Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, when I hear that the European Commission has ambitious programmes, I am afraid because I would prefer the projects to be a little less ambitious and a little more realistic, a little more balanced. I was the mayor before I was a Member of the European Parliament and, together with my colleagues, I spent years explaining to citizens how to do separate waste collection well. Now that so many countries have met their recycling targets, let's say: no, no! We change everything, we change the habits of all European citizens, but above all we create a problem for production. And here we are talking about agriculture, the food production chain, catering. Those who, out of ignorance or bad faith, will consent to this umpteenth ecofollia will strike a mortal blow at the economies of Europe, such as the Italian economy, which invoices 600 billion euros a year, with 1.3 million companies and 3.6 million employees. Let's think about it.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, my region of Tuscany, where I come from, has been plagued by bad weather in recent weeks. There were eight deaths! Tuscany, which many of you know, with its artistic beauties, with its great people, is now on its knees; families have flooded houses, many companies have lost everything, the damage amounts to more than 300 million euros. That is why I call on the European Commission to activate the Solidarity Fund, as it has very often been activated in the past in cases like this. Help our Tuscany to get up, Tuscany that, with its beauty and its art, has illuminated all of Europe and the world. Help Tuscany get its light back.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, people are afraid. Several people have written to me to know if they can safely take the plane, if they can go to the supermarket, if they can take their children to school. Europe, with its weakness, allowed war to enter our cities. The left said that the terrorists would never arrive on boats and instead here they are. You have continued to support, in the name of the right to freedom of worship, the construction of mosques throughout Europe and, right there, in those mosques, without control, irregular immigrants have become radicalized. We need to make a real difference to this Europe and put stringent counter-terrorism measures in place immediately. Checks are needed in all mosques on the imams' statements. We must immediately stop the construction of new places of worship throughout Europe and expel irregulars. In Italy, imams are saying that Palestinian aggression is resistance. You blow on the fire of hatred and loose dogs are exalted. In Belgium, France and Sweden there are neighborhoods where you can no longer enter. It's late, it's already late, but something can still be done. We must stop being afraid, we must abandon the politically correct. We have to be proud of being European again. We must defend who we are, our Judeo-Christian roots, our national languages, our borders and our values. Only in this way, with the anger and pride of which Oriana Fallaci spoke, will we be able to defend who we are.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in Afghanistan an entire generation has grown up for twenty years believing in change, trusting us as loyal allies and hoping for a modern, secular country, governed by law and not by brute force, and having gained confidence in the future, a future of freedom, albeit in the midst of so many difficulties and so many problems. We betrayed that trust. In the first year of renewed Taliban rule alone, the United Nations counted at least 218 summary executions. Many of them were police officers and members of the Afghan National Army. Many others were civilians, officials and not. Europe has welcomed everyone in recent years, but it has often forgotten who has served alongside our men and soldiers, starting with the Afghan interpreters. Let's always remember: There are no moderate Taliban. We have a moral duty to protect those who have trusted us. Thank you for being here with Ahmad Massoud, brave man. The West should have more courage, it has a lot to learn.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in my own country, Italy, - I am responding to the various accusations that have been made in this House - the rights of homosexuals are respected, as in other European countries, no less. Someone, right here in this House, has made instrumental politics, comparing Italy, a member and founder country, to Uganda, and only for your political instrumentalization. Let me give you some news: Homosexuals are not all leftists in Europe, there are a lot of rightists and there are a lot of center-right ones, proportionally to all the other voters. And those center-right homosexuals do not feel represented by your absolutely instrumental politics and have come to me and the other center-right representatives to denounce how they have been marginalized several times by the LGBTQI left associations because they think differently. This is discrimination! And you don't represent all the homosexuals in Europe, make a reason for it.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a few days ago an Italian judge released three Tunisian irregulars from a repatriation centre, arguing that those treatments are contrary to European standards. This judge shared on social media the signature collections to distrust Matteo Salvini and signature collections so that Europe had to open the doors to migrants by paying them directly the plane ticket to bring them here. Ineffective European standards were not enough. To this insane immigration ideology are added the politicized Italian judges. The defense of borders and our citizens is a battle of civilizations that only the League is fighting to the end. Our government must understand that the European Union will never solve the problem. This Europe is a slave to the left that destroys our economy and promotes invasion. The Meloni government has given Europe confidence, for example in the memorandum with Tunisia, but we have been betrayed. The solution is the 2024 European elections: Only if the centre-right wins and rules compactly, without the deadly embrace of the left, will things change... (The President took the floor from the speaker)

Commissioner, the European Union is a major trading partner of China: the third for exports and the first for imports. So we understand, it is obvious, that China intends to sell, but less to buy, asks for open borders but keeps its borders closed. It is a one-way globalization and this must change. For example, Italy, with the government of the Five Star Movement, signed the memorandum of Belt and Road Initiative Since then, we have increased exports by €3 billion, but China has increased exports by €26 billion. Thus, the trade dumping that the whole of the European Union has suffered in recent years, to the detriment of companies and to the detriment of workers, with the new strategy for the transition green It will only increase, because China has no intention of changing its trade policy or even the ecological transition. So, what are you going to do to prevent dumping from increasing? Then, he has already spoken, rightly, of the investigation that Ursula von der Leyen also announced, but we could not notice it before? Why so late?... (The President took the floor from the speaker)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we often talk about energy sovereignty and food sovereignty, but we should talk more about pharmaceutical sovereignty, a driving force for national and European economies. Most of the active ingredients, as has been said, are produced in China and India. This is alarming for our pharmaceutical safety. If we had a global crisis, for example, many of the life-saving drugs we know of, for example, diabetes medicines, could not save the lives of millions of people in Europe. Unfortunately, the European Union has lost 25% of its funding over the last 20 years, as other countries have invested more: Saudi Arabia, China and the USA. The European Commission's proposal puts EU Member States at a disadvantage because it risks increasing relocations. No to relocations. We protect intellectual property and investment.

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Italy is under unprecedented migratory pressure and is at risk of exploding illegal immigrants, while Europe continues to do well with the borders of others, namely our own. Commissioner Johansson probably didn't even notice, so busy doing the stocking as she is. Germany, probably in the company of other European countries, has funded NGOs to bring immigrants to Italy. It's so good to be good with the boundaries of others. The resources promised to Tunisia have not arrived, if not in small part. Clearly, human rights must be respected. But this did not apply to Erdoğan, to whom we have given more than 20 billion euros over the years. Human rights were not worth it there. We Italians can not carry out pushbacks. Judges have rejected the government's request to send some migrants back to Tunisia because they appeal European standards. Here, the European standards have stewed the Italians. The Italians are fed up and the patience of the Italians will end before the sock of Johansson.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in twenty years Europe has released tens of billions of euros to Turkey for pre-accession funds to the European Union. Sultan Erdoğan used this river of money for his own propaganda, to threaten Europe with migrants, to Islamize the country more and more and to repress human rights. I do not read in the report an acknowledgment of the total failure of the European Union's policies towards Turkey, but only the usual good-will attitude on the possibility of allowing it to enter Europe. Fortunately, the rapporteur, Mr Sánchez Amor, spoke of a dying accession process to Turkey. But you noticed it a little late: The league has been saying that for 20 years. And then, before tomorrow's vote, I advise you to read "La masseria delle laodole" once again, which is the most beautiful novel ever written in history about the Armenian genocide. That Armenian genocide of one and a half million people that Erdoğan continues to deny: He says it's been over a hundred years now, so it's not worth talking about. A part of Cyprus is still occupied militarily and any of you still have doubts that Turkey is not Europe?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Timmermans, I wonder why we are pursuing such masochistic policies in Europe that penalise the jobs of European citizens? I come from Tuscany, I live near Pontedera. In Pontedera there is the Piaggio factory, where the legendary Vespa is produced. Here, they started to produce the electric Vespa. Visitors went to visit the plant and in the production line of the electric Vespa there was almost no one. Will they be on strike? No, they are not on strike, it is that for the electric one needs, in the production line, a third of the workers that would serve for the internal combustion engine. Among other things, the internal combustion engine was born in Tuscany, in Pietrasanta. I wonder what our great entrepreneurs in history – Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Enrico Piaggio – who have created millions of jobs together with many other European entrepreneurs, who have made the history of the world and European economy in this regard, would think? They created jobs, you, who also belong to the Workers' Party, should change party, because you create unemployed!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the solution based on peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians is the only possible solution to the conflict. Certainly, however, we do not get there by accusing Israel and putting it once again in the dock, because to talk about peace it is first of all necessary to re-establish the truth. The failure of the European Union is to have given hundreds of millions of euros for years to the Palestinian Authority without asking for anything in return and without even checking where that river of money actually went. We know well that most of that money ends up in the pockets of the Oligarchs of the Palestine Liberation Organization and still others come to Hamas that turns them into weapons for terror, while the civilian population gets almost nothing. Europe needs to find a new approach, we need control and intransigence. Leftist groups, with the usual ideological approach, call Israel an occupying power. Once again, the European left is ready to justify and finance radical Palestinian groups, denying the right to self-defense exercised by the government of Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East. This is a report that fuels racism against Israel and contains crazy ideas, such as the one promoting the boycott of the products of Judea and Samaria; This practice is reminiscent of the atrocious affixing of signs of infamy to Jewish shops. The creeping anti-Semitism that lingers in some of these amendments is repulsive. We will not vote on this resolution tomorrow. I hope that the moderate line will prevail over certain extremist positions that for years, not firmly condemning Hamas terrorism, have in fact backed it.

Madam President, I would like to appeal to Rule 10 of our Rules of Procedure because an unfortunate event happened in the LIBE Committee on 23 May. We were talking about the events in Cutro, the shipwreck of a migrant boat and 94 deaths; During this session, and therefore an important debate, while the parliamentarians of the centre-right groups were speaking, the German MEP Birgit Sippel showed the middle finger to the centre-right parliamentarians, in great contempt of the victims and of the important topic we were talking about. That is why, Mr President, I would ask you to take steps to restore the good repute of the sittings of the committees of the European Parliament and to sanction the Socialist MEP Sippel.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, trust is fundamental in politics because, if the citizen does not trust the institutions and their representatives, the institutions are less representative and therefore weaker. Corruption has existed since the existence of public power and is one of the most detestable human vices. The Qatargate affair was probably the biggest scandal to hit this Parliament. It is a story that investigators are still investigating but that poses a fundamental question: The European left has always boasted of a certain moral superiority, which is evidently non-existent. The beautiful words such as defense of rights, protection of the last, contrasting injustices are zero against the images of the briefcases swollen with money. Worse, they become hypocrisy. Corruption is a threat to our economy; when companies pay bribes to obtain contracts or to avoid penalties, this can lead to an increase in costs or a decrease in the quality of the products and services offered. The corrupt pollute civilized life and that is why politics has the task and the duty to isolate them, but the solution is not to add rules, quibbles, bureaucracy, so as to make bureaucrats stronger and more powerful, but to simplify the rules for honest people who want to work and test themselves. Simplifying the rules and reducing the weight of the state in the lives of citizens is the solution.

That's exactly what I told you. In the Middle Ages there were no industries, there was no industrial revolution, but it is precisely thanks to the industrial revolution and, let's say it, also thanks to emissions, that progress makes us live up to ninety years and we do not die at twenty. Unfortunately it has contraindications, of course, the industrial revolution has pollution, but without that industrial revolution you would not be here today, we would not have come by car, we would not return home by plane. You want to go back to the Middle Ages, that's the problem. I agree that an ecological transition must take place, but we must do so at the right time, not by impoverishing people, not by degrowth. That's not the answer. The answer is progress.

Mr President, climate change also divides the scientific community: According to some scholars, the transformations of the climate are part of the natural alternation of the phases that make up the history of the world, according to others, they jeopardize the future of the planet. However you see it, it is certain that our society, since the industrial revolution, pollutes more. There are those who say that, in order to respond, humanity must "decrease", as consumption and as lifestyles. They are those of happy degrowth, but when has degrowth ever been happy throughout history? In the Middle Ages no one would discuss CO2 emissions and environmentalists in 1200 would all be unemployed. There are those who say that the human population itself must decrease, because humanity itself is not an opportunity, but a problem. They are the same, not surprisingly, that smear the works of art and everything comes back: It is nihilism. I reject this approach that leads nowhere. The answer to the pollution of the planet is more development, not less. Today we are fortunate to have, for example, robots that collect plastic in the sea and clean up our rivers. We have the engineering of the purifiers, which only fifty years ago were unimaginable. The technological and energy transition can happen, but it must be done in the right time, otherwise we risk impoverishing people and starving them, not overheating. We have the opportunity to live in balance with nature and face climate change without succumbing, the solution is technology, progress, without hysteria and without catastrophism. Between Elon Musk and Greta Thunberg I choose Musk. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Look in Italy we have seen the captain, your captain Carola Rackete, ram the Italian Coast Guard and thus perform an act never seen before. We have seen in Italy in recent months – because you may not know why we are here discussing the emergency in Italy – we have seen 31,000 migrants arrive in Italy precisely because your reception policy would like more and more of them. He attacked the government because they don't get enough? How many do you want in Europe have you not told us, how many immigrants do you want to bring to Europe? Tell that to the citizens. More, more, more and more.

Mr President, the debate on migration is always an ideological battleground. Not even on the title of this debate did you agree and the left wanted to change it because it did not want the word emergency in the title. So does what is happening in Italy seem normal to you? Think that in Italy there is discussion because the left does not want repatriation centers. A regional councillor in Tuscany – and I also heard this evening from the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani – defined the CPRs of the camps as for the Jews, thus offending the memory of the Shoah and of all the people of Israel. Improper comparisons, instrumentalization, ideology only create problems and do not allow us to find solutions. Instead, the way forward is always the same, starting from legality. Irregular immigration causes deaths at sea. I've never heard of an immigrant with a regular visa taking the plane, dying on the trip. That is why joint solutions must be found. Also military operations in defense of legality. European credibility is at stake. Help us stop the smugglers, help us stop the migrants, help us facilitate orderly immigration and help us save lives in the Mediterranean. There is a need in Europe to firmly reaffirm the right of member countries to decide who can enter our home. We must be able to welcome those who want to work and integrate. There is no room for others. It is a cultural, economic and social battle. Europe must return to defending its roots, its values and its borders and it can do so precisely by helping Italy, where European culture has its ancient roots. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what is discrimination? The dictionary says that it is a distinction made following a judgment or classification. And do you know what the paradox of this anti-discrimination directive is? The paradox is that this directive has too many classifications but not enough. For example, to the abbreviation LGBTQ you had to add the "plus" because you had finished the letters of the alphabet to classify diversity. But the world is made up of diversity, of individuals, each different from the other. And how will you classify them all in your tables? Inevitably, someone will stay out and end up discriminated against. What do most of the world's constitutions say? That all men are equal? Let us return to this principle that is shareable and sacrosanct and let us try to give everyone equal opportunities, which does not mean ad hoc laws for every individual in the world. Standards must be general and abstract in order to work. States have blocked this directive because the problems of implementation are concrete and those concrete problems are those that citizens face every day and which politics should deal with more.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, two months ago one of the most dangerous bosses of the Italian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested. An important achievement that must be dedicated to the memory of the law enforcement agencies that lost their lives to fight crime. Two above all: Falcone and Borsellino, martyrs of the mafia massacres. Today, organised crime acts in an increasingly branched manner and uses new technologies. But as always he does business exploiting the weakest: Vulnerable and blackmailable immigrants are most often employed as labourers in European cities. Crime first asks him for €8,000 or €9,000 to get to Europe and then continues its chain of exploitation. Many of them end up doing cheap jobs, without a contract and in the worst cases end up on our streets begging, stealing, selling or prostituting themselves. This is why the Italian government recently decided to increase the penalties for smugglers up to 30 years in prison. Those who make money on the skin of the weakest do not deserve indulgence. To combat crime, we must have confidence in the law and especially in those who are responsible for enforcing it. Just criminalize our police forces, as the left has done in recent years. Our policemen need support and resources.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago the red flags of the former Soviet Union were flying over Russian tanks invading Ukraine. An unequivocal message to the whole West, an attack on freedom, on the territorial integrity of a sovereign state. Europe had to stand up, and we stood up for the freedom, sovereignty and dignity of the Ukrainian people. Twelve months later, however, the risk of the conflict turning into a perpetual freeze is high. A very dangerous situation, which we must avert, for Ukrainian civilians, the first victims of this war, and for our companies and our citizens, who are suffering from the rise in bills and goods. Could Europe have done more to achieve the goal of peace? If the solution to accelerate the conflict was to send more weapons, why didn't we do it right away? I think that the diplomatic solution and also the diplomatic path must be followed and we must work on it together. The forward escapes of the first of the class do not guarantee the promotion of the whole class, but only the awareness that, once again, it is divided. And that is really Putin's goal.

Mr Bartolo, however, your words are certainly ideologised, because you know very well that putting rules on NGOs means putting rules also on the protection of migrants. Who, in your opinion, should take care of the reception, of private NGOs, which in many cases have also been investigated for having then taken undue money to collect as many migrants as possible? These are sea smugglers, they are not people who save migrants. To save migrants it is necessary to implement policies in the countries of origin and not to take the whole of Africa. Because all of Africa, Mr. Bartolo...

Thank you Silvia Sardone for allowing me to respond to some of the speeches that have been made in this House. Perhaps Mrs Strik and other colleagues are not informed about what happened in Italy. Mimmo Lucano was not condemned because he is on the left and therefore he was a champion of justice. He was condemned because with the money destined to the reception we made the villa, because he distracted the money destined to the reception and other myths of the left, unfortunately, perhaps your Italian colleagues did not inform you, they steal the money destined to the reception to put them in their own pockets, such as the Soumahoro case. So please find out more, because these myths of yours do not do a good service to the European left.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let us start with the title of this debate on the criminalisation of rescue at sea. Do you think that laying down rules means criminalizing? Let me give you an example: On board ambulances there are doctors and volunteers who save millions of lives every day, yet, rightly, they are subjected to rules, protocols, procedures. No one would ever dream of saying that we must remove any kind of rule, because the rules save lives and help everyone to manage our coexistence in a more orderly way. Why should NGOs at sea be an exception? That the presence of NGOs at sea is a factor of attraction is scientifically proven. Lately there has been a joint study by scholars from the University of Turin, Cagliari and Houston that confirms this. Migrants, if they are comforted by the presence of NGOs at sea, leave with less safe means and precarious boats, thus increasing the possibility of shipwreck. The duty of a good minister and a good ruler is to protect the security of a country. Matteo Salvini is on trial for having defended the borders of Italy and therefore of Europe, for having rendered a service to Europe. At trial, however, there should go all those NGOs that agree with the smugglers to land irregular immigrants on our coasts. To have private bodies such as NGOs manage immigration is to sign off on the failure of European policies. Politics goes back to politics, to defending borders and its citizens. Otherwise, those citizens who think that this Europe is useless or, at worst, harmful to our security are right. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today in the Italian press finally comes the news of the closure requested by the judges of Milan with regard to the investigation into Russian funds to the League. We have always supported it: The League, Matteo Salvini have never seen a ruble, but here in Europe there was someone on the left who wanted to find the friends of the Russians, he wanted to accuse us of international corruption, when instead there was corruption at home. Someone should apologize and I am happy that the League's position in recent years has always been firmly in favor of the Western bloc to support the Ukrainian people, unjustly the victim of a military invasion. This is the position of the Italian government. I am proud, in this sense, that the new center-right government has given a very clear signal, promoting the working group "Ukraine electrical emergency", which has already had 53 tons of material to rebuild the country's electricity grid, fundamental to ensure the survival of Ukrainians. We agree with the establishment of the Special Tribunal for crimes committed by the Russian side, because the massacre of civilians, women and children must always find justice, in the hope that a peace agreement will soon be reached in 2023.