Speeches

Mr President, despite the millions of deaths from the pandemic in Europe, it does not sweat the ear of the European Union and its governments. Your compass is the medicine-commodity, the hospitals that operate in terms of occupancy – as if they were hotels – while today there can be a single, exclusively state health system based on the criterion of free prevention, care and restoration of the health of the people, as well as meeting the needs for medicines when the people need them, both in conditions of increased demand and in extraordinary circumstances. These real possibilities run counter to the EU strategy of commercialising the public health system, the profitability of private health shops and the pharmaceutical giants that hold the patents, competing fiercely with each other, speculating at the expense of the health of the people. Workers must not allow their lives to be sacrificed to capitalist profit. To fight for the abolition of patents, parallel exports of medicines, for free medicines when they need them, for a modern, equipped, staffed public health system, without business action, for staff with permanent stable work and salaries based on modern needs.

Madam President, the misleading debate about the large sums or small sums of money in the European Union's multiannual financial framework is trying to conceal its objective: to subsidize with the money of the workers the groups that are already "unleashing" the thickets of the European Recovery Fund. Its revision is due to the fact that tens of billions have been given for the strengthening of the imperialist war in Ukraine, for the repression of those persecuted by the imperialist interventions. In the face of the crisis that is coming, then, you want to ensure capitalist profitability. But for the people who are suffering, for the flood victims and the fire victims, the European Union admits that the money of the so-called Central Emergency Reserve Fund of the EU Solidarity Fund is not intended for them, but is a dowry for the construction groups. The Greek people must not compromise with the stubbornness of the European Union and its governments, with the support of the KKE and the people's rallying to claim direct compensations at 100% of the damages under the responsibility of the state, utilizing all available state and EU funds, to claim real relief measures based on modern needs.

Mr President, the statements of the Austrian chancellor, 'they have no bread, let them eat cake', prove the unpopularity of the 'European pillar of minimum rights' which he cuts from the poor supposedly to help the poorest. In Greece, poverty vouchers for the supermarket have now been limited to the flood victims, who have been strangled by the policy that treats popular needs as a cost. Cut the crumbs you gave to the impoverished, while the problems of the people are accentuated by the strategic shielding of capitalist profitability that you follow. Salary freeze, EU directives to undo working time, work up to 13 hours a day, huge subsidies to the groups of the green digital transition that raised inflation, energy poverty, the increase in interest rates that multiplies the debts of popular households, auctions. Before it was the vulnerable, today the needy. But the strategy of the European Union does not change. Groups share profits and workers share poverty and uncertainty. Employees have a choice: with an organized struggle to claim their modern needs in conflict with the European Union, the monopolies and their state.

Madam President, as an achievement you have presented the escalation of the war in Ukraine with thousands dead in the imperialist conflict between the European Union, the USA, NATO and capitalist Russia, while competition with China for the control of markets and resources is also sharpening. Feeding tens of billions of dollars into the war by the robbery of workers deprives people of the necessary resources to protect their lives from fires, floods that turn into tragedies, since the EU guidelines consider the cost of protection to be excessive. The mammoth financing of green digital groups has increased inflation, the prices that gnaw income. The Directive on opaque working conditions has accelerated harsh anti-worker measures in favour of employers. Thirteen hours of crumb work for many employers, unpaid overtime, raising the retirement age. This is the European Union. It's uncorrected. Peoples can make war, poverty, refugeeism, uncertainty a thing of the past, taking power and the economy into their own hands. With disengagement from any predatory alliance, such as the European Union and NATO. For a Europe truly in their own interests.

Mr President, Evros still smokes with the biggest fire in Europe, with 19 dead, with 1 million burnt acres. In Thessaly whole villages drowned, 15 people have lost their lives, many missing, trapped, without water, without electricity, without food, exposed to infections, really abandoned by the bourgeois state. Workers' unions and mass organizations are at their side from the beginning, putting into practice the slogan "only the people can save the people". There is no hiding the criminal responsibilities of the European Union and the bourgeois governments behind the so-called climate crisis. Because today there are means, so that such phenomena do not turn into tragedies. However, their implementation is at odds with the EU cost-benefit strategy implemented by the Greek governments, as well as the EU directives recommending that the cost of flood protection projects should not be excessive, with the criterion being that the most cost-effective areas should be saved. Today the struggle that is taking place is concrete in order to immediately evacuate the inhabitants of the flooded areas. To implement all means of protection under the responsibility of the State, to fully staff and equip the civil protection services, the fire brigade, the forest offices, to compensate 100% of all those affected, making use of all available EU funds.

Mr President, the situation of popular families is truly dramatic. Income barely reaches the middle of the month. It is eaten up by high inflation, unbearable accuracy in food, consumer goods, energy, expensive rents. So workers fall into the clutches of banks, trying to cover everyday needs with credit cards and consumer loans. What the directive seeks to do is to safeguard banks' claims against borrowers, with the aim of protecting their profitability from possible default. It is a necessary complement to the anti-people bankruptcy law of New Democracy, the recommendations of the Commission, the increase in ECB interest rates, which giganticizes bad loans and thus throws thousands of people out of their homes even for 800 euros debts, in order to protect the groups in the face of the looming crisis. The people have nothing to wait for. With his struggle against the "wants" of the groups, he demands a real increase in income, a ban on auctions of popular property, the cancellation of debts, the abolition of VAT and excise duties on popular goods, fuel and energy, he demands modern and cheap housing.

Mr President, dozens are dead and hundreds injured; the tragic account of Israel's murderous operation in Jenin, in the West Bank, and the airstrike in the Gaza Strip a few days ago. These dead and wounded come on top of more than 100 killed Palestinians since the beginning of the year, including young children. The pretexts of the State of Israel, which both the United States of America and the European Union are rehearsing, are completely untenable, at a time when images of appalling occupation violence have been recorded for months in the international press, even inside Jerusalem itself. The fact that the Israeli Government enjoys the constant political, financial and military support of the US, NATO and the European Union is an outrageous challenge to the peoples; The peoples, who have consistently and over time supported the just struggle of the Palestinian people, condemn Israel's occupation violence and support an end to the Israeli occupation, the recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, and the recognition of the right of refugees to return to their homes.

Madam President, in my country, Greece, another worker lost his life two days ago, at Elefsina Shipyards, when he was sent for overtime in the fire, while he was facing health problems. The European Union makes some non-mandatory recommendations and seeks to blame climate change. But for the accidents - employers' crimes - are all responsible over time governments and the EU strategy, which have unraveled labor relations and state control mechanisms for the benefit of the profitability of the groups. The workers must not accept as normal to work in such conditions nor the barbarity that they may go to work and not return. Through their unions to demand immediate interruption of work at temperatures above 38 degrees or lower, depending on the type of work, with full payment of the wage, limitation of heavy work and complete abstinence from work of high-risk groups. Να κλιμακώσουν τον αγώνα για συλλογικές συμβάσεις εργασίας με αυξήσεις που να κατοχυρώνουν μέτρα ασφαλείας στην εργασία. Require staffing of public hospitals, EKAV, doctors and nursing staff in the places of work, strengthening of state control services.

Madam President, the revelations of the Pandora Papers and other lists and papers, such as the Lagarde list, bring to the fore the involvement of government officials, politicians, big businessmen in tax evasion and tax fraud. But who owns more than 50% of deposits in tax havens? The richest 0.01 of the population. It is the oligarchy of wealth that everywhere enjoys crushing tax exemptions, privileges, voluntary taxation, contributing little to the revenues of state budgets and receiving billions from them, while the working people are constantly squeezed with high taxes and miserable wages. This is not a bad choice for some people. These practices are the other side of the legal tax exemption and immunity of capital that the European Union and bourgeois governments implement. Within this system, the anti-people tax system, any measures will have the same outcome: the people to pay and to evade the monopolies legally or illegally. With a stronger KKE, the people must demand the overthrow of the fiscal policy of the European Union and the bourgeois governments at their expense. Taxation of monopoly groups, 45% on profits, as well as abolition of all tax exemptions for those groups that accumulate unimaginable wealth.

Madam President, Cuba has established important rights for its people, such as exclusively public and free health, to which it devotes 24% of its national budget. In this way, he has been able to fight the pandemic and assist dozens of people around the world with medical brigades. The United States – with its murderous blockade and the other measures that have caused more than USD 140 billion in damage – and the European Union – which slanders Cuba for human rights violations and seeks to take advantage of the blockade to promote the objectives of European capital – have a stated goal of undermining the achievements of the Cuban people. Those who really care about the needs of the Cuban people must demand today the immediate lifting of the blockade imposed by U.S. imperialism and of all sanctions that violate the rights of the Cuban people and the conquests of their revolution, depriving them of access to basic goods and services. They must recognize the inalienable right of the Cuban people to decide their future without foreign intervention.

Mr President, two days ago an employer's crime took the life of another worker in the Perama shipbuilding zone. Large hoteliers threaten a clause of 5,000 euros if their employee resigns from their occupation. This reveals the ghettos of capitalist development, which parties and governments of capital, liberal and social-democratic, promote. The stability, competitiveness and sustainability of the report mean that in more than 50% of the Member States collective labour agreements are abolished, wages are set by ministerial decision, trade union action is restricted and the right to strike is restricted, which marks the strategy of the European Union. They mean deforestation of labour inspections from effective control and sanctioning responsibilities, understaffing and abandonment, as happened in Greece according to the standards of the European Authority. The workers against the European Union's declarations of class cooperation to walk the road of conflict with the rotten system that puts their lives on the weigh of the profitability of the groups. To strengthen the KKE, their tried and tested support, in the struggle for modern rights, for the abolition of all anti-worker laws.

Mr President, in the European Union, poverty and social exclusion threaten 95 million workers. Trade unionism is banned in 10 countries; In more than 15 countries, the right to strike is violated. More than half of the workers work without a collective agreement. Flexible forms of employment are widespread everywhere. Partial unemployment is being swept away by EU-wide widely advertised programmes. Over 30% work at a salary lower than the minimum wage. Social security has become a commodity. Retirement ages in some Member States exceed life expectancy. These are results of the European pillar of minimum rights that constantly pushes to the bottom of the survival threshold of every labour, wage and social right of workers in the name of the supposed "relief of the vulnerable". These are the rails on which the European Union is moving, on which ND, SYRIZA and PASOK-KINAL have locked up, because the cheapening of labour power is a prerequisite in order to shield the profitability of the few. This path leads to the rights of the many "in Kaiada". A strong KKE is necessary, therefore, as well as a mass organized struggle for a change of course, in order to bring the popular needs to the forefront.

Mr President, the reports on the Recovery Fund "make dust" the pre-election propaganda of the "pseudo-saviors" (New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK, MERA25) in Greece. It is not about "sacks of euros" that can be made available for the benefit of the people, but about a memorandum: It is loading peoples with additional anti-people measures and prerequisites until 2027. "Fiscal stability" means new reductions in wages and pensions for the guaranteed profitability of renewable energy and digital technology groups, scaling up of accuracy, inflation in food, energy, other types of popular consumption. New "own resources" - taxes, such as the "green trolleys" that New Democracy, SYRIZA and PASOK voted in the previous plenary, new extraordinary taxes to the people due to the increase of the European Central Bank's interest rates - are being added to repay the funds that will be "bleached out" by big businessmen and banks, more than 700 000 auctions of popular houses are being held in order to shield the banks and funds in the face of the emerging new capitalist crisis. The workers must turn their backs on the parties that slaughter popular rights and try to mock the people with "if" and "when". With a strong KKE, on the path of overthrowing the barbarity of the European Union, governments and bourgeois parties, the people can save the people.

Mr President, Fit for55, the strategy of the green transition, instead of real environmental protection measures, favours groups to pollute without impact or at a minimum cost and this is constantly returned to them as a green subsidy. The people pay multiple, with their own resources-taxes, with green trolleys, with huge expenditures for green building standards, vehicles that they are forced to make by borrowing, if they do not have one, by passing on costs as a passenger, paying for ticket prices, while shipowners de-bond subsidies and tax exemptions. Even carcinogenic and hazardous waste burning is provocatively included in the European Union's best green practices. These unpopular commitments as a common program have been undertaken by New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK, MeRA25, whatever government emerges in Greece in the upcoming elections. With a stronger KKE, the people can escalate the struggle for their modern needs, for the protection of the environment, fighting for the transformation of energy, natural resources into social popular property, with its central planning at the service of their own popular needs.

Mr President, the resolution on minimum income sheds crocodile tears over the plight of workers who work for crumbs and face the race of inflation, the prices of basic products and services, the outpouring from banks and funds. It calls on the Commission to table a draft directive equivalent to that on the minimum wage, that is, the directive calling for the unacceptable abolition of collective labour agreements and the setting of a minimum wage by law a national tradition of Greece and other Member States. The strategy of the least is well known. It has been applied for years by the government of New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK/KIN.AL. in my country: He distributes crumbs by pass to those who lack the elementals, which he takes from those who are less poor. It pushes social rights downwards, defines a line of misery above which no one is entitled to support, while the groups are flooding with people's money. Strengthening the popular income are the measures that the workers are demanding with struggle today, the class trade union movement: collective labour agreements, increases in wages and pensions, on the basis of modern needs, the abolition of VAT on articles of popular consumption, excise duties on fuel and energy, the cancellation of coats and debts of popular households to banks and the protection of popular housing from auctions.

Madam President, with the Data Act, industry monopolies will no longer only be able to record, store, analyse and exploit user data, personal or otherwise, as they have done so far, for example in Greece, thanks also to the relevant directive voted jointly by New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK and MERA25. Within the framework of the EU data market, European monopolies will be able to resell them to third parties, as part of their commercial product or services, supported by the Recovery Fund, i.e. the people's money. Στο πλαίσιο των ανταγωνισμών με τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες Αμερικής και την Κίνα και των ανακατατάξεων που συμβαίνουν στον κλάδο, πολλαπλασιάζονται οι απολύσεις στους επιχειρηματικούς κολοσσούς, όπως οι Google, Facebook, Amazon,Twitter. There are bankruptcies that are also related to the sector, and their burdens will of course be passed on again to the peoples. The conclusion: the European Union and the capitalist market are incompatible with any data protection. The struggle for digital technologies in the service of modern popular needs against the obscure framework of file, therefore, is connected with the struggle for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies.

Mr President, we are living in Greece with the Tempi railway tragedy. Predicted crime with 57 dead. Hundreds of thousands of people and youth demand that the crime not be covered up, that the real culprits be punished. It wasn't a human error or a bad time. It was the result of the EU strategy of liberalising transport, cutting it up and handing it over to monopoly groups, with reduced staff, without network security. This strategy cost 640 victims, only in 2021 in the European Union, where only 13% of the network is covered by telecommand systems. According to a Parliament report, which the KKE voted against, groups are provocatively justified for not implementing security systems if this harms their profitability; the European Parliament, which rejected a plenary debate on Tempi. This European Union wants the Greek bourgeois parties, which govern by implementing its dangerous strategy, to be an expert. The dilemma for the working class and its children is: new victims and losses for profit or organized struggle for the overthrow of capitalist barbarity? The answer is given with a new strike on March 16, so as not to cover up the crime.

Madam President, we unequivocally condemn the constant state repression, the murders - such as of Thulani Maseko, the abductions, torture and imprisonment against activists, members of trade and student unions by the autocratic Mswati regime. We express our solidarity with the communist party of Swaziland in particular, recognising its important contribution for the organisation of the struggle for the people's needs against the reactionary regime that was established in 1973 and has since imposed a ban on political parties’ constant restrictions on trade union struggle. We condemn the arrests and torture against activists of the communist party, the false accusations, such as against recently Bongi Mamba and Mvuselelo Mkhabela, aiming at weakening the party’s militant stance in favour of working people's interests. We salute the struggle of the people of Swaziland. We support their just demands for the legalisation of political parties, the safe return of political exiles and refugees, the lifting of all restrictions of the right to protest, of media censorship, for unrestricted parliamentary elections.

Madam President, the report promotes the design of banking and business groups and the strategy of the European Union and the Central Bank leading to interest increases of up to 33%, the proliferation of bad loans and generalised auctions of popular property. This goal is served by the decision of the Supreme Court in Greece for an auction pogrom based on the bankruptcy law of the government of New Democracy and that of the previous SYRIZA that handed over the red loans to the predators of the funds. As for the price and inflation race, they are the result of giant subsidies to monopolies through the Recovery Fund Memorandum and cheap borrowing with workers' money. Ultimately more expansive, more restrictive, your strategy always demands wages and rights to the pitfalls. Only the people can save the people, claiming real measures of income protection, banning auctions, writing off debts-floors of popular households. Against the groups, banks and funds and the repression of the mobilizations of the people who are losing their homes today.

Madam President, we are really witnessing a blanket confrontation and phony dilemmas over democracy and diversion. Because the bourgeois parties today aim to keep intact the EU regulations, directives, mechanisms that have co-formulated and voted and shielded the unacceptable anti-people framework against the so-called enemy people. By a 2021 regulation, spyware is considered normal in the European Union. At least 14 Member States have used them. The responsibilities of New Democracy and the prime minister for the wiretapping are enormous, but SYRIZA, PASOK, is also responsible. Together in the European Parliament they voted on the regulation. Together with MeRA25 in the Greek Parliament they approved the European Union police directive that generalizes the file, the trade of personal data. That is why all à la carte defenders of the rule of law have been observing radio silence for the confirmed wiretapping of the KKE for six and a half years. We strengthen the struggle against the cover-up of surveillance and the EU-wide mechanisms of file-keeping, strengthening the KKE with the crystal clear, unwavering position in favour of unhindered trade union and political action to protect people's freedoms.

Madam President, the debate that is taking place and the resolution itself are revealing. The United States of America, the European Union, NATO and their governments are promoting the escalation of warfare by sending tanks and manipulating fighter jets. The Russian side is strengthening its own operations, mainly in Donbas. In the context of the imperialist war paid for by the Ukrainian people and the Russian people with their blood, the European Union is stepping up its intervention in Ukraine for investments, energy agreements and reconstruction worth billions of euros in competition with the United States of America. Agreements that mortgage the future of the Ukrainian people for capitalist profitability. It is abundantly proven that war is born of the fierce antagonisms of the monopolies, is waged by the bourgeoisie and the peoples are killed for the master's food. In Greece, New Democracy, SYRIZA and PASOK alignedly support the Euro-Atlantic plans, fuel the race of involvement, armaments and sanctions, which not only do not shield sovereign rights, but turn the people into a target. The independent struggle of the people for disengagement from the war and disengagement from the murderous alliances can provide an answer.

Madam President, the alleged cleansing and transparency measures which the European Union claimed it would take following the Qatargate scandal have sunk into the mire of the interests of the monopolies it serves. The admission by those involved in the scandal that they had even drawn up a price list for resolutions and amendments for the defence of human rights by the European Union confirms what the KKE - that is to say - in an unsuspecting time denounced as an industry of human rights resolutions. It is even a huge challenge that the report proposes to upgrade the relevant DROI subcommittee that has been the focus. It goes a long way for the European Union, one of the main culprits of barbarism, oppression, imperialist wars, interventions, refugees and migration, to seek to appear today as the guardian of human rights. The European Union is instrumentalising human rights as a vehicle for intervention around the world to safeguard the interests of its groups. So what the peoples need to do is reject the self-appointed saviors, who intervene with expediency. With their struggle, to impose their right and interests against the exploiters and the rotten system they support.

Madam President, the agenda of the Swedish Presidency is speeding up the anti-people strategy of the European Union and its governments, which is afflicting the peoples, who of course recognise who is the culprit, and this is also recorded in the very low acceptance of the European Union in the measurements. The priority is to escalate the war in Ukraine between Euro-Atlanticism and Russia and with the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. The aim is for the European Union to intervene wherever it is, by implementing the dictates of the war-mongering security and defence policy, the strategic compass, by taking additional measures to continue the European Union's policy of repression. Sweden, a leading country in the implementation of the green transition, with renewable energy and nuclear energy, independent from Russia, is now announcing power cuts for the people. It turns out that this strategy leads people to pay a heavy price for the guaranteed profitability of the groups. The European Union, which defends monopolies, cannot provide a solution to the pressing problems of workers, such as accuracy, inflation and declining income. Only the people can save the people, when they realize the power they have in their hands, claiming their modern needs and marching on the path of overthrowing this system.

Madam President, the historical facts are not disputed. The so-called genocide of the Ukrainian people adopted was a well-treated Nazi slander that was then dispersed by pro-Nazi press moguls such as Hearst and fascist gangs such as Bandera. In Ukraine, in Russia, in 1930-1932, there was indeed drought, there was famine, typhus. But you hide that the big peasant capitalists sabotaged the harvest, the warehouses, the machinery, murdered executives of the socialist state, exacerbating the problem. Of course, the real victims have nothing to do with the astronomical figures of Euro-Atlantic pseudonymism. You identify capitalist Russia, its unacceptable invasion of Ukraine, with the Soviet Union. You are using miseries, you are escalating anti-communist legislative atrocities, as in Poland, while together, Euro-Atlanticists and Russia, you are adopting these myths, despite the imperialist slaughter in Ukraine between you. Capitalist barbarism is not "made up" with distortions and lies. The truth will shine, the popular achievements of socialism are a beacon that illuminate the way for a world without exploitation, crises, wars and refugees.

Mr President, over time the European Union and all Greek governments have stepped up economic, energy and military cooperation with Israel, to the detriment of the Palestinian people. This year, there are more than 141 victims of Israeli occupation violence. Among them underage girls, young boys, journalists. The atrocities of the Israeli army are taking place all around the world. Thousands of political prisoners are in appalling conditions with unacceptable "administrative detentions". Today's debate again reveals the hypocritical sensitivity of the European Union to instrumentalise "human rights" for the victims of war, occupation, raids; Because when these things happen in Palestine by the murderous state of Israel, the perpetrators are equated with the victims and you keep "equal distances". The only solution is the escalation of solidarity with the Palestinian people for the recognition of its own sovereign state on the border of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital. We demand that the resolutions on the recognition of the Palestinian state adopted by the Member States, such as that of the Greek Parliament since 2015, enter into force.