Speeches

Mr Colleague, perhaps this is due to your party affiliation, that you regard as successful what the Commission is doing here and what this Parliament is clapping for. I do not think that it is successful to buy COVID-19 vaccines here, to keep the contracts with Pfizer secret and not even to inform Parliament afterwards. I don't know if you were in the Bundestag. I have been there for two legislative periods, and the debates are quite different if the opposition can table motions – legislative motions – there is a very different way of discussing the matter. So there's a lot more democracy, a lot more transparency. I'm sure we won't get together. You are right on one point: Many colleagues criticize this. I was very surprised that even a colleague from the Greens wanted to say in principle the same thing as I did, namely that we urgently, urgently need a right of initiative for the legislation.

Dear Mr Simon, thank you very much for this question. This was rhetorically clever, but completely wrong in the matter. Like me, you know – at least I hope – that we do not have a right of initiative on the laws. We can ask the Commission to make a contribution, but that is completely out of the question. We are the Parliament here, we represent the citizens – and not the Commission. And that should be changed. That's what I meant by what I said.

Madam President, Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if we are to be quite honest, we must admit that this so-called reform is actually just a fog candle. For years, the Commission has been doing what it wants, and we, the Parliament, are only the fencing guests who are supposed to give a democratic touch to all the hustle and bustle. This is best expressed by the behaviour here in Parliament: Commission representatives have five minutes of speaking time, and regularly spend another five minutes talking for ten minutes, i.e. more than ten elected MEPs with millions of votes behind them. And Ursula von der Leyen when we wanted to remove her? She brought her Claqueure in here. The staff of the Commission sat here in Parliament. There is nowhere in the world. At most, guests are allowed to sit in the grandstand and are not allowed to clap. We have no right of initiative, we cannot introduce laws, the rights of the opposition are castrated. The Commission negotiates important agreements in secret, and if we want to question them or criticise them, it is censored outside with the help of Soros ‑NGOs and OCCRP ‑Media. Reform is urgently needed. We really need to change that – with real reform and not just sham reform.

Madam President, Just one representative of the CDU complained here that housing in Germany is expensive and that this is a reason for poverty in Germany. This is the CDU that caused this. It was a chancellor of the CDU who opened the borders barn-wide, let millions of migrants into Germany – a small lesson in a market economy: Increasing demand automatically leads to an increase in prices. And not just that. It was also the CDU that repeatedly voted for the nonsensical embargoes against Russia that led to prices rising...

Madam President, So, the EU now wants to fight poverty, creating it itself; This is best seen in Germany. The formerly rich, industrially tart country now had to recoup 107 billion euros in debt in order to implement the agenda that comes here from Brussels. The poison comes from Brussels. Take a look at what we spent the money on: €50 billion for migration, another €16 billion for nuclear phase-out, €18 billion for EEG support, and support for electromobility – these are all green dreams, which in turn came from Brussels – and another €15 billion for Ukraine. And that doesn't even include all the war funding you are planning and operating here. We don't need that, dear friends. We need strong, sovereign countries that are committed to citizens, to their needs, not to a globalist agenda.

Mr. Kaliňák, you are talking about these pensions, about subsidies. Here a green colleague Freund from Germany made such a viral video, where he stood in front of the villa Amonra, and there he also criticized how these subsidies are being misused in Slovakia. You represent Robert Fico's government here? Could you explain how it is?

Mrs Laššáková, you spoke about the former government and Slovakia is now being criticised. I wanted to ask: We know that the former government suppressed the demonstrations in the times of the Corona. Batons, tear gas were used, protesters were beaten. Even the former president of the police, Lučanský, died in custody. This was the case under the previous government. How is it now in Fico's reign? Does it also suppress anti-government demonstrations in this drastic way?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. At the request of the Socialists, we should discuss the rule of law in the USA – what a mockery! It is precisely this European Parliament that has refused to discuss this week what the European Commission has done in the last ten years. Namely: For ten years, the European Commission has censored legitimate political opinions and facts, while also paying the media to defame EU critics. We receive this information from Washington, the United States; This was done there, as opposed to here. We are refusing to discuss and prefer to speak in plenary about two-year-old Draghi reports or about the inclusion of Andorra and San Marino – yes, that is important to us. You're bothered that Trump is finally proving that you've been lying for years: Remigration is possible, deportations are possible. We also need ICE in Europe. We need to crack down and deport the criminal aliens. That's a role model that bothers you. And that's why you started this discussion here and let left-wing extremists like the Salis speak here at the desk. This is a mockery of democracy.

Thank you, dear colleague, for allowing me to ask you this question. Her Spanish colleagues from the extreme left and also from the socialists have spoken here against machismo, against sexual harassment of women. At the same time, however, they promote illegal migration to Europe, precisely by men from foreign cultures who not only commit sexual harassment in the workplace – mostly not at all, because they do not have the jobs at all – but rape women in the open street. We have always had mass rapes in recent years. So how do you explain this hypocrisy of the left? Why do they do that?

Colleague, you said two things. First, that you hope that the United States of America will continue to support the war in Ukraine, and then that we should be in solidarity and use the Russian money here in the European Union to support Ukraine. You haven't read a new one National Security Strategy United States of America? There it is clearly stated that NATO will not expand in Europe. And you can see that President Trump has been trying to end this conflict since the beginning of his administration. Then how can you expect it? The second question is: Do you want to give away our taxpayers' money?

Mr President, but my colleague, how do you explain this? We have listened here for a long time, precisely from Mrs von der Leyen and their colleagues, that Europe is fighting in the interest of Ukrainians. And now surveys, independent surveys in Ukraine show that over 70% of Ukrainians already want an end to this war. And the very people who told us here that we actually stand up for the Ukrainians, so now, despite the fact that the Ukrainians want to end this conflict, they are telling us here now that the conflict needs to be prolonged, that we have to finance it with the money of our taxpayers. How do you explain that?

I will ask in German. Dear colleague, can I ask you in German? It's great! You have just stated that Belgium does not want to deal with this injustice on its own, the Russian assets to confiscate. And you are talking about a just solution, because you are already waiting for us to lose a legal dispute with the Russian Federation, which you simply want to distribute to everyone. Is this the socialist way of thinking that if we commit injustice, the others should just pay for it?

Mr President, dear disciples, I would like to quote the new national strategy of the United States of America. A large European majority wants peace, but this desire is not implemented by the governing politicians because they ignore the democratic will. Yes, this is for everyone who wants to upgrade here. I wonder: Why do you want to upgrade so massively? We haven't had an opponent in Europe in 30 years. Since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, there has been no threat to Europe. And you have successfully – successfully through NATO enlargement – built Russia into the new enemy. You keep trying. That is why, by the way, you also want to continue the war and continue to finance it, so that you can simply maintain this enemy image. (Remark by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann when microphone is switched off) Do you speak for your associations, which you represent, the military industry? As a lobbyist? Or are you sitting here as a member of parliament? I quote the official American government. And she's right, and that's what hits you in the Mark. I am telling you that the only threat we have in Europe is illegal migration. And you better build for the 250 billion...

Mr. Sieper, not at all, because the Czech secret service did not do that at all. What they say does not exist. I asked them to do it, they never did. You should know – it has now been published several times – that it was a campaign financed by NATO circles to discredit several politicians who opposed the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, it is also known that the media that drove this campaign are tied up in the OCCRP and that they were secretly paid. So, you should do more justice to your party's name and exercise sanity and do some research before asking questions.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The EU Commission now wants to oblige providers of chat services to search messages, photos, videos on users' devices. And that is what you call the defence of European sovereignty? I think I'm falling from the chair, dear colleague. If you want to defend Europe's sovereignty, then defend the external border or defend our infrastructure, which was blown up with Nord Stream 2, but don't try censorship laws. What you are proposing here is the end of confidential digital communication in Europe, and the mainstream media now sees it that way. The FAZ has even criticized that it is worse than the Chinese control system, and you should keep that in mind. They are violating the fundamental rights of our people. When chat control comes, it's the end of privacy in Europe. In conclusion, I just want to say: An EU Commission President, who does not want to push out her own chat protocols to the billion-dollar deal with Pfizer, now calls for total surveillance of all 450 million EU citizens. Good thing we have a vote of no confidence against them tomorrow – twice.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I come from Munich and I drive a BMW – not because the company is in my constituency, but simply because it builds the best cars. And I drive a diesel, not because a commissioner prescribed it to me, but because it is a supertechnology: economical, environmentally friendly and absolutely indestructible. In the same way, millions of citizens across the European Union have decided that they want to drive a combustion engine. And what do you do? They want to force them to use an inferior technology like the electric car. Under flimsy explanations, you forced it on them. And what is the result? In Germany alone, 50,000 jobs were destroyed in the automotive industry last year and more than 120,000 jobs have been destroyed since 2019. This is the result of your policy. Citizens don't want that. We don't want that. And now it's over! Tomorrow there will be two votes against Ursula von der Leyen - motion of censure. That's what you harvested.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Maia Sandu, President of Moldova, said here in this House this morning: Moldova is already thinking and acting like the EU. Our Czech colleague Ondřej Dostál was able to see what this means in practice just a few weeks ago. He wanted to attend a conference in Moldova, and he was detained at the border for several hours, not admitted and expelled despite a diplomatic passport, although he is an elected representative here in the European Parliament. The same thing happened to American journalists. Yes, the oh so democratic pro-EU government in Moldova is actually already thinking and acting like the EU: She doesn't want a discussion, she doesn't want people at an EU-critical conference, she just wants to lock away uncomfortable voices. What is the EU doing now? The Commission has just now had to admit that it paid EUR 600 000 to a highly controversial network of journalists – OCCRP – right after the EU elections. Just that you know what OCCRP is: The head of this organization, Drew Sullivan, has said that this organization has helped overthrow five governments. The media in this network have carried out the impeachment against Donald Trump, they have broken the Ibiza affair in Austria just before the EU election from the fence, thereby influencing the EU elections and the last EU election by the European Parliament. Voice-of-EuropeThe affair. So, dear Moldovans, welcome to this EU! Here the preservation of power is celebrated by abuse of power. Tax money is misused, institutions and the media – this is the only way to govern against your own people.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I am very surprised by what you have said here and, above all, by the unworthy event you have held here in the House on Serbia today. They have here carted in opposition from a country that should beg for it – against corruption. Should the EU help against corruption in Serbia? Hello, please! Here: The head of the EU Commission is under suspicion of corruption, against which is being investigated, and someone should help! Next point: Oppression of the opposition, and you want to help the protests. Where were you when the people of Bulgaria protested against the government for refusing them a referendum, to which they have a right? Where were you when the Romanians demonstrated because the presidential elections were stolen from them? You are total hypocrites, you always pick out only those countries where there are no pro-EU governments yet. And Vucic is a strong leader who wants a strong Serbia, and that stinks to you, and that's why you support his opponents.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The European Parliament is campaigning for freedom of speech and for an NGO activist who has attacked a police officer and is therefore in prison. If you really care about freedom of speech and independent journalists who are in prison, then first look into your own ranks, into the EU. We have a David Bendels, an editor-in-chief in Germany, who got seven months' imprisonment on probation just because he published a collage on which the then Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote: "I hate freedom of expression". This is the state of freedom of expression here in the EU, in Germany. Or Shlomo Finkelstein – 12 months sentence, 9 months in prison. A YouTuber who hasn't beaten any policemen has only spoken out in favor of freedom of expression. Or let us return to the door of the EU: Tommy Robinson, a real journalist working for freedom of expression; He was also imprisoned for several months, only so that he did not show his film ‘Silenced’. So please, really stand up for journalists! Don't support non-governmental organizations abroad that only have one regime change to serve!

Mrs. Strack-Zimmermann, I will ask in German, I think we get along. You just attacked the president of the United States. They accused him of undemocratic behavior. I find this very strange. The United States has been our best ally for many years. It is the largest democracy in the world. Right now there is a government in power that criticizes the oppression of the opposition in Germany, in which your party also participated when it was in government. So you might be able to concretize what you are actually accusing Donald Trump of?