What Nicolaus spoke about.

20 Nov

2023

DE Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, Sometimes you wonder what's wrong with the left. We have seen in recent days that Al-Shifa Hospital – as it has been claimed and as you have always denied – was not just a hospital, but a military base. It follows that Hamas has now really broken every humanitarian rule of warfare. And we also saw children's rooms where rockets were stored, etc., etc. If you say there's a massacre…

16 Oct

2023

DE Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, We all know that Israel has been attacked, and we all know that the Gaza Strip is a densely populated area. So if you're saying that Israel shouldn't intervene militarily there, why not explain how to defeat Hamas terror if you don't intervene there? We know they are populated areas. The Israelis give the Palestinians living there the opportunity, so to speak, to get away from an …

18 Jan

2023

DE Speech

Protecting the Rule of Law against impunity in Spain (topical debate)

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. – Madam President, Commissioner! Today we are once again talking about the rule of law, this time surprisingly not about the rule of law in Hungary or Poland, but about the rule of law in Spain. As I have said here many times, I am not a friend of these debates. What laws Member States adopt is primarily up to them. But imagine if the Polish or Hungarian government had decided to significantly r…

17 Jan

2023

DE Speech

Surge of respiratory infections and the shortage of medication in Europe (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. So now we have a massive increase in respiratory diseases and at the same time a lack of medication. A colleague asked earlier whether the EU Commission had actually learned nothing from the pandemic. And the answer is no. The EU Commission has actually learned nothing. You have to say: Unfortunately, as always. The European Commission always promi…

15 Dec

2022

DE Speech

90 years after Holodomor: Recognising the mass killing through starvation as genocide (debate)

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Madam President, I was in my 20s when I read the book. Robert Conquest was the first historian to raise public awareness of Stalin's hunger war against Ukraine. According to his estimate, around 12 million people died of hunger or hunger-related diseases in the early 1930s. As is customary among historians, the number of deaths has long been disputed. Today, the experts expect about six million. B…

15 Dec

2022

DE Speech

The 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, In the United Nations Annual Report on the Situation of Ethnic, National, Religious or Linguistic Minorities, one thing is striking: The situation of these minorities is problematic in China, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar as well as in almost all Arab and African countries. European countries are conspicuously abs…

14 Dec

2022

DE Speech

The Commission’s reports on the situation of journalists and the implications of the rule of law (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Last week I was at the Conference of Presidents, where Commissioner Šefčovič spoke, among other things, about the problems with Great Britain. The term ‘framework agreement’ was used 50 times. Commissioner Hahn, this goes to your address and please pass it on to your colleague Šefčovič: Our framework agreement with European states is fundamental ri…

13 Dec

2022

DE Speech

Suspicions of corruption from Qatar and the broader need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions (debate) (debate)

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Mr President! Not only do we have a problem with corrupt MEPs here, we also have a problem with corrupt NGOs, as this case makes clear. One of the detainees was the founder of the NGO Fight Impunity, another secretary general of No Peace Without Justice. Both NGOs had – as in practice – the same address. It is precisely these structures that are the gateway to all kinds of corruption. It is not wi…

23 Nov

2022

DE Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner! Mr Weber! Mr Marquardt obviously did not like your speech - I liked it. It is precisely the proposals that the AfD has been making for years. And I also understand why you gave this speech – let me finish. They come from Bavaria, and in Bavaria it is the same as in all federal states now: The asylum centers are full, the cities and communities are asking for help. They …

21 Nov

2022

DE Speech

Situation of human rights in the context of the FIFA world cup in Qatar (debate)

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Madam President, We are talking about the human rights situation in Qatar. Seriously? Qatar is an Islamic state. It has been known for decades that there is no equality, no free elections, no multi-party systems, no trade unions, no freedom of religion, no freedom of expression and pitiful working conditions, and that homosexuals there must fear for their lives. But whenever one wanted to address …

21 Nov

2022

DE Speech

Assessment of Hungary's compliance with the rule of law conditions under the Conditionality Regulation and state of play of the Hungarian RRP (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner! In order to appreciate this discussion, you have to look at the critics. This is especially true for Mr Körner, who is a member of the FDP, and the FDP is now almost synonymous with purchaseability in Germany: This starts with the VAT reductions for hoteliers and does not end with the e-fuels for Porsche. Mr Freund from the Greens, on the other hand, says with a lot …

19 Oct

2022

DE Speech

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

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. When I saw the issue – whitewashing of the extreme and anti-European parties – I thought to myself: Who but the left can put such nonsense on the agenda? But I am actually happy about the debate, because it shows that the left also sees what we all see now. The left worldview, the left cultural hegemony breaks down: in Sweden, in Italy, in Hungary, of course in …

18 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Impact of Russian invasion of Ukraine on migration flows to the EU (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner! It's always the same game. We are getting more and more refugees, and you are appearing here and always telling the same nonsense about above all. The truth is: You really don't have anything under control anymore. Schengen and the promise that external borders will be protected have clearly failed. Mass immigration is currently taking place, not only from Ukraine, but …

5 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Countering the anti-European and anti-Ukrainian propaganda of Putin’s European cronies (topical debate)

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Mr President! Today it is about the influence of Putin's Western accomplices and how this influence can be stopped. That certainly makes sense. Putin was a criminal even before the invasion of Ukraine. The murders of Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya or Stanislav Markelov speak an overly clear language, as well as the inexplicable tendency of many Russian oppositionists to plunge themselves into d…

5 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Russia’s escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

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Madam President, thank you very much! We see illegal annexations, we see mobilization, we hear the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. Russia's war against Ukraine has entered a new phase. If the EU wants to continue to be taken seriously, it must find an answer. And this must be more than useless sanctions, which primarily harm their own countries. But it is not only the Russian-Ukrainian war t…

4 Oct

2022

DE Speech

Commission proposal for measures under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation in the case of Hungary (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, honourable Members! Hungary again. However, the Commission cannot really put forward against Hungary, as we have just heard, something that could not be put forward against other countries. Because also in Germany, France, Austria, Spain or especially Malta, the rule of law has come to the dog. Freedom of expression is under threat, the rule of law is under threat, a…

14 Sep

2022

DE Speech

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

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Mr President! Today we are talking about the Fundamental Rights Report 2022. This was originally my report. I had become rapporteur on the random system of d'Hondt, much to the annoyance of my esteemed colleagues. Because the situation of fundamental rights in Germany has come to the dog, but Germany is never criticized as the largest net contributor to the EU, I had focused my report on the Germa…

14 Sep

2022

DE Speech

Existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the Union is founded (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Hungary again today: There, the situation of the rule of law, but especially the situation of the press, is worrying. However, this debate is not without joke, because just yesterday the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticized the one-sidedness of the EU Commission. In France, according to the newspaper, ‘major industrialists bought up the press’ in …

7 Jun

2022

DE Speech

Security in the Eastern Partnership area and the role of the common security and defence policy (debate)

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Madam President, Today we are talking about the Eastern Partnership in terms of security and defence policy. But in fact, the desperation grips you when you read these motions. There really isn't a single proposal left in this house that isn't cluttered by left-green flower dreams. Actually, as I said, it's about security and defence policy. But the motion also deals with civil society, alleged fi…

7 Jun

2022

DE Speech

The rule of law and the potential approval of the Polish national Recovery Plan (RRF) (debate)

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Mr President, Madam President of the Commission! I am grateful to the Commission for releasing the money from the Reconstruction Fund for Poland, even though it is mostly German money. But the release of funds is a good sign, because it is a sign that we have a bit more common sense again, at least in the Commission, because Poland has not actually promised anything, it has defended its sovereignt…

6 Jun

2022

DE Speech

2021 Report on Turkey (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner! It is not often that I praise political opponents, but Mr Amor, your report is really good. Turkey has so far received €8.3 billion from the Accession Fund and the result is more than unsatisfactory. But I hear the Commission's words again: Yes, Turkey is an important partner, and we need to have a high-level dialogue, and then there will be further investment. One r…

6 Jun

2022

DE Speech

Order of business

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. We often talk here about topics that are literally far from the European citizen – then we should also find the time to talk about a topic that is now burning more and more on the citizens' nails, because hardly any citizen knows how to actually finance the rising prices and, above all, his life and that of his family. And that is why, on behalf of the ID Gro…

19 May

2022

DE Speech

The fight against impunity for war crimes in Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President! Dear colleagues! Dear guests from Ukraine! War crimes are, of course, inexcusable, and they must also be clarified, regardless of where they were committed – whether in Butsha, Mariupol or Kharkiv – and regardless of which side they were committed by, and of course regardless of whether the perpetrators were regular soldiers, mercenaries or militiamen. That is why we support every en…

18 May

2022

DE Speech

Commission’s 2021 Rule of Law Report (debate)

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Madam President, Madam Reintke! Actually, the Spanish colleague who works in the Committee on Petitions has already said everything about your report, namely: We are not credible if we only accuse governments of a certain color of violations of the rule of law. The same is true in the report: It's just about Poland and Hungary. And then you move on to such absurd formulations as: “None of the crit…

5 May

2022

DE Speech

The impact of the war against Ukraine on women (debate)

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Madam President, Of course, the war in Ukraine also means a lot of suffering for women. I don't want to downplay that. But if here Mrs Charanzová – I think the correct name is – says: Women are the biggest victims of war, then that's just fake news and stupidity. In Ukraine, men are fighting, not women. Men are torn by grenades, torn by bullets, mutilated by mines, not women. Men die in the field,…