Speeches

Madam President, as of now, at least 2 361 Palestinians have died of malnutrition, and more than 2 000 were murdered trying to reach food distribution. Everyone in the world with a smartphone can see images of starving people, starving children on their phones. It is heartbreaking and disgusting to watch, and it is impossible to talk about this famine without talking about the intent of Israel: it's genocide. It is disgusting to watch because the European Commission, European governments like the German one, and also many people here in the room are still choosing to be complicit instead of doing the obvious thing: impose sanctions, suspend the Association Agreement, and stop selling weapons to kill defenceless people who have lived in an open-air prison for decades. We are living and shaping a historic moment when international cooperation falls apart on so many levels, but everyone here has a choice, and the Commission has a choice: to fulfil your obligation to prevent genocide.

Madam President, on the occasion that I have been here for one year now, I want to speak about deadlines. Of course, nobody likes them, but some cannot be avoided – especially if they are physical or biological deadlines. In 2019, the Parliament voted for declaring a climate and environmental emergency. But where is the emergency mode for climate action to prevent literal climate breakdown? I know the Commission's emergency mode actually exists, but only to rip apart Green Deal policies or to throw money at the military and arms industry faster than the speed of light. At the same time, the Commission is able to act; it has the support of majorities in the public for climate action. But after one year here, I feel that the Commission is knowingly – knowingly – committing murder-suicide, and I do not want to be complicit in it by staying silent.

Mr President, we are in the sixth mass extinction of species, and the last time Earth faced a mass extinction, three out of four species went extinct. It isn't too late to turn things around, but the meeting in Rome showed that there is still a massive finance gap – somewhere between USD 300 billion up to USD 1 trillion per year, according to the International Expert Panel on Biodiversity. Harmful subsidies make up USD 1.8 trillion each year globally. Commissioner, you have to remove those subsidies here in the EU. You cannot allow corporations that destroy life to make endless profits for their private owners while leaving the public to pay for restoration or for pollution. The reason that we cannot raise this money to protect ourselves is that billionaires are richer than ever before in human history, and they use that money to influence politics and continue their destructive business. You have to act against the corporate capture of the institutions. We must value the carefree lives of the billionaires less than the lives of billions of life forms – human and non-human.

Mr President, it is crucial that the vision mentions 'operating within planetary boundaries'. And to remain within those planetary boundaries, we have to stop the continuous growth of resource consumption and nature destruction. However, one of the main ideas is increased growth and competitiveness. Trade agreements like EU-Mercosur will make it really hard for most farmers to sustain their livelihoods and favour big agribusiness instead. So, where is social justice? Will the EU continue dumping our tax-paid-subsidised food in Western Africa and continue to destroy local farmers' incomes in other countries and then force them to give up farming? There also isn't any credible mention of ending industrial livestock farming to reduce the damages on ecosystems, water and the greenhouse gas emissions. This has to be done, and farmers who have been pushed into that direction for the last decades absolutely must have support to make that change.

Madam President, the EU-Mercosur agreement is designed to enrich the bosses of corporations in Frankfurt or Buenos Aires, at the expense of locals and farmers in the countryside on both sides of the Atlantic. It is a deliberate attack on workers' rights, on indigenous communities, on family farmers, but also on entire ecosystems and a stable climate. This agreement has already derailed the EU's deforestation regulation. It is also a blueprint for further deregulation pushed by the Commission. Everything for the wealthy and no rules to prevent exploitation. Instead, this deal plants the seeds of famine. This deal is expanding the same destructive agriculture that pollutes soils, water and atmosphere that impoverishes farmers and peasants for the profits of agribusiness. Our biodiversity is crashing and temperatures are rising and this deal means racing faster towards the abyss. We have to stop this deal and listen to the proposals of small-scale farmers and agricultural unions in the EU and in the Mercosur countries. They do not want this deal.

Mr President! Seven months ago, the Berlin Supreme Court extradited a person, Maja T., to Hungary, and last week, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld Maja's complaint, stating that the extradition is a serious encroachment on Maja's fundamental right, which is still ongoing. The explanatory memorandum explicitly mentions the inhumane treatment in Hungary, which violates the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. France and Italy have decided against extradition to Hungary in similar cases. Maja T. has been in solitary confinement for seven months, and 15 days have already been tortured, according to the UN. In the cell there are cockroaches and bedbugs. The documents for the trial have not been translated. I myself have visited Maja twice, and the judicial officials have also told me that the conditions of detention were ordered from above, I think, because Maja is accused of an anti-fascist act. The demand for 24 years in prison is also political. I call on all European Member States not to extradite any more people to Hungary, because we know what the conditions of detention there are. I call on the German government to bring Maja T. back as soon as possible.

Mr President! I must say that this debate also fills me with an insane amount of anger, because there are thousands of victims whose remains lie on the bottom of the Mediterranean. People on the run who were left to die by the EU and whom no one saved when they were still alive. This crisis is the result of the policy of isolation decided in these halls. It's a disgrace! I myself, while working on the ship, reported the corpses so often to the Coast Guard, and they never really feel like picking up the corpses, taking the DNA, identifying the people or simply burying the corpses properly. There are thousands and thousands of families in Africa looking for their relatives. These people could all – all – have been saved alive if the EU chose a sensible, state-funded sea rescue mission. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the hundreds and thousands of Red Crescent volunteers in Tunisia and Libya who take care of the bodies that are being washed up there.

Madam President, A few days ago we experienced the dystopia in which truth and lies dissolve completely into thin air. The head of the AfD claimed in a conversation on X with Elon Musk that Hitler was a communist. In the process, communists were murdered by the Nazi regime in thousands in camps. Basically, however, the problem is that X does not moderate contributions at all very systematically and the algorithms increase the reach of right-wing extremist contributions. In Germany, we urgently need to advance the AfD ban procedure. But here in the EU, I expect the Commission to act resolutely against hatred and hate speech on all platforms and to take all possible steps to combat it. Digital Services Act exploited. Germany is on the verge of election. Therefore, the EU must enforce an urgent procedure against X and ensure that no disinformation campaigns or election influence from abroad, such as from Musk, but also from Russia, are implemented via this platform. The Commission can sanction with fines or shut down the platforms if the problems with moderation persist. Brazil has shown us this. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has turned Twitter into a propaganda platform. Musk is currently special adviser on state cuts for Donald Trump, who ordered a violent attack on the Capitol and US democracy four years ago and has openly said in the current election campaign that there should be no further elections. He's going to turn the U.S. into an autocracy, and X is going to help him do that. If the EU acts like the two administrations – too slow, too cautious, without exhausting all legal means – the result is: More anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim women's and transphobic hatred, more violence not only online, but also on the streets. Democracy must defend itself and the Commissioner is responsible for it.

Madam President, for weeks, Serbian students have been protesting at their government's corruption. Serbia is a candidate member to the EU, and we should be watching closely why people are so angry. I have recently visited Majdanpek in eastern Serbia. A Chinese copper mine operates less than 1 000 m away from the town. The air is heavily polluted – you can feel it. Citizens suffer from cancer. Last summer, people didn't have tap water for two months. The public around this mine and other mines don't have access to independent information about air pollution or water pollution. They do not know where the mine is going to expand to. Environmental regulations and procedures freedom of information – it exists only on paper. The current Serbian Government does not care about protecting its own citizens, and we have to support the public and say very clearly… (The speaker concluded in a non-official language)

Madam President, every child knows why many parties wanted to discuss fusion energy today: the aim is to delay action against climate breakdown. The debate we should have is what we must do right now to end the use of fossil fuels by 2030. There is no point to wait for fusion energy to possibly become a reality in several decades from now. The world has already heated up 1.5 degrees. Everyone in the EU Commission should be in emergency mode, proposing action right now. Instead, you are forcing us to talk about the magic unicorn of fusion energy. I would say to the Commission: you are not doing your job; you are failing the public. You're not even trying to make a credible effort to prevent climate breakdown, nor the irreversible damage to our ecosystems. You should provide service to the public instead of being servants to the corporate energy business.

Mr President, I am not interested in a competition about how European companies and corporations can destroy the living planet even faster than they are already, causing more pollution, more health problems, more environmental destruction and more poverty. The aim of our economy must be fair distribution within ecologically and physically safe limits, and we have already crossed the planetary boundaries for fresh water, land use, climate change and biosphere integrity. We are also on the edge of social tipping points, because no version of green capitalism provides solutions to reverse the exploitation and impoverishment of people for the profits of corporations. What we need are limits to greed and ecological destruction. Business as usual, in the form of the Green Deal and green capitalism, are no solutions to the existential crisis we are in.

Mr President, I was shocked to read that the EU ambassador to Argentina plans to advance dirty deals for fracked gas and lithium mining in Argentina. I wonder if the ambassador has actually visited the communities affected by pollution of water, air and soils due to that mining and fracking. Because I have visited Jujuy and also Vaca Muerta, and I can say that in Vaca Muerta lung diseases, cancer, leukaemia are sky high. The fruit orchards cannot be used anymore. The fruit is hanging on the trees. It can't be eaten. In Jujuy, indigenous community rights are constantly and systematically being violated. People have not given consent. There is no free, prior and informed consent as in the Escazú Agreement. There is a repression of citizens who are protesting against the change of the constitution. I think it is shameful. If these deals are going ahead, they must be stopped because there is no consent.

Mr President, on behalf of my delegation and The Left Group, I extend my condolences and solidarity to the communities affected by the catastrophic floods across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over 20 people have died in Bosnia already, with many still missing. The floods caused by Storm Boris a few weeks ago across central Europe killed many more. The storm in the US, called Helene, killed even more, and 11 000 people died in Libya last year. At the same time, the EU was spending EUR 123 billion on fossil fuel subsidies. So these are not natural phenomena. We shouldn't just mourn these irreplaceable lives as if there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it. The fossil fuel-powered deadly storms shouldn't be called Boris or Helene. They should be called Storm TotalEnergies or Storm RWE or Killer Flood Eni. The people who were killed and were lost in the communities, they have been lost to a crime that is committed by the fossil corporations for the interests of profits over people's lives, and the EU and our regulations here, we are complicit in that and we are driving that climate breakdown. I don't know how people in Bosnia could accept our sincere apologies, knowing that every day we are driving the breakdown of the climate system. Because we're not doing enough. We are still driving disaster capitalism just for the interests of fossil corporations. This really has to stop. We can never normalise the loss and the deaths of people.

Madam President, I want to share a story of inspiration and hope from Italy. Three years ago, the automotive supplier GKN decided to close its production plant close to France and dismiss 800 workers. They called a prominent workers' assembly and occupied the factory. Here it becomes interesting – because they didn't ask GKN to keep producing car parts; they decided to convert the factory into a production site for cargo bikes and solar panels. When I met them last year, they asked me to share this message with you, because they want a new regulation across Europe to support workers. Every time when a corporation decides to close a factory and the workers are at risk to lose their jobs, the workers should have the right to propose a conversion plan and move forward on their own terms in this factory. Yes, this is radical, but needed. We can't continue to build cars as if there was no climate crisis. The workers know that, and that is why we as legislators should provide them the possibilities to lead this ecological conversion.

Madam President, nations are meeting in Colombia to discuss how to stop the destruction of ecosystems, the loss of biodiversity and the pollution of land, air and water. The EU Commission is proposing a financial market to trade biodiversity credits and certificates, and they will be used for offsetting. But all of us know that carbon offsets haven't worked at all. They're rubbish. They're greenwashing in 90 % of all cases. So why on earth would we introduce a biodiversity offsetting market? What is the point of saying one koala is equivalent to fifteen hamsters or four flamingos and possibly the tail of an elephant? Is it to confuse everyone and prevent meaningful, rapid action? Or is it to make bankers more money? What we need is a binding limit on nature destruction, not greenwashing.

Madam President, in 2021, the new German Government coalition announced progress. But the closure of the Schengen borders is a regression towards a past which we saw long gone, a past of separation and nationalism. I and many Europeans – and particularly young people – we work for a future where we will take down the walls and border fences that divide us and be united, not only with our Schengen neighbours, but with all humans on equal terms. We will unite across land and seas for justice. And our aim isn't a European Union as a neocolonial walled fortress for the privileged few who by chance hold the right passports. We strive to repair past harm and to build a community of people. And our community won't be divided by borders and fences.

Mr President, I would like to raise a point on Serbia, since it is a candidate to become an EU Member State. In August, over 120 000 people protested at a planned lithium mine, a project by the Australian company Rio Tinto, which is infamous for its horrendous environmental record. The scale of these environmental protests has led to escalating state-led repression by the Vučić government, with activists facing smear campaigns, unlawful arrests and increased surveillance. On 11 August, during the biggest environmental protests in Belgrade, three people were arrested and sentenced for 30 and 40 days, respectively, of prison on the same day, just to suppress the protests. Over the course of the next ten days, 33 arrests were made. The most frequent charge was calling for violent change of the constitutional order, which in Serbia means up to 15 years in prison. The government's crackdown is a clear reaction to the growing democratic energy of the protest. I remind you that this Parliament passed a resolution last year on the unlawful election of Vučić. Serbians have a right to clean air and clean water. They have a right to protest. They have a right to a democracy.

Let me sum it up: The countries of the global north have historically emitted 92% of greenhouse gases. Germany, the country where I was born, has produced the fourth highest emissions in the world, and we really don't have the fourth largest population by far. In other words, Germany specifically has an extremely large responsibility. I can tell you that as a trained ecologist, I am really committed to it, especially for agriculture that preserves biodiversity.

Mr President, we talk about EU climate and agricultural policy as if it were a solution to the existential crisis we face. But the fact is, the opposite is true. EU policy is a massive driver of climate breakdown and extreme weather events. EU fossil fuel subsidies were, on average, EUR 56 billion per year between 2015 and 2021. Last year, EU fossil fuel subsidies were EUR 123 billion. So even now the EU is subsidising the destruction of life on Earth. EU agricultural subsidies favour agribusiness over small and medium-scale farms. EU policies and trade deals like Mercosur destroy the possibilities of farmers to sustain their families around the globe. Given these absurd and dangerous policies, asking farmers to produce grain or apples is akin to asking them to produce miracles.

The European Union and, of course, to different degrees, specifically people with high incomes, corporations are responsible for the vast majority of emissions. Germany, for example, the country where I come from, historically has produced the fourth‑highest emissions. We as European citizens have a responsibility to act. We cannot blame others. We have to do both – we have to urgently mitigate so we can adapt.

Madam President, let me say the obvious: adaptation to five or four or three degrees and the breakdown of ecosystems is plainly not possible for our societies. How can we even ask families to adapt to the loss of their loved ones, just for the profits of the fossil corporations, which are making historic profits at this point? Eighteen people have died now in Europe and 11 000 last year in Libya. This is climate crime by the fossil corporations against society. To prevent disasters and to be able to adapt, we need to shut down the fossil fuel industry and we need to do it quickly. You all know it. We need to shut down, nationalise and socialise fossil corporations and use their money to pay for the damages. Unless we hold fossil corporations to account and make them pay for their crimes and these damages, past and present, in Europe and the Global South, we will not be able to adapt.