What Maximilian spoke about.

22

Nov

2021

DE Speech

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EU sports policy: assessment and possible ways forward (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Frankowski, you wore the beautiful nickname, the kitten, for your filigree football game. I do not think that what you have delivered here today does justice, because your report amounts to an incredible politicisation of sport. And that's not what the sport is supposed to be. Like you, I grew up under communism. The sport was the space that wasn't politic…

22

Nov

2021

DE Speech

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Coordination of Member States’ measures in light of increasing cases of COVID-19 in the EU (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. In Vienna, more than 50,000 people demonstrated over the weekend for the state of emergency to be ended again. This is the case throughout Europe. We do not need coordination of measures against which people rightly take to the streets. We need coordination of measures to get this country out of the state of emergency. We had an emergency situation when the dise…

10

Nov

2021

DE Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. We are all still trapped by COVID. We are fighting this pandemic. In my native Saxony, but certainly not only there, one goes on to exclude all non-vaccinated from daily life. It's called 2G. This is more than 40% of the population with a vaccination rate of less than 60%. Even if they prove by a PCR test that they are not infected and that they do not pose any …

10

Nov

2021

DE Speech

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The escalating humanitarian crisis on the EU-Belarusian border, in particular in Poland (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! One thing must be clear: If the dam breaks on Poland’s eastern border, there will be no more than 50 flights a week arriving in Minsk with migrants – 500 will arrive. Either Poland keeps its border and does not let anyone through –no way – or we have back in 2015 with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and over one million at the end of th…

19

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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Joint Undertakings under Horizon Europe (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Funding programs of the European Union are sometimes bad, sometimes good. But we all have the problem with you that you believe that we increase life in Europe and also economic attractiveness by first taking money, redistributing it in a bureaucracy – according to certain abstract rules – and then returning it. I'm afraid that's not the way to create innovat…

19

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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The Rule of law crisis in Poland and the primacy of EU law (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Mr Prime Minister, in a very nice legal presentation you explained where the limits of EU law and the sovereignty of the Member States are. No one denies that EU law takes precedence where the EU has competences. But the EU cannot decide for itself what its competences are. This is upheld by the national constitutional courts. That is what the German Constitutio…

6

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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The state of play on the submitted RRF recovery plans awaiting approval (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! We are talking about the Reconstruction Fund, and our position has always been that such a Reconstruction Fund with EU debt and funds is bad because it makes donor and recipient countries out of equal partners and thus introduces a hierarchy. Nevertheless, care must be taken to ensure that the funds are spent correctly and equally and not according…

5

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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Disinformation and the role of social platforms (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, On New Year's Eve 2015/2016, a massive attack by newly immigrated migrants on women celebrating there took place in Cologne. The Cologne police chief issued a press release stating that there have been no incidents, and all public established media have spread this. Only through reports in the social networks, on Facebook and Twitter, this occurrence has beco…

5

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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Assessing the Union’s measures for the EU tourism sector as the end of the Summer season nears (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, President Ronald Reagan once said that the worst sentence in English is: “I come from the government and I am here to help you”. Yes, the tourism industry has serious problems. We also have suffering regions, especially in the Mediterranean. In the southern EU countries, we have youth unemployment of over 30% in some cases. But the solution will not be for us…

5

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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State of EU cyber defence capabilities (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, In a digital world, we are vulnerable when our networks are not secure. And that is the correct thrust of this report. Of course, he has the usual bad side for this house now, unfortunately, when he enumerates Russia, China, even North Korea as a major threat to our cybersecurity, but fails to mention that all the major spying scandals of recent years have ha…

5

Oct

2021

DE Speech

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The future of EU-US relations (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. This report establishes – or calls for – a world order that builds on the fact that the United States is building a world order with the EU in tow, based on the fight against racism, advocacy for LGBTQ rights and with the main goal of climate action. This is a left-liberal, Western agenda that we, as those sitting to the right of the president, of course, will n…

16

Sep

2021

DE Speech

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The case of human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor in UAE

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I am surprised at what I hear here about the United Arab Emirates, because in fact they are a model of development and tolerance in the Islamic world. It begins with the house of the Abrahamic family in Abu Dhabi. It continues to be the only Gulf country to accept Afghan refugees on a large scale. But it also has something to do with the fact th…

14

Sep

2021

DE Speech

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A new EU-China strategy (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. It's a memorable evening: We have positioned ourselves overwhelmingly clearly against Russia, we are now positioning ourselves no less clearly against China – in short: against anyone who thinks otherwise than us. I often hear about neocolonialism in this House, and how good it is that we have broken with the colonial past. But if the West, if Europe thinks i…

14

Sep

2021

DE Speech

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Direction of EU-Russia political relations (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Mr Colleague, this report which we have before us is a declaration of war by a Cold War. It is aggressive in tone and content, and it does not allow for any possibility of constructive cooperation with Russia. The majority here may wish so, but you do not have the majority of citizens behind you. In Germany, three-quarters of voters said in a survey that they we…

8

Jul

2021

DE Speech

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Labour rights in Bangladesh (continuation of debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! I have listened to the debate from the beginning, and everyone agrees that the situation in Bangladesh is terrible and that it is time to put more pressure on it. There is no doubt that the situation in Bangladesh is not satisfactory. But the first thing I have to ask you: Don't you see that we have a development that we may think is a little too s…

6

Jul

2021

DE Speech

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EU global human rights sanctions regime (EU Magnitsky Act) (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I remember a lecture in international law in the late 1990s, where the professor stated: “Make one thing clear: Human rights are the last resort for the West to assert its global dominance.” When we see this act, it is confirmed. We decide not only on the human rights that are applied, but also on their interpretation. We sanction anyone…

6

Jul

2021

DE Speech

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Presentation of the programme of activities of the Slovenian Presidency (debate)

Madam President, Mr Prime Minister, my dear colleagues! I remember: In 1991, as newly reunited in East Germany, we saw the Yugoslav tanks invade Slovenia and shoot at the roadblocks set up by truck drivers. I am glad that you are sitting here today as the commander and minister of defense at the time. Mr Prime Minister, I can assure you that you are fighting against the same spirit in your politic…