Speeches

Madam President, from here we welcome the thousands of people who took to the streets on Saturday in 20 Portuguese cities for the right to housing, against increases in interest rates that stifle more than 1 million families, against the liberalisation of the rental market, for the reduction in the value of rents, against property speculation, for more public housing. These are demands that reinforce the need for concrete responses: reduce interest rates – while this is not the case, that it is the profits of the banks that pay for this impact and not the budget of households, that the public bank takes a clear option to lower the costs of credit, namely in spreads, commissions, etc. – protecting tenants, halting rent rises, stabilising contracts and rejecting once and for all the evictions law passed in troika times. Eliminate tax benefits for large speculator owners, such as real estate funds and others, increase the provision of public housing, increasing the resources for this purpose, first and foremost at the level of structural and investment funds. There are four proposals that give voice to the popular demand.

Madam President, transport is a central issue for people's lives and for the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. It is important to recognise the importance of a policy to promote public transport for the improvement of the environment, health and quality of life and to promote mobility. It is essential that public transport policies respond to the needs of the population, workers, in particular women, young people, the elderly and people with reduced mobility. We believe that it is essential to ensure equal access to employment, including in the transport sector, and that women working in the transport sector are guaranteed their rights, decent working conditions, equal pay and more opportunities for career progression. However, the policies of the European Union that have promoted the privatisation, liberalisation and commodification of the transport sector and that have forced the destruction of large state-owned enterprises, without contributing to the necessary responses, are also at the root of many of the problems faced by populations and workers, including women.

Mr President, since September last year we have been permanently working days in Portugal and have had the opportunity to meet thousands of people. The increase in the cost of living, with essential goods reaching prices that those who earn the minimum wage cannot afford, is what worries people the most. Housing, food, energy, communications. And while some, the workers, make sacrifices, the big economic groups continue to exhibit and accumulate exorbitant profits at the expense of those who are going through serious difficulties. In addition, public services such as health and education follow the path of divestment and dismantling in the good way of the Brussels booklet. The workers and the people do not need further propaganda statements. Instead, they call for urgent measures to deal with this situation, which necessarily involve raising wages and pensions, controlling and setting prices, reducing VAT on gas, electricity and telecommunications, and uncompromisingly defending the right to healthcare, housing and education.

Mr President, I invoke Rule 195 of the Rules of Procedure to report once again on the presence of rats and rats in our offices. It's the second time in a year that we've found rats and rats and their droppings in our offices. It is not only in ours, but in our floor there are also rats and rats and even in other floors, until the new floor of the Madariaga building, the presence of these animals has already been reported. We believe that it is a public health problem that cannot be solved by placing traps and therefore we call for appropriate measures, namely the deratisation of that building, which should have occurred in August and, regrettably, did not occur. We therefore call for appropriate measures. (Strong applause) (Exclamations of approval)

Madam President, every summer there is a resurgence of discussion about firefighters for their pivotal role in combating forest fires. In addition, they guarantee daily, among many other population support services, pre-hospital emergency services, rescue and rescue of victims of road accidents and the transport of non-emergency patients. We value the importance of the recent World Health Organization classification, which identifies occupational exposure as a firefighter or firefighter as potentially carcinogenic. We now need concrete measures aimed at their protection and health, promoting the improvement of their working conditions. However, the fight does not end there. The improvement of the working conditions of firefighters, their protection, also depends on the sufficient funding of their corporations and humanitarian associations of firefighters, a wide restructuring of the civil protection system in force in Portugal, a different and better management and planning of Community funds, among many other measures that we have been advocating and proposing. In order to carry out their mission safely and successfully, firefighters must be valued. And it is in this fight that today, as always, we are engaged.

Mr President, the promotion of books and reading is a fundamental axis of any policy aimed at building a cultural democracy. We advocate a real book and reading policy that covers the areas of book publishing, distribution and marketing, including support for small publishers and independent bookshops – which survive with extreme difficulty and many of them have even closed – and for booksellers and small booksellers who resist, despite difficulties, some of them related to prices that impede urban rents. a policy on fair remuneration of authors, translators and proofreaders; enhancing public libraries, school libraries and municipal libraries; the creation of literary events; The Defence of Languages. Promoting books and reading requires concrete policies on the part of the Member States that foster, from an early age, a taste for reading, including active reading and reading aloud. Access to books, reading and literacy cannot be a privilege for some. It has to be everyone's right.

Mr President, we are here not to stigmatise or criminalise women in prostitution, but to fight for their rights. We consider that prostitution is a form of violence and exploitation that particularly affects women and girls and that its legalisation is intended only to legitimise this extreme expression of exploitation, oppression and violence. The pimps become entrepreneurs, legal cover is given to their activity, the increase in human trafficking associated with it, money laundering related to other criminal trafficking. And women continue to be the target of violence, whims, exploitation. What some want to classify as sex work is not compatible with fundamental rights, such as the rights to dignity, health, social security and equality. We defend the opposite path: the adoption of policies committed to combating the causes that push women into prostitution and concrete measures that promote the autonomy and emancipation of women, the criminalisation of those who exploit this sordid business and the adequate protection of prostituted women. We are here to stress the importance of adopting exit programmes, so that women, who understand this, have the confidence and support of States to start a life project, free from violence and exploitation. We are here to say, once again, that the bodies of girls and women are not commodities. Prostitution is neither a choice nor an inevitability. It is violence, exploitation and a form of slavery that attacks the body and dignity of women, corresponding to a brutal violation of human rights. And we're here to fight it.

Madam President, we wish to recall that, despite Parliament's refusals to discuss the issue, the judicialisation and irregularities of the electoral process in Guatemala did not occur only after the elections. In fact, and among other things, there were several candidacies that were prevented from voting, already in the first round of the presidential elections, which took place on June 25, which shows the deep judicialization of a process that should be fundamentally political. The successive attempts to disqualify candidates, cancel the registration of political parties such as the Semilla Party, or prevent Bernardo Arévalo, the winner of the elections, from assuming the presidency, are an expression of undemocratic behavior that does not accept the result clearly stated at the polls by the Guatemalan people, in a country with deep social inequalities, marked by the promiscuity between political power and economic power, corruption and the consequences of decades of right-wing policies. From here we express our solidarity with the Guatemalan people and reaffirm our confidence that, with their struggle, it will be possible to build a sovereign Guatemala, free from external interference, democratic, justice and social progress.

Mr President, today we are debating the so-called New Agenda of the European Union for Latin America and the Caribbean which, as in previous years, Mr Borrell has dubbed 'rediscovery'. A strategy that, in our opinion, is fundamentally determined by the interests of the large economic groups of the countries that make up the European Union, which aim to exploit markets and resources, promote old and new economic dependencies and even, in the pretense of some, unequal relations disguised as neocolonial. Despite the almost triumphant speech on the results of the EU-CELAC Summit, we know that they fell short of the objectives that the EU was aiming for. A summit where, despite attempts to limit the expression of some of the representatives of the Latin American and Caribbean countries, despite attempts to condition the participation of some of the organisations from those countries, their voice was heard, including at the Peoples' Summit, a voice that demanded and defended mutually advantageous relations between the countries that are part of CELAC and the countries that are part of the European Union, based on respect for the sovereignty and independence of each country, on the right of each people to freely choose its path of development and social progress, rejecting external interference, sanctions, blockades, that is, rejecting relations that are not based on sovereign equality and rights.

Mr President, today exactly 50 years have passed since the fascist coup that overthrew the Chilean people's government, led by President Salvador Allende. At a time when some seek to whitewash fascism and its crimes and when deeply reactionary far-right and fascist forces are promoted, we must remember Chile's fascist military coup, Pinochet's cruel, violent and bloody dictatorship, the nefarious consequences of the brutal application of Chicago's neoliberal theses for the Chilean workers and people, but also the persistent and courageous resistance of the Communists and other Chilean democrats and progressives against the fascist dictatorship. Bearing in mind all the solidarity expressed in Portugal, particularly by the April Revolution during those dark years in Chile, in the 50 years of a crime that must not be forgotten, we remember its victims and reaffirm our solidarity with the workers and the Chilean people and our confidence in the construction of a sovereign, democratic style of justice and social progress.

Madam President, this resolution on Venezuela insists on the manipulation and concealment of facts and on deepening the interventionist strategy of the United States of America. For more than two decades, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been the target of aggression, interference and aggression by the United States of America, such as the orchestration of coups d'état, the creation of puppet institutions, the permanent campaign of disinformation or the imposition of a cruel economic blockade aimed at affecting the rights and living conditions of the Venezuelan people. That is the path that some political forces in this Parliament continue to insist on, already thinking about interference in the 2024 elections in Venezuela. We recall that the European Parliament and the European Union are not outside the obligation to comply with principles of international law, such as respect for the sovereignty and independence of states, including the right of the Venezuelan people to decide their future, free from external interference. We stand in solidarity with the determination of the Venezuelan people in defense of their right to decide on their path of development and social progress in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Mr President, with each passing day, social inequalities and injustices continue to worsen, workers and the people to be impoverished and those who exploit and speculate to see profits increase. There are still those who say that this is the right way to control inflation, but that is not what workers feel every day when they go to the market, when they receive the electricity or communications bill or when they have to pay the rent of the house or the provision of housing credit. Loss of purchasing power can only be restored by means of a general increase in wages and pensions, accompanied by control and price-fixing, as we have always advocated, by combating profit. The increase in interest rates, imposed blindly by the ECB, forces families to tighten their belts even more, an increase that must be stopped and reversed, avoiding even more severe impacts on families, as we called for in a letter that we recently dynamised. At present, investment in strengthening the social functions of the state is essential. Health, education and housing are rights that we do not give up. Only in this way can we stop the deterioration of the social and economic situation of workers and their families. Only in this way can we contribute to the improvement of their living conditions.

Mr President, during our days in the country, we have been in contact with many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially small traders. Their activity is threatened by the lack of purchasing power of workers and people, rising costs in energy, bank charges, loans, but also communications, unnecessary bureaucracy and taxes that they consider disproportionate to large economic groups. And we must not forget that local trade plays a close role with the most vulnerable. It is necessary to attack the brutal increases in the costs that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises face, energy, bank costs, loans, and that the rise in ECB interest rates has aggravated, communications, tolls, creating conditions so that, by reducing these expenses, there is appreciation of the companies themselves, but also of the workers and their wages, an issue that is fundamental to boost the economy, to maintain activity. We also advocate support for national productive sectors and the creation of conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises to develop their activity.

Madam President, we have debated this resolution in the context of Israel's growing and brutal policy of aggression against the Palestinian people. Examples include the recent attack on the Jenin refugee camp: 12 dead, more than 100 injured, including children, the expulsion of hundreds of families from their homes. We condemn and demand an immediate end to Israel's violence against the Palestinian people. The Israeli government must comply with international law, including the numerous UN resolutions on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people that for decades have mandated the creation of the State of Palestine with the 1967 borders and capital in East Jerusalem and the realization of the right to return of refugees. It is unacceptable that the words of formal recognition of the national rights of the Palestinian people do not correspond to firm political positions on the part of the institutions of the European Union, including the European Parliament, repudiation of Israel's policy of occupation and oppression and compliance with international law, an expression of a stance of connivance that we denounce. From here we express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for their inalienable national rights.

Madam President, on 7 June, Dr Josef Skála, a militant historian of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, a well-known figure in the Czech Republic, was sentenced to 8 months in prison, conditionally suspended for 18 months, apparently for expressing himself in a radio programme on the basis of various studies and historical reports about the Katyn massacre, calling into question the version propagated by Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Nazi Propaganda. Dr Josef Skála was charged and convicted without a legal basis for his conviction, after a trial in which the most basic rights of defence were not guaranteed and in clear violation of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, as denounced in his country. Their condemnation is a disregard for democratic rights, freedoms and guarantees, which exposes the attempt to revise and falsify history in order to impose a single thought. We express our solidarity with Dr Josef Skála and join all those in the Czech Republic and around the world who have denounced this political persecution and demand justice.

Madam President, we are talking here about the promotion of vocational training because of a growing demand on the part of companies for a so-called Industry 4.0, which translates into jobs with high digital demands. Is concerned that vocational training may be a way of concealing the real numbers of unemployment and not promoting employment with rights; This can be a way of occupying those who want to work, but in the end, instead of a job with rights, you will get, at best, a traineeship. We recognise the value of vocational training in strengthening and updating skills and we also advocate that it be at the service of professional and salary valorisation and career progression. A word of solidarity with the workers of the Matosinhos refinery, who have been unemployed for more than two years due to the closure of the refinery, waiting for vocational training that would open doors for them to a job, at least with the same conditions, but which did not happen in the name of a just transition that has very little and leaves workers behind.

Madam President, we are monitoring the potential for the renovation and innovation of energy networks, building stock, transport and other utilities, with a view to greater energy efficiency, but we are concerned that energy policies, particularly those relating to energy efficiency, may contribute to greater social exclusion and the worsening of the living conditions of citizens, with rising housing costs, mobility or energy prices. Moreover, at a time when the rising cost of living, particularly housing, is suffocating families. Setting binding targets, we said from the outset, will require some states to do more than others. We proposed that the funds mobilised to promote energy efficiency should be excluded from the calculation of Member States' public debt and budget deficits so that they could make the necessary investments, a proposal which was rejected. We argue that the recovery of public control of the energy sector is fundamental to guarantee the economic, social and environmental rights of peoples.

Madam President, in Portugal, if we consider the last ten years, it was only in 2014 that there was no drought at the end of September. At the end of last May, 35% of the territory was in a situation of severe or extreme drought. The scenarios developed for Portugal with regard to climate conditions confirm growing concerns of populations and farmers and point to an increase in the frequency and worsening of weather drought situations, particularly in the south of the country, and may even intensify in the future. This implies an increase in risk and vulnerability to these phenomena, with important impacts on water availability and, consequently, on the agricultural sector, on economic and social plans and plans. The prevalence in time and the higher frequency of occurrence of drought conditions translate into lower storage volumes of reservoirs and water scarcity for different uses. Smallholder farmers, who produce in a more sustainable and nature-friendly way, face rising input costs and also struggle with the lack of water resources for irrigation. And there's no innovation and precision farming that's worth us if water doesn't exist. It is therefore necessary to adopt structural measures to ensure greater and more effective retention of winter water and to find solutions to mitigate and respond to the increasingly frequent and severe drought conditions. It is necessary to recognise the difficulties that drought conditions represent in agricultural production and to take the necessary measures to protect production, ensure the continuity of holdings and promote the settlement of populations and, in the immediate future, to ensure that farmers and livestock producers do not lose all production, to safeguard animals and to ensure the income necessary to maintain activity. It is essential to change the way of production, respecting the limits of nature, promoting biodiversity and restoring what has been lost. Only in this way will we ensure a dignified future where drought is not a death sentence in our country.

Madam President, we are not insensitive to the legitimate desire to be a mother, but there are concerns that cannot be underestimated or ignored, such as the instrumentalisation of life and the human body, in this case the body of a woman and her reproductive organs. The economic exploitation of women's reproductive systems is very evident in the surrogacy business, conveniently called surrogacy. It is a sordid business that seeks to hide the glaring class exploitation that surrounds it, the speculation that is inherent in it, and the serious risks to the health and physical and psychological integrity of women who sell their eggs or rent their bodies as substitutes for another woman's pregnancy. We believe that rights are not built at the expense of exploiting one another. It is necessary to combat these conceptions based on the commodification of the woman's body, either through surrogacy or through prostitution. We must combat all forms of exploitation and violence against women and it is in this fight that we are committed.

Madam President, this report on food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture is long in rhetoric, but scarce in pointing out reasons and solutions. Even in what it should defend, "food sovereignty" is a concept that is not even mentioned. What poses a threat to food security and the resilience of our food system is the general orientation of the Common Agricultural Policy, the willingness of policymakers to strengthen agribusiness and the lack of will to help and invest in small and medium-sized agriculture and family farming. Once again, the idea is defended that the European Union must feed the world at the expense of economic and geopolitical counterparts and that innovation and genomic techniques can solve all the ills of the current system, keeping everything essentially the same. We must break with this CAP and support the small farmers who produce in an environmentally sustainable way and who are able to guarantee the food sovereignty of the peoples.

Mr President, this Parliament, like the European Union itself, continues the strategy of following the United States of America, of attempting to interfere and interfering in the political and institutional organisation of a sovereign country, of promoting direct support for the opposition and the application of sanctions, the consequences of which will have a direct impact on the lives of the people. If they were indeed concerned about human rights in Nicaragua, they would be calling for the immediate lifting of unilateral sanctions that are contrary to international law that the European Union has imposed on this sovereign state and its people. They would be demanding that the United States of America do the same right away. It is the peoples and their rights who suffer the harmful effects of this criminal sanctioning policy. We repudiate any external interference in Nicaragua, the continued destabilisation and the attempt by the United States of America and the European Union to regain imperial control of the country. We express our support for the promotion of dialogue for the political and peaceful resolution of the problems of the Nicaraguan people and their struggle in defence of their sovereignty and independence and the Sandinista Revolution.

Mr President, 1 June is World Children's Day, the date on which Portugal marks the defence of children's rights. It is never too much to renew the strength of the almost secular proclamation that all children have the right to affection, love and understanding, adequate food, medical care, free education, protection from all forms of exploitation and to grow up in a climate of peace and fraternity. States are responsible for formulating universal and structural policies that guarantee these principles and ensure the integral development of children, mobilising the resources and instruments necessary for their implementation. Strengthening children's rights means strengthening the rights of their parents, ending job insecurity, deregulation of working hours, low wages and high costs of essential goods and services. It means enforcing and extending maternity and paternity rights. Children have the right to grow up happily and their families have the right to keep up with their growth. Children need to play and be children. This is still a daily struggle.

Madam President, several products in Portugal are registered as protected names or geographical indications. In addition to wine from different regions and other spirit drinks, in the list we can find other agricultural products, such as potatoes, rice, olives, bananas or cherries, various types of sausages and cheeses, such as Serra or Ilha, traditional confectionery such as Loriga black cake, among many other products of superior quality, extraordinary flavor and that convey local traditions. Productions with a geographical indication and designation of origin must be unequivocally protected. While the promotion of these products is essential, it is also essential to simplify the process for registering and obtaining the status for new products by providing technical and financial support to producers who wish to do so. Similarly, we must not forget the income of small farmers and producers throughout the production chain who contribute to the final product, while also avoiding overburdening them with unnecessary and unjustified expenses.

Madam President, at the end of last year, the Commission recognised the impacts on households of rising interest rates, minimising them by the alleged predominance of flat rates. They omitted the expected differentiated impacts that would weigh more heavily on countries with a predominance of variable rates, as in Portugal. Last Friday, Christine Lagarde said she knew that families in countries such as Portugal, Spain and Finland were suffering from these decisions, but reiterated that interest rates would continue to rise. It is the consequences of the neoliberal precept of the false independence of institutions without democratic scrutiny that serve the interests of financial capital and harm workers and peoples. In Portugal, hundreds of thousands of households are struggling to pay their mortgage instalments. There is no shortage of dramatic testimonies of the choice between eating or paying the rent, or even of those who have to hand over the house to the bank. We must put an immediate end to this film. The right to housing must be defended. Banks' profits must be made to pay for these increases.

Mr President, two years after the Porto Social Summit, we can ask: Do people live better? Do Americans live better? No, they don't live. As regards the fight against poverty, while the objectives of the action plan that emerged from this summit were already unambitious in 2021, it is now more than proven that they are clearly insufficient. There are more and more people in poverty, more and more impoverished in work, precariousness continues and austerity lurks. And, as we have always said, the proclaimed directive on adequate minimum wages has only legitimized the perpetuation of the impoverishment of those who work. Another question: Do public services meet people's needs? What we have seen is the continued systemic disinvestment in the National Health Service and public school. Added to this is the increase in the cost of living that plagues people's daily lives, from going to the supermarket to energy bills, to household services. What is needed is control and pricing of essential goods, ensuring better wages and pensions, valuing those who work and investing in public services rather than protecting the profits of economic groups.