Speeches

The EU has failed in a sad way with regard to Georgia. Now the people are on the streets because of election irregularities. The EU was unfaithful to its own principles and, in its mere greed for enlargement, did not act sufficiently, did not sting hard, and allowed situations to escalate to this point. Instead of addressing the erosion of democracy in a timely manner, the EU has behaved gently with the ruling party in Georgia. In Georgia, a Russian-style agent law has been blocked, and the country has even gone so far as to threaten the opposition with denial. When a candidate country moves in this direction, it is also a failure of the EU. The case of Georgia serves as a dissuasive example to the EU of how it should by no means operate in relation to other candidate countries.

USD 300 billion each year by 2035. That’s how much money will be ripped off from European and other developed countries as a result of the climate conference. For what? For funding climate work in Africa, for instance. Europe accounts for only eight per cent of global emissions. However, we are told to pay up, while China and India only keep polluting more and more. Once again, we have been fooled. And one thing I cannot understand: how can we agree on financing other countries’ climate goals with these astronomical sums, and at the same time have troubles finding the resources needed to defend our own continent? So let’s not be fools anymore and let’s put our priorities in order. For us Europe must come first.

Madam President, Europe has been living in a dream world for too long. That dream world is called development aid. We've operated on a naive belief that if we were just 'kind' enough, we would earn loyalty; that if we gave enough away, the world would adopt our values. Nothing could be further from the truth. This childish view has cost the European taxpayer hundreds of billions of euros in the last years alone. And what do we have to show for it? We gave away Europeans' hard‑earned money as charity to cultures that often reject everything we stand for. We chose 'feeling good' over doing business. It's time to wake up. Kindness does not buy loyalty in this world – strength and partnership do. If we want influence, we have to stop being a donor.

Mr President, in how many ways is the left trying to prevent Europe from succeeding? I don't know. I have fallen from the bills a long time ago. But one of their long-time favorites has always been, and that's blocking the U.S. trade. "When you buy American fighter jets, you don't," the left shouted. "When you make a deal with Trump, you don't," the left shouted. When Finland recently agreed on a giant icebreaker deal where we sell icebreakers to the United States, this didn't seem to happen to the left either. The left is already calling for a way out of the trade. Apparently, we can't even sell our know-how when the match is the United States. How about the left, should we soon be banned from watching American films as well, as in the Soviet Union, the doctrines of which you still seem to follow in your U.S. policy? But remember, the US won, the USSR lost. It's time for you to change camps, too.

Madam President, Afghanistan was once a Buddhist nation. Pakistan – once Hindu. Lebanon – once a Christian majority. You know what happened? They were conquered by Islam. For years we have been told that mass migration is just a humanitarian phenomenon – something that we just must adapt to. The reality is much more strategic. Modern hybrid warfare does not always involve tanks or missiles. Sometimes the most effective weapon is the flow of people. When millions are directed towards Europe without control, the consequences are severe. Islam has used this method for 1 400 years, and they have no intention of abandoning this method of conquest. When the Islamic movement gains enough strength, it seeks to seize power and establish a caliphate. This is why peace or coexistence between Islamic and non-Islamic societies is impossible.

Mr President, corruption is like poison. It's a poison that too many decision-makers are mistaken to drink. That poison has been drunk and spit in people's eyes here in the EU, too. Some have been caught, some probably not. There's been a Qatar shock and a Huawei shock. Both sides have been suspected of paying EU decision-makers to get a policy they like. Think about it from the voter's point of view. He trusts his only voice to the person who gets to the decision-making position. And this decision-maker then decides to take this dirty money and decides to pursue not the interests of his own voters, but the interests of, for example, Qatar or a Chinese company. If the decision-maker decides to do so, I wish him only one fate, without going to prison through the starting screen.

Madam President, dear Iranian people, I am so sorry. There are genuinely good people in Europe, but this Union is rotten to the core. For decades, EU leaders have watched the prison being built around you. They have appeased your torturers and shaken hands with your male leaders while your beautiful women have been veiled into darkness. Dear Ukrainian people, I am also so sorry for you. Our leaders praise you for sacrificing yourselves for our security, but the lack of help has kept your beautiful people being thrown into Russia's meat grinder for over four years already. In the Iranian case, our stance goes beyond all parody. When the USA and Israel help the Iranian people, and European security, by taking down the regime's killing capabilities, this House shows them the middle finger. Yes, gas prices hurt, but nothing hurts like an Islamist nuclear bomb. That is what we cannot afford. How is it possible that European countries cannot come together and focus on what really matters, instead of letting the EU micromanage everything, down to naming food particles? Let's stop licking the boots of bombers and join the USA and Israel's campaign to free Iran. When Iran is free, I see a beautiful country that Persians will have rebuilt – so beautiful and developed that it could one day join the European Union. But they will never join us, because they will never forgive us – the club that watched them being butchered.

Mr President, when a Finn takes drinking water from a tap, does it need the EU to ensure the quality of its drinking water? When a Finn goes to the toilet, does it need the EU to ensure that wastewater is treated in the right way at the other end of the pipe? When a Finn dips for a swim on a beautiful summer day, does it need the EU to make sure that the snorkel does not get blocked by pollution? No, the Finn doesn't need it, but the Finn hasn't been listened to here before. We are now discussing the Water Directive in order to feed the Member States with new standards for surface water and groundwater. New obligations, which are expected to create additional administrative and financial burdens for Member States. This is politics, ladies and gentlemen. Brussels is handling the affairs of 27 countries in a way that makes sense here. Brussels is pulling that same bathing cap at the head of every one of us. And it's a tightening cap.

Mr President, now all savers are listening. Doesn't that sound great when we talk about developing banks, deposit insurance and resolution capabilities? Deposits are safer and crises are avoided. But the reality is harsh, the Commission wants to save bankrupt European banks on the backs of Finnish savers. It's not really gonna happen to me. If there are banks in the EU that cannot survive, the losses of investors are not borne by Finns. What was warned by the Finnish Parliament? The changes now proposed may lead the Commission to propose to merge national deposit guarantee schemes into a single deposit guarantee scheme in the Banking Union. It's not really gonna happen to me. If it is not possible to guarantee citizens' deposits in the member states alone, it is not up to the Finns to guarantee this. It's a point.

Mr President, I am not in favour of conversion therapies. They cannot achieve what they are trying to achieve. Human sexuality does not change by talking. This is just cheating on yourself. Then there will be a big but. That, but the fact is that banning conversion therapies at EU level is a completely different issue. Do we really want to enter an area where we control interpersonal prayers? At the same time as there is direct evil within religious communities that does not seem to touch EU decision-makers. Seeds of radicalization are sown in mosques. Islam lays the foundation for the oppression of women and forces them to cover themselves up. As far as homosexuals are concerned, there is a prevailing belief in Islamic culture that homosexuals should be stoned to death. So remember, spiritual Christian discourse does not threaten democracy, radical Islam threatens.

Madam President, last week we saw the true face of the EU again – the face of a coward that hides behind diplomacy because it lacks the guts to act when it matters. You once again criticised military intervention in Iran while hiding behind the very security this intervention guarantees. Where is the will to shape outcomes? The readiness to act? Not visible. Because of this, Europe is not a serious power; it is a spectator handing the world to actors like the IRGC, to those who institutionalise violence, export terror and spit on every norm you claim to defend. If Europe wants to be a geopolitical actor, it must act, decide and yes, use force when required. But right now, Europe equals weakness. That's a shame for us and that's a shame for the ordinary people in Iran.

Mr President, Europe's blue-eyedness is matched. Dependence on Russian gas was an expensive lesson in what happens when we bind ourselves to hostile actors. But what do we do now? In the heat of the green transition, you have dismantled functioning energy utilities and built up a new dependency on Chinese critical minerals and technology. These blue-eyed decision-makers in Europe take us first to the ditch and then to the ally. The solution cannot be that Europe moves from dependence on Russia to dependence on Chinese materials and chaines itself to trees when a mine is opened in its own backyard. The green amputation, which has been going on for years, narrows the financial room for manoeuvre of citizens. The implementation of the Green Party programme does not make ordinary citizens happy. The ordinary citizen is satisfied when the peat burns in the boiler, the atom cracks in the reactor and the energy bill is reasonable.

Mr President, serious railway accidents are a tragedy. They remind us that safety is not a given. Every life lost is too much and we have to learn from accidents. However, it should be borne in mind that the maintenance of railways is primarily the responsibility of the Member States. The EU cannot be called to haste when the maintenance of rail networks has been neglected over the years. In my country, Finland, the same trains run over 30 degrees in winter and 30 degrees in summer. From winter to winter, tourists travel a thousand kilometres by rail to Lapland safely. National actors are working hard to achieve this. Security does not come from concentrating on the EU. It comes from ownership and a well-functioning national system. Now work gloves in hand and Member States work for a safer tomorrow.

Mr President, is there really an EU strategy for the prevention and treatment of obesity? If no one else here says this, I'll say: Where is the individual's responsibility? Excuse me, but the EU is not, and will not be, anything supranational about PT-Vata. No EU in the citizens' kitchen to decide what they put on the plate. Carnivore-Kake pulls meat, Riikka Bite green smoothies. If only body positivity could begin to mean valuing a healthy body instead of diabetes and vascular diseases. Less sugar, more exercise and also that spine. For this sedentary worker also got 20 pounds off. If every single problem is outsourced to the EU, then the €55 monthly card for EU membership for the citizen will rise all the time. Talipallo does not melt with new strategy papers, but with the fact that we humans take responsibility for our own lives. Now spring to the chest, up, out and jog.

Madam President, there is an existential threat on our borders. Behind the Mediterranean are masses of people trying to cross into Europe illegally. We can only assume that the scale of this issue will only grow larger in the future. If nothing is done, soon our cities will be overrun, and Europe capitulated without a single bullet fired. European people have called upon their leaders to act to combat this invasion. We are starting to see governments in this continent that take this seriously and implement stricter border policies. We see Frontex working to secure Europe's borders. But what we hear then from the left is the human rights concerns regarding these policies. Is that seriously the issue here? I hope this Parliament and the entire EU understand that access to Europe is not a human right.

Mr President, we need to talk about Georgia, a country on the coast of the Black Sea that is suffering from government oppression and growing Russian influence. It is a country where a leading opposition figure has been arrested for her political views, for denouncing the current government that follows Moscow's line. Georgia is an independent country and should follow the will of its people. We are talking about a nation that under the Soviet Union maintained a strong Georgian identity. Georgia was among the first nations to break free from the Soviet Union. What is happening today feels all too familiar – political oppression, intimidation and strong influence from Moscow that threatens the freedom of the Georgian people. The country escaped this once. The people of Georgia must not be trapped in this prison again.

Mr President, every month, this House calls for the immediate release of imprisoned African opposition figures and condemns atrocities on the continent. Don’t get me wrong: it is good that we condemn them. But the question we should ask is: why do so many of our calls have no influence? The answer is that Europe has been losing its significance. How do we turn this around? We must become militarily formidable, return to being innovators instead of regulators and stop boosting our rivals while they are trying to gain a foothold in developing countries. We should neither push our factories to China nor keep buying Russian energy. The world runs on power and leverage: if we have neither, we become irrelevant. Let’s make Europe matter again.

Mr President, Russia’s two-week 'special military operation' has turned into a four-year nightmare. It is fair to say that they have bitten off way more than they can chew: they’ve suffered over one million casualties. Replacing the endless Russian meat wave is proving difficult for the Kremlin. Being sent to the front lines is a death sentence. Not long ago, thousands of North Korean soldiers were sent to support Russia. But in Putin’s search for more disposable bodies, he’s turning to something very dark: human trafficking. There have been horrifying reports of people in Africa who were tricked into fighting for Russia. They were promised a job or an opportunity, only to find they had been deceived. Their lives had now become worthless and disposable to the Russian war machine. It is a war machine that needs to be stopped with force.

Madam President, Europe was built on the values of democracy and human rights, not on the values of China. European values include the right to privacy and the protection of personal communication. With the European Commission pushing for Chat Control in its different versions, this right has been under attack. Before, we used to send letters and engage in conversations, but the digital evolution has dramatically changed the idea of how we communicate with each other. It is imperative that conversations in the online space are protected just as strongly as traditional methods. We have technology that allows this, such as end-to-end encryption. These must be enforced, not weakened by the politicians. It is our job to make sure that privacy is protected. That is why I say no to Chat Control.

Mr President, it's hammer time: Antifa is a terrorist organisation and this House is a terrorist‑sympathising, spineless creature. You only need to ask MEP Salis, an Antifa activist from The Left. She's grateful for your votes to secure her immunity against charges of a violent hammer attack. Let's have a look at the facts. The Europol report states that EU countries faced 24 jihadist terrorist attacks in one year. Right after the jihadists, come the leftist attacks. Left‑wing and anarchist terrorism accounted for 21 attacks within a year. Then you see here these politicians calling for actions against right‑wing, 'intolerant' and 'extremist' speech. What a bunch of hypocrites you are. I call for action against these leftist terrorists. It is time to designate Antifa a terrorist organisation.

Mr President, the arrest warrant against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is beyond absurd. Even more absurd is the fact that the only country seemingly capable of acknowledging this fact is the United States. Leftists in this Parliament will again have their few seconds in the spotlight, waving their middle fingers at their two arch-enemies, the US and Israel. But the irony is that Israel and the United States have been capable of doing exactly what the International Criminal Court has not. The international community is unable to bring to justice criminals like Vladimir Putin and Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban. But when terrorist organisations like Hamas, Hezbollah and the IRGC cannot be brought to justice, Israel and the United States will bring justice to the terrorists. Let us not prevent justice being done.

Madam President, Europe must come up with policies that improve our relationships with our trading partners. But unfortunately, the leftists keep pushing for something else: diversity policies, anti-poverty regulations, Green Deal and other socialist fantasies. The leftists hate the reality we live in. The reality is that a strong Europe is Europe with strong trade relations with the United States. Let me tell you what the leftists want instead: The Left Group tried to change a text of this House by an amendment that stated that the EU should reinforce our trade relations with BRICS countries to reduce dependence on the United States. So instead of the United States, the leftists want stronger trade relations with countries like China, Russia and Iran. I ask you: have you lost your mind?

Madam President, Europe as we know it is dying. Try being a tourist in Paris, Rome, Berlin, even Brussels or Stockholm. Imagine someone buying a trip to Europe and in their imagination there is the beautiful, famous Old Continent. Tourists expect seeing world famous paintings, tonnes of history and stunning architecture. They will see all of that, that is for sure, but they will also see something else: barricades protecting Christmas markets, patrolling soldiers armed with automatic rifles and no‑go zones inside our famous capitals. 'What has happened to Europe?', the tourist asks. Mass migration happened. Have you leftists thought that with your catastrophic migration policy, you are also sinking one of the most vital industries we have in Europe: tourism. I have a suggestion to help the European tourism industry: let's deport all illegal migrants.