Speeches

Mr. President, what a scandal! You can't do business with politics. But who do some MEPs think they are? Gods? We are representatives of our peoples, not sellers of votes or influences. Ethics, responsibility, integrity at work and, above all, transparency must be the way to exercise our mandate. Our political group denounced corruption practices many times. He denounced that we were being harassed by many lobbies. And the big groups did nothing. There are foreign interferences such as those of Qatar, Morocco, Israel or Turkey. This is nothing new, ladies and gentlemen. We already demand a commission of inquiry and zero tolerance against corruption. By the way, I am very surprised that the Spanish People's Party is not present in the House today. I'm very surprised. M. Rajoy.

Mr President, how much cynicism and, above all, how much hypocrisy in this House. When I left, in 2019, I thought something had improved, and three years later we were still the same or maybe worse. There is no European disembarkation protocol, there are no legal and safe routes, NGOs continue to be criminalised and, above all, the criterion of the first port of disembarkation has not been removed. That's totally immoral. I've been lucky enough to have been on a rescue ship. And I say luck, because I've seen tragedy on the front line. I've seen Libya's coast guard deter the ship Open Arms when we were wandering for ten days, until the Spanish state gave the authorization to enter the port of Barcelona after being denied in the ports of Malta and in the ports of Italy, with a populist government in Italy, and even more populist is that of now. Therefore, these speeches by these people on the far right are immoral and we have to put it that way, Commissioner. Both the Commission and the Council cannot be allowed to fail in this new attempt and to continue to criminalise those who save lives, work that is decent and deserves our respect.

Madam President, first of all, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur, despite criticism from the far right in this House, which is not present, by the way. They come, they listen, they let go of their roll and then they do not stay when it is necessary to stay out of respect for the debates and all the ideologies present here. So, first of all, we value positively strengthening multilateralism in the region and stability. But while we're talking here, there's something going on. Turkey is bombing Rojava, it is bombing civilians who have fought ISIS terrorism. While we are here, rights are being violated in Palestine. I know this well because I was kidnapped by Israel in the international flotilla. Ladies and gentlemen of the EPP who have just spoken: Israel is not a rule of law. Israel is a state that engages in illegal occupation. We therefore need - and I am writing to the Commission - democratic clauses in the agreements and full respect for human rights. Human rights continue to be violated in the region, violated in Yemen, violated in Palestine, violated in the Gulf. We need clear democratic clauses in these agreements. Otherwise, they won't have our agreement.

Madam President, all my support is with the bravery of Iranian women. Protests in Iran and around the world are fuelled by the murder of Kurdish Mahsa Amini, by the murder of children, by opening fire against civilians. No woman should be murdered for what she wears. Women, life, freedom! Control over women’s clothing is an oppression of choice and a form of asserting power over women’s bodies. The same patriarchy and autocratic forces are repressing women in all the world. Ten days ago, I contacted Mr Borrell about the situation of Ana Baneira, a Galician activist arrested at a protest in Iran. Mr Borrell, can you tell me something about this person, about this Galician woman?

Madam President, fighting depopulation, strengthening the economy of the northwest peninsular, improving infrastructure are some of the measures that we have taken years to defend for Galicia on the part of my political party, the Galician Nationalist Bloc: include Galicia in the Trans-European Transport Network European Corridor. But not only does this claim of Galicia exist: Castile-Leon and Portugal also claim this and consider it a strategic infrastructure for the development of the territories. But we must avoid confusing and manipulating with sterile controversies. Pressure through the Atlantic corridor is not incompatible with the Mediterranean corridor and vice versa. They should be treated as two complementary strategic projects of the Spanish State for Europe. Trying to eliminate one at the expense of the other is nothing more than defending the discrimination of territories, in this case the peninsular northwest. Equal treatment between the Atlantic Corridor and the Mediterranean implies an increase in investments in the Atlantic Corridor.

Madam President, goal. FIFA has scored a goal, the goal of money and the goal of corruption. Who cares about the lives of working migrants, women or LGBTI people in Qatar? Of course, FIFA doesn't care. We do care. That is why, last week, the Human Rights Commission organized a hearing with a Qatari minister and several NGOs who came on purpose to talk about the very serious situation, Commissioner. Sport is more than money. We do not like to have relations with a slave, homophobic and macho country. We care about those lives. That is why I support the "Boycott Qatar" campaign, such as this photograph that is being promoted by many groups, including athletes, including football players who defend human rights. Turn off the TV, turn off the TV during the World Cup. Boycott the Qatar World Cup.

Mr President, the resolution on the rise of neo-fascism, neo-fascist violence in Europe has warned that several European parties are openly fascist and xenophobic, inciting hatred and violence in European society, such as the far right of this Parliament that we have just heard. To be racist is to be a coward. Lula, the President-elect of Brazil, says that racism is a disease and that, as president, he would fight racism; It is important to have anti-racist speeches in politics. Racism kills, abuses, blames others, pays less for equal work, uses and abuses, discriminates, uses and mistreats the institutional. Racism is a European problem. In Spain, one in four young people admit to racist behaviour in networks. Educating to combat racism is our duty.

Mr President, I want to send all the support to the workers of the Galician Platform of the Service for Attention to Addiction and Home Care in my country, the SAD, which has been speaking last week in different Galician villages about a collective agreement that goes against their interests. They call for a fair, dignified arrangement that does not make this sector even more precarious. A feminised sector, low-paid work, a key sector in the pandemic. A help sector that has become a business, a job that does not have recognized occupational diseases, in which people are treated like machines and not as essential workers for people who need habitual help. These workers in this Parliament have denounced their cause, calling for fair working conditions. These resolutions of the European Parliament warn of the increase in poverty of these workers and call for an end to their situation, reported on several occasions/actions by the workers of the Home Care Service. We are with you, SAD workers.

Madam President, I would like to remind you that this Sunday marks 20 years since the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker on the Galician coast. The oil spill produced by the rupture of the hull and the negligent management of the government produced a catastrophe with environmental, economic and social damage. The European Parliament has spoken, calling for greater maritime safety in the temporary committee that has been set up here. I remember this tragic event for Europe.

Madam President, these days Regino and his partners, Burela's shipowners of the skewer fleet affected by the Commission's decision, wrote to me, which do not explain how no arguments were presented before to be excluded from this decision. The impact of this measure on more than a thousand ships – four thousand crew – and the impact on the auction halls of my country, Galicia, with the potential loss of sales: It's a mess. With this veto on Galician fishing, hundreds of crew members will lose their jobs and part of their salaries, not only in bottom fishing gear, such as the longline fleet of the Great Sun or the trawl fleet of the northwest Cantabrian Sea, but also in small-scale fishing gear, with 2 100 affected in this fleet segment. They are seafaring people and regions affected by a disproportionate and unfair decision. This veto deserves an urgent suspension: the urgency of bringing an action in Luxembourg. Commissioner, pass it on to the Commissioner, who we have not yet seen, and it is a shame that we have not seen him yet. And there are two problems. The first: The European Commission does not care about fishing. The second: the environmental and economic problem. From the political organization in which I am a member – the BNG – we will always be in favour of preserving environmental resources and biodiversity. But that too has been violated here. The environment, available resources and fishing capacities have been violated, as the social impact has not been taken into account, updated data have not been available, the distinction between towed, bottom, mesh and longline gears has not been made. The Galician fleet has suffered many scraps. There is going to be overfishing and that is going to cause an environmental imbalance. And from here we will always vote against the veto, as we did in 2016.

Mr President, Commissioner, I belong to a feminist party and we therefore want to pave the way for ratifying the Istanbul Convention and welcome the proposal for a directive. In my country, one in four women who suffer from sexist violence is smaller. We need trials of violence, economic, social and labor aid for the victims. I am proud because my party has promoted in the Galician parliament the law of vicarious violence or among couples in which men accuse women through their children. I'm very proud. The far right denies gender-based violence. Aren't you embarrassed, ladies and gentlemen of the far right? We have already said this in this Parliament in 2018 in the resolution on advancing neo-fascism in Europe. Neo-fascism is full of denialists of gender-based violence.

Mr President, Commissioner, I very much welcome this debate, it is a debate that I feel on my skin, since my late father was admitted for bipolar disorder when he learned that my mother had Alzheimer's disease. I never thought I'd be in the shoes of so many families. That is why I support this debate and the Galician movement for mental health. In my country we are below the European average. Psychologists and psychiatrists are lacking in health centres, hospital units for childhood and youth. More than 10 000 Galicians are waiting for a consultation. Prevention is lacking. Last year there were 331 suicides. To fight against alienation, suicide, stigmatization, discrimination, stereotypes, material and emotional deprivation, poverty and indecent work that often causes mental health causes. This is why it is so important to strengthen public health to address mental health. Here and also in my country.

Mr President, the reduction in agricultural activity in my country, Galicia, is one of the main causes of the demographic decline of the Galician countryside. The abandonment of agricultural land, the increase in energy prices, the high dependence on inputs from the foreign market, such as the increase in prices, causes many producers to go through a tremendously complicated situation, without the Galician government worrying. Instead of having corn for the animals, we have eucalyptus, which prevents the possibility of growing cereals at competitive prices. From Strasbourg, I want to express our solidarity with the farmers, producers and farmers of my land, who suffer from the speculative prices of inputs. It costs more to produce and structural measures are needed to reduce dependence on other markets. A country that loves its rural areas must put those who produce at the heart of the recovery of the agricultural system and not replace land producers with speculative macro-enterprises.

Mr President, with the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini, she became the angel of women who are fighting against patriarchal state violence over the world. Women in Iran, Turkey, Palestine, Western Sahara, Kurdistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries. Since they are women, they are subject to violence. They are murdered. The only solution against this organised violence is women’s solidarity that knows no borders in our common struggle for liberation.

Madam President, Commissioner, rapporteur, my country, Galicia, borders the sister nation of Portugal and needs answers that overcome the barriers that limit us and separate us from the social, environmental, cultural and economic reality of which we are part, with better transport links, such as the railway lines between Vigo and Porto. With a joint response to natural disasters, such as fires, the sharing of public, health, educational and cultural services, because it is necessary to remove the obstacles that still hinder life and cross-border cooperation, as happened in the pandemic, closing borders in densely populated areas, with a large movement of workers, with serious economic consequences. On the contrary, I want the rapporteur to meet the living laboratory of cross-border friendship, Eurocidade Cerveira-Tomiño, two municipalities, a joint project. Eurocidade Cerveira-Tomiño participates in the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation of the Minho River, which brings together 26 municipalities of the Minho border between Galicia and Portugal. Eurocity is a new model of cross-border governance, similar to Eurocity Verín-Chaves and others. We want to continue supporting the borderless bridges against the administrative barriers of centralism. This is the Europe of the peoples.

Madam President, I come from an energy-producing country which has the most expensive electricity tariff in the Spanish State and one of the most expensive in Europe. As electricity companies feed their benefits, people suffer the consequences of this energy price crisis. Prices go up, household money goes down, prices go up and workers, small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed lose their quality of life and their chances of survival. The cold is coming, the winter is coming. We need urgent public intervention in the electricity market. I have just come to Parliament in this parliamentary term and I thought that this debate would have taken place much earlier and it is a debate that comes late, because there are many families who have stayed by the wayside, like some farmers in my country, who are closing down agricultural holdings because they cannot afford to pay the price of energy.

Mr President, renewable energies, yes, but taking people into account. In the world of renewables, not everything is as beautiful as some want to paint. They seem to forget a fundamental part: their fitting into the territory, the productive saturation concentrated in a territory, as happens in the territory of Galicia by land and by sea, can have very negative environmental consequences. Also for other productive activities not everything is valid. The territory supports what it supports. Energy lobbies have allies very willing to create green discourses, responsible for building and measuring part of the institutional narrative. If some had made the same political effort, moving towards new energy formulas, such as decentralisation, such as the energy sovereignty of Belgian society, where there has been a real revolution in energy efficiency, it would be much better. We in Galicia are complaining to the European Commission about the lack of participation in wind macro-projects.

Mr President, Commissioner, do you know that in Galicia more than 43 000 hectares have been burned by the fires? Almost 2,000 Galicians had to leave their homes this summer. The fire came to the houses. Protected natural spaces have burned, such as the Courel Biosphere Reserve, Valdeorras or the Serra da Barbanza. Devastated, Galicia burned without preventive, material means and with planning failures of the Galician government. A green country that burns. All solidarity for the fire brigades and for the people affected. The European forestry strategy should be based on encouraging the use of indigenous biomass volumes, such as oaks, birch trees, chestnut trees and beech beech trees, and not encouraging large areas of fuel-loaded biomass, such as eucalyptus trees on my land, with a risk of fire transmissibility.

Mr President! I know you from the last term. – Senhor Presidente, peço desculpa pelo atraso porque eu estava a falar com um marinheiro, com um pescador da Galiza, que me estava a contar por telefone o gravíssimo problema de preços que está a sofrer, o gravíssimo problema que têm as classeses populares hoje em dia em todos os povos europeus. Eu volto a ser eurodeputada num momento muito difícil para a Europa. É importante e mais necessário que nunca falar aqui dos problemas das classes trabalhadoras, porque dos povos e das pessoas esqueceu-se esta União Europeia sem alma nem coração. O momento que vivem muitos povos é complicado. Estamos diante do desafio de responder à grave crise económica que provocou a pandemia e a gravíssima crise energética que está causando o aumento excessivo de preços, a inflação e um belicismo selvagem. Parte desta situação atual é consequência da tomada de decisões prejudiciais, medidas económicas de austeridade. As múltiplas crises (O Presidente Retira a Palavra à Oradora)