Speeches

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.