a word about Mr Assange. It is unbelievable for me to say again and again, and it is unacceptable to see that you keep talking about human rights, but keep silent about the Assange case. The Assange case makes it clear that you and the United States also have an instrumental relationship with human rights.

Madam President, Mr Borrell! You dodge the real lesson from Afghanistan. Why? In fact, Afghanistan clearly shows: War is not a solution, and the war policy of the West has failed! Democracies are not exported militarily, because war is the brutal continuation of a failed policy. Recently, however, as a lesson from Afghanistan, you personally demanded that the EU upgrade and have a flexible army. But why? Isn't that exactly the wrong thing you want to continue? At the Hindu Kush, our freedom was not defended and neither was that of the Afghan woman. But for geopolitical interests, war was waged, money poured into the throats of a corrupt government and into the throats of Western corporations. The same disaster is now threatening in Mali, where it is not the US but France that is the driving force. After accepting hundreds of thousands of dead civilians, you are now even negotiating with the Taliban about possible development cooperation. Why? In order not to leave the field to geopolitical interests from China and Russia? Their geopolitics, I say frankly, are just as disgusting as those of Russia and China. And the Ministers of the Interior now stand up and say: 2015 should not be repeated. I say: 2001, when you went to war in Afghanistan, must not be repeated. EU countries are not willing to accept people. They are deporting to Afghanistan and renegotiating with the Erdoğan regime to keep refugees out of the EU. Dear colleagues! Are you serious about human rights? After Afghanistan, it doesn't look like it at all!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. On March 21, the Constitutional Court of Turkey accepted a ban lawsuit against the second-largest opposition party HDP. Mr. Borrell, you just said you were worried about that decision. But on the same day, on 21 June, Mrs von der Leyen, our Commission President, tweeted: “Good conversation with President Erdoğan ahead of EUCO Thursday. We discussed the state of EU-Turkey relations, COVID-19, trade and customs union, the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, migration and development in Afghanistan.” Interesting, right? Not a word, not a single word about the tense human rights situation. Not a word about HDP. Not a word about the CHP. Only the attempt to create a positive agenda and development with Turkey – a development, a positive agenda, but built only on sand. The saddest thing is that the EU is helping a regime in Turkey that fundamentally contradicts the EU's self-declared values. And so, at its core, the EU contradicts itself. Ladies and gentlemen, I have said it many times, and I will continue to say it: The Erdoğan government is weaker than ever and the opposition is more diverse. From various political camps, the regime is losing support. And what does the EU do? It strengthens the back of the regime and weakens the opposition. Therefore, the current policy of the so-called positive agenda is completely irresponsible and totally unacceptable. Sunday speeches do not change that either, because what matters in politics is concrete and concretely the EU has decided to continue the refugee pact with the regime, even though the regime not only disregards the rights of the refugees, but also creates new causes of flight every day with a policy of repression against dissenters and oppresses its own population. Ladies and gentlemen, three minutes would not be enough to explain almost everything that is happening in Turkey. Read what the representative of organised crime in Turkey, Sedat Peker, has said in recent weeks – about the situation, about corruption, about what is not working in Turkey. The people of Turkey are suffering from hunger, fighting for existence, fighting for democracy, fighting for freedoms, and the EU is pacting with a regime. This is unacceptable! Ladies and gentlemen, I say it quite clearly: The Erdoğan administration's renunciation of new foreign policy provocations is far from a positive agenda. This geopolitical orientation of the EU is cynical and flammable. Turkey is one of the most developed countries in the entire region, and the regime is doing everything it can to destroy these positive developments and achievements of the population. What is the EU doing? That is the crucial question.