Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. Oh, High Commissioner! Lukashenko and Putin are opening champagne today, looking at how they divided us. They are happy that the Polish government has fallen into the trap set by them. We have lost months urging the Polish government to come to its senses and start cooperating with the European Union. What did the Polish government do? He frightened the refugees. He said that they promote zoophilia, that among them are pedophiles, that they have protozoa, parasites. That's what we've heard in the last few months. Instead of coming to your senses, you have become useful idiots of Putin and Lukashenko. But the European Union, Commissioner, has also been fooled. He is a dictator who has been using terror and the regime against his citizens for 26 years, torturing people. Today, there are more political prisoners in Belarus than there are members of this House, more than there are members of the European Parliament. People are dying, they are being tortured, and we, as the European Parliament, are adopting more resolutions, and the High Commissioner is pretending not to hear us, as he did in this debate. Where is the European Union? What mandate do we have today to oppose Lukashenko? People must see clearly that by crossing the Belarusian-Polish border, they cross the border between dictatorship, terror, despotism and freedom, democracy and human rights. Today, due to the inaction of the European Union and the actions of the Polish government, this is not visible. Commissioner, this is no longer a yellow light, this is a red light. You have to take action, because your inaction only exacerbates divisions in the European Union, and the populists applaud it.

Madam President, I'm sorry. The women's hell continues. A year ago, Kaczynski sealed the sentence on women. Poland has become a de facto patriarchal religious state, in which Polish women are deprived of their voices and reduced to the role of an incubator. It's horrific barbarism and government-established torture. Unfortunately, the religiously and politically fundamental Polish Taliban do not stop there. The Sejm has just received another bill that will treat forced abortion in the event of a threat to a woman's health and life as murder. And there's gonna be a life sentence for that. Unfortunately, this PiS led to the fact that today, in 2021, Polish women have fewer rights than when Poland joined the European Union. So, Commissioner, when you, as the Commission, say that there is nothing you can do, today you can - because the rights of women, Polish women, who are also citizens of this Community, of the European Union, have been de facto restricted. And from here today – this is not only our political duty, not only our legal duty, but also our moral duty – there must be a clear message for those women who are here today: You will never walk alone again. We are with you!

Madam President, I'm sorry. On 7 October, the European Parliament adopted another resolution on the situation in Belarus, calling on the European Council to implement the next package of sanctions and prepare a related strategy. Tomorrow you are meeting, and I would like to ask you from here what the matter looks like on this issue, which concerns the security not only of the inhabitants of Belarus. As we know, unfortunately, the situation there is getting more and more difficult: at least 812 political prisoners, people are being murdered and persecuted, a European Union-flagged plane has been hijacked and the European Union has still not implemented an effective sanctions mechanism with regard to the Lukashenka regime. I would therefore like to ask the Minister what the Council intends to do on this matter. It's a live Belarus!

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Ladies and Gentlemen, We are talking about the next EU budget for 2022, but today we also talked about a very serious case concerning the state of the rule of law in the European Union. And it cannot be that we are adopting more budgets, turning our heads away from what is really happening in some Member States. I represent a country, Poland, where there are serious breaches of the rule of law and European taxpayers' money is still being transferred. And we have to be the guardians of this budget. It cannot be that the money of the Belgians, the Dutch, etc. is sponsored by the autocratic rule of Orban or Kaczynski. And the European Commission must be the guardian of public funds in this matter and must keep an eye on it. The second thing is extremely important in this budget: we repeat, as the Committee on Gender Equality and Women, that there are no issues related to gender equality, gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting. This must also be solved, and the European Commission must finally start listening to our voice on this issue, because equality is equality.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Prime Minister, I'm sorry. You got a big chance today, you got a chance to rehabilitate yourself today. Unfortunately, you didn't take that chance. You have ruthlessly attacked the Community. Unfortunately, you have entered into something that today brings great shame to Poles. The disgusting rhetoric in which your colleagues call the flag of the European Union ‘a rag’, the European Union ‘an imaginary community’ and the place where we are today ‘the Brussels occupier’. So don't try to bullshit us today, we won't fall for your false spells. If you've come to Strasbourg today to treat us with sleep, to put us to sleep, you'll be very disappointed. We're not gonna get bullshit. You lost, sir. You are returning to Poland today on the shield. Twenty-six to one. It is a pity that Mr Jarosław Kaczyński, the real principal, did not really have the courage to come here today to Strasbourg. The one who today is responsible for all this, but from Strasbourg we send him a message, from Strasbourg with love: You will get a poppy if you persecute women, if you do not respect the independence of the courts, if you raise your hand against minorities. Today, the aforementioned President Lech Kaczyński is turning over in his grave when he hears what you have done to the European Union. You don't have a mandate to do what you do to Poles... (The President took the floor)

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. It has been 14 months since Lukashenko rigged the elections. Another debate is passing here in the European Parliament, and we will have another resolution calling on the European Commission and the European Council to take real action. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Even today, there is no High Representative in this debate. This shows the stage to which we have reached in the fight against the Lukashenka regime. There are no real sanctions, no donor conferences. Today, there is no European Union strategy for Belarus, for which we have been fighting for months, and political prisoners in Lukashenko's prisons are arriving every day. And this is really a picture full of the drama that we have both in Belarus and when it comes to the weakness of the European Union vis-à-vis the Lukashenka regime. And Lukashenko is also winning this war against us – as today's debate shows – when it comes to destabilising our eastern border of the European Union. Today, Lukashenko is pleased that the Polish government has become a useful idiot – and this must be said clearly and unambiguously – of Lukashenko. People are dying on the Polish border, on the Polish border these poor immigrants have fallen into the trap of the Lukashenka regime, they are being pushed both ways. That is why, Commissioner, you have just said that your officials are going to Poland next week, in the coming days. Take lawyers, non-governmental organizations, the media to have full transparency of what is happening on the Polish border. We don't have that today. I ask you, on behalf of millions of Polish women and Poles who respect human rights and democracy, that we learn the whole truth about what is happening on the Polish-Belarusian border, because unfortunately we are not able to find out from the lips of the Polish government.

Madam President, by the way, I think it’s super cool that two women are leading this debate today. Thank you very much. Keep fingers crossed! Pani Przewodnicząca! Schuman powiedział, że Europa potrzebuje duszy. Pani Przewodnicząca dodaje dzisiaj, że duszą jest praworządność. Jeżeli tak jest, Pani Przewodnicząca, to zapraszam do działania. To, co zrobiła Komisja do tej pory w sprawie praworządności, jest daleko niewystarczające. Mija połowa Pani kadencji, a w Polsce w tym czasie tylko pogorszył się stan wymiaru sprawiedliwości. W 30% naszego kraju wprowadzono strefy wolne od LGBT. Polki mają dzisiaj w Polsce mniej praw, niż kiedy Polska wchodziła do Unii Europejskiej. Coraz więcej mediów ma przez polski autorytarny rząd nałożony kaganiec ograniczający ich funkcjonowanie. Potrzebujemy dzisiaj zdecydowanych działań. I jeżeli to jest za mało, to być może dzisiaj jest pora, żeby Komisja Europejska zaproponowała specjalny pakiet dotyczący silniejszej ochrony praworządności w poszczególnych krajach Unii Europejskiej. Zachęcam do tego.

Mr President, thank you very much. I'm a Pole. I'm gay. My country is run by a president who thinks that people like me are not people, it's ideology. This year it's been 20 years since I've been with my partner. In my country, such compounds are called rainbow plague. Every day when my partner leaves home, I am afraid that he will be met with violence, violence that meets my friends, acquaintances, loved ones. I live in a country where 70% of young people, LGBT people, think about suicide. I live in Poland, in my homeland, where 30% of the country is an LGBT-free zone. How is my life different from yours? What am I worse at? We can't be indifferent. We cannot be indifferent, because from hate speech, from such declarations to hate crimes, there is a very short way. Mr Brudziński mentioned concentration camps. Concentration camps were created because someone did not react in time. Commissioner, please: so it's not too late, start acting. The clock is ticking.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Secretary of State! You will leave Brussels today for Ljubljana with a clear signal from the majority of this Parliament – the unanimity rule is ineffective. The principle that was supposed to give rights, as it was said, to the lesser, puts us in danger. Unfortunately, one country is able to block decisions that serve the security of most European Union countries. I stand here before the Lord as a representative of a people already experienced by such a principle of unanimity. The so-called liberum veto was in force in Poland in the 17th century. At that time, we were forming a community with Lithuania, and also in matters of security, decisions could be blocked. Unanimity was needed. What did it lead to? It led to chaos, anarchy, and finally, despite being in force for only a year and a half, it led to the partition of our country, the domination of other powers and the complete collapse of our statehood. Let this be a lesson and an example that you will be able to use in the Council for the future in order to abolish this principle of unanimity, which is completely unnecessary.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Let's be honest, we are in a very bizarre situation where the author of her own report contests it, contests it only because she tried through the back door to introduce a report written under the dictates of the Vatican. A report in which a woman is reduced to the role of an object, to an incubator that is only supposed to give birth to children. A report in which seniors, the elderly, people with disabilities are treated in a paternalistic way. She did not succeed and fortunately, because it was a terrifying dystopia, which she tried to inoculate from the land of Pisów to the European one. Fortunately, we resisted it. Why is that? Because this is not our vision of Europe. These are not our values, our values are freedom, equality, social justice and caring for everyone, regardless of exclusion. I am therefore pleased that this report looks quite different today than when it was proposed in a fatal and unacceptable version.