What Filip spoke about.

7

Feb

2024

NL Speech

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The fight against hate speech and disinformation: responsibility of social platforms within the Digital Services Act (topical debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you want Facebook and other social media to be censored on the internet. This is unacceptable for two reasons. To my knowledge, Facebook and Co have no jurisdiction and no one knows exactly what disinformation or hate speech is. There is a threat of arbitrariness. Why is all this happening? Because the established parties see their media power undermined by the …

17

Jan

2024

NL Speech

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Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today is yet another debate on so-called hate crimes, which must now also be curbed on the internet. Why this persistence? Simple, the traditional parties are losing their grip on opinion-forming. On the internet, everyone can read what they want and roughly say what they want. This is out of the question for the regime. The people should read what the regime pr…

12

Dec

2023

NL Speech

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Defence of democracy package (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Commission wants to defend democracy by increasing the transparency of the administration and issuing a number of rules to protect us from corruption attempts by the Russians and the Chinese. But the European Commission itself has butter on its head. Its president, Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen, ordered one billion doses of the COVID vacci…

21

Nov

2023

NL Speech

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Continuing threat to the rule of law, the independence of justice and the non-fulfilment of conditionality for EU funding in Hungary (debate)

Mr President, once again two measures and two weights in this Parliament. More than 20 billion euros of European funds will be frozen for Hungary, because, among other things, the legal system would not be biased. But other countries are left untouched in this regard. In Belgium, for example, the Constitutional Court is staffed by political creatures and no one beeps about it. Another Belgian exam…

18

Oct

2023

NL Speech

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The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, you are shocked by the outbursts of hatred in Israel, in France, in Brussels. But you subsidize that hate and you import that hate. The grants shall: in 2021-2024, you will provide €1.2 billion in development aid to Palestine through the EU. Why? Can't the oil sheikhs afford that? And then there's the import of hate: In Europe, you are massing Chechens, Afghans,…

3

Oct

2023

NL Speech

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Corrupt large-scale sale of Schengen visas (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the immigration channels to Europe are well known: firstly, family reunification – the most important – which apparently always has to take place on European soil. Even if it concerns only Moroccans or Turks, this must always be done here in Europe. Secondly, the asylum procedure. It is, as is well known, massively abused. Hundreds of thousands a year use this a…

12

Sep

2023

NL Speech

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2022 Report on Türkiye (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are discussing the report on Turkey and I would like to compare two cases. Russia occupies one-fourth of Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of the European Union. Russia is being severely punished, and we are donating billions of weapons to Ukraine. Turkey occupies half of Cyprus. This country is a member of the EU. Turkey has not been subjected to severe…

12

Jul

2023

NL Speech

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Tax the rich (topical debate)

Mr President, in this debate, the left-wing parties are demanding more taxes under the motto ‘Tax the rich’. Let the rich pay, then they – the left – can of course spend more. But then I would like to say that capital and capital gains are already heavily taxed. Let me give you the example of Belgium. There is corporation tax, withholding tax, property tax, rent tax. There are inheritance rights, …

9

May

2023

NL Answer

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Mr Botenga, first of all, those arrangements were not created by the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest). Second, the bet you make is as big as mine, and I don't think you're going to refuse that money either. So your comments don't really make any sense.…

9

May

2023

NL Speech

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Discharge 2021 (continuation of debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk about Frontex, our European border guard. The annual budget increases to EUR 1 billion. The workforce will increase from 2 000 to 10 000 in the coming years. Those agents have drones, satellite images, off-road vehicles and patrol planes. And so one would think: “Okay, it's heading in the right direction.” And yet it doesn't work. There are …

18

Jan

2023

NL Speech

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Terrorist threats posed by far-right extremist networks defying the democratic constitutional order (debate)

Mr President, it is a punishment! The socialists are here arranging a debate on right-wing terrorism, in a spasmodic attempt to divert attention from Qatargate, where a trite of socialists was caught on corruption and suitcases full of dollars from Qatar. The Belgian state security now also suddenly warns of the extreme right. And in the Netherlands, the liberal minister Kaag has just stated that …

14

Dec

2022

NL Speech

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Tackle the cost of living crisis: increase pay, tax profits, stop speculation (topical debate)

Mr President, the cause of inflation and falling purchasing power is the runaway price of energy. This is due, for example, to the divestment of nuclear power plants in France, which used to generate 75% of its electricity from nuclear power. There is now even a warning in France about electricity failures, in the country that used to be three-quarters from nuclear energy. Or even more stupid, in …

23

Nov

2022

NL Speech

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The need for a European solution on asylum and migration including search and rescue (debate)

Mr President, the asylum crisis has never gone away. Today, 40 000 asylum seekers enter Belgium every year, around one million across Europe. That is untenable and I have therefore tabled a resolution, a resolution aimed at resolving the matter definitively. The proposal is to repeal the 1967 New York Protocol. This would mean that we would only receive refugees from Europe, which is what we are d…

19

Oct

2022

NL Speech

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Whitewashing of the anti-European extreme right in the EU (topical debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the process of our right-wing group is once again being conducted today. Of course, terms such as ‘racist’ and ‘fascist’ should serve as a deterrent to voters. It is an old trick that our political opponents use to silence us, because we are hidden supporters of Hitler. Now, I think that man should not have existed, but most importantly of all, of course, no one…

14

Sep

2022

NL Speech

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Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2020 and 2021 (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, inflation is galloping, energy is becoming unaffordable and the economy is in danger of entering a severe crisis. And what are we going to do now? Discuss yet another far-left report on human rights. After all, many minorities would be discriminated against in Europe. There is racism. There's a lot of police brutality. Roma and Muslims are treated badly. Gender …

5

Jul

2022

NL Speech

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Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)

Vorzitter, some colleagues do not want nuclear power plants because they would support Putin. That is a lie, because there are many other suppliers of nuclear fuel, for example Canada and Australia. In the meantime, green fanaticism, in which nuclear energy was diabolized, has yielded the following result: The Belgian prime minister must beg ENGIE to keep nuclear power plants open. The Belgian gre…

8

Jun

2022

NL Speech

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The Commission's proposal for "Attracting skills and talent to the EU", particularly the Talent Partnerships with North African countries (topical debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are discussing the European Commission's plan for labour migration from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The aim is to deal with labour shortages in Europe. Agreements must also be concluded with Senegal, with Nigeria, with Pakistan and even with Bangladesh. Already three million – three million – non-European foreigners enter the EU every year. But apparent…

24

Mar

2022

NL Speech

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The Power of the EU – Joint European Action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy (debate)

Mr President, the 27 EU countries are currently paying a small billion euros a day for Russian coal, oil and gas, and the Arab oil sheikhs are also making huge profits now that the barrels are being sold for 120 euros. The dramatic thing is that you have chosen to do so. No lessons were learned from the double petroleum boycott of the 1970s imposed on us by the Muslim countries. And it could be ev…

7

Mar

2022

NL Speech

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Role of culture, education, media and sport in the fight against racism (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are talking about the Salima Yenbou report. This umpteenth report on racism apparently needs to maintain a debt complex among Europeans. For example, the left-liberal elite hopes that they will continue to swallow mass immigration, while Europe is just the least racist continent in the world. We let tens of millions of immigrants in here. And tell me, w…

15

Feb

2022

NL Speech

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Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2021 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2021 (debate)

Mr President, my colleagues everywhere want to impose universal human rights in order to make the world a safer place, but they do not think that these are not rights, and certainly not universal rights. After all, they are not enforceable outside the Western world, which shows that they are not rights, and most countries do not think about applying them, which means that they are not universal ei…

14

Dec

2021

NL Speech

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New orientations for the EU’s humanitarian action (debate)

Mr President, never in history have so many Third World residents been in extreme distress, namely a quarter of a billion. Causes are wars, corrupt regimes, food and water shortages and of course the population explosion. Every year, the population in the underdeveloped countries increases by 80 million. That is an unsustainable situation. And what do we do about it? We import their population sur…

20

Oct

2021

NL Speech

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The rise of right-wing extremism and racism in Europe (in light of recent events in Rome) (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this is too crazy for words. In Rome some hotheads caused destruction and immediately there must be a great debate about racism and fascism. Not in the City Council of Rome, therefore, no, in the plenary session of the European Parliament. Why? Forza Nuova in Italy won 0.1 percent of the vote. Not really a threat to democracy. One is very one-sided in outrage he…

6

Oct

2021

NL Speech

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European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers: the role of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the need to tackle energy poverty (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, energy is becoming painfully expensive and yet the European Union persists in its anger with its priceless Green Deal, while the better option is obvious: Nuclear power, which is cheap, reliable, emits only water vapour and the waste can be safely disposed of in geologically stable layers. But the purple-green government in Belgium is also stubbornly continuing.…

14

Sep

2021

NL Speech

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Direction of EU-Russia political relations (debate)

Mr President, this recommendation states that Russia is an integral part of the European continent, that there are strong historical ties and that Russia is one of our largest trading partners. Enough reasons, therefore, to approach such a neighbouring country diplomatically. Instead, however, there is a threat of heaps of sanctions. Russia does not want to bend to the left-liberal dogmas – includ…

7

Jul

2021

NL Speech

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Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 24-25 June 2021 (debate)

Mr President, the European Union condemns President Putin's restriction of fundamental freedoms and therefore wants to continue pumping money into human rights organisations and independent media in Russia. In doing so, the EU is undermining Russia's sovereignty. Imagine the opposite. Furthermore, the Russian President was elected by 76% of voters, which cannot be said about the European Commissio…