Speeches

Thank you for this request. I think we can emphasize at this point that we have a whole series of large German companies that produce very well in Hungary. And because the circumstances in Germany are so bad, and your party is responsible for that, among other things, there are more and more German companies thinking about going to Hungary. This is something that speaks for Hungary and against Germany. If you look at economic development in Germany, I think we have no right at all to judge how other countries are building their economies.

Thank you for the question. I always think it's good to quote something that you call a source. You didn't do that here. But I would like to state at this point: If you look at the Hungarian economy, you will notice that there are quite a number of German companies located there, especially from the automotive industry, especially from the automotive supply industry. And I can tell you, these companies are very satisfied there. And it goes one step further. There are quite a few companies from Germany who are thinking about going to Hungary because the criteria are better there, because they have better economic criteria there, because they have better rule of law criteria there than in Germany.

(Start of speech when microphone is switched off) ... 10 of the Rules of Conduct, as the EPP colleague has just said: If a company wants to do business in Hungary, it must have letters full of money. This is a slanderous statement and I ask that it be investigated.

Mr President! Defence projects like ReArm Europe have nothing to do with the EU budget. Direct or indirect military financing is a breach of taboo and a misuse of taxpayers' money. Defence is and remains the core task of the sovereign states, not the EU. The new plan includes costly investments of €800 billion by 2030. They run a war economy here. The European Commission says on its website that it wants to secure peace. What is certain, however, is that you are using defence spending and alleged peacekeeping to build a debt union. They talk about peacekeeping, but they finance the continuation of the war. They speak of defense capability, but organize a subsidy rain for the defense industry. They speak of European strength, but squander the money of sovereign states for the construction of an EU war structure. Use the billions of euros for the well-being of the citizens! Or better yet: Give the billions back to the nation-states!

Mr President! More centralism and more self-service: The agreement on the 2026 budget is the quintessence of what has been going wrong in this Union for years. Because this Union has only one vision: more, more, more – more competences for Brussels, more bureaucracy against our companies, more redistribution at the expense of national responsibility, more money from the pockets of our taxpayers. Many of the positions of budgetary compromise are already overloaded today and will have no effect. Once again, funding for programmes such as Horizon, Erasmus+, Creative Europe, LIFE or RescEU will be increased. These are all fields in which the EU is already strongly active, often without providing any corresponding added value for the Member States. At the same time, new budgets are being added, for example for Moldova. Additional positions will be created in various agencies and institutions. This in particular reinforces the structural trend towards ever larger administrative and expenditure blocks at EU level. In addition: Although the EU generates significant additional revenue from fines, penalties or traditional own resources in 2026, the new budget does not discharge the respective Member States’ treasury. Instead, additional expenditure is created and special instruments such as the Flexibility instrument or continue to use EURI to expand the budget. What is missing is a clear focus on efficiency, on accumulating reserves and on limiting spending. In our view, the proposed deal confirms a move towards an increasingly costly and overbearing budget. It is precisely this development that we reject. We are only positive about the process and the great disagreement between the Council, the Commission and Parliament. Thus, it has been evident to everyone that the ideas of the Council and Parliament are increasingly diverging. I promise you one thing: In the coming years, there will be more and more right-wing governments in Europe and thus there will be more and more right-wing councils. And then there will be no more lazy compromises like these.

Dear Mr President, I want to talk about a brave young woman: Naomi Seibt. She recently applied for political asylum in the United States, a move that should shake us all. She flees from political persecution in Germany, from constant surveillance by the secret service and from real death threats by the terrorist organization Antifa. Naomi is afraid of being arrested or attacked on a return just because she advocates freedom of expression and complains about the grievances in Germany. And Naomi's fear is more than justified: During nationwide action days against hate crime, as in June 2025, there were over 70 house searches, often only because of a few harmless memes. In one case, a pensioner was searched because he had only shared a meme about Friedrich Merz. The state no longer protects the people, but the powerful from criticism. Naomi deserves our respect for educating her about this. Thank you for your irrepressible courage, for your love for Germany and your struggle for freedom.

Dear Madam President, The new multiannual financial framework is not a budget, it is an instrument of power. The Commission presents us with one on 2 Bio. EUR inflated structure linking billions of direct payments to conditions. conditions, which of course she wants to dictate herself. 2 of bio. In fact, parts of Parliament still regard the euro as too low. So there is a lively discussion about so-called own resources, i.e. taxes. Citizens should pay – for EU centralist claims to power. And the planned structural reforms will particularly affect farmers and winegrowers. For example, the well-sounding expression ‘environmentally sound management’ sets minimum requirements for supposed environmental protection, and we know what this ultimately means. Unrealistic overregulation by bureaucrats who have no idea about agriculture. The already ailing agriculture in Europe is getting another blow from the EU. And it is very interesting when the Chairman of the EPP, Weber, talks about agriculture here. Namely, it is now the multiannual financial framework that is having a serious blow to agriculture. And it is the Mercosur agreement that is destroying our agriculture in Europe. The Union is jointly responsible for both.

Madam President, I refer to Rule 202 of the Rules of Procedure in conjunction with Rule 12 – Internal investigations of the European Anti-Fraud Office. There are indications that a member of this House may have misappropriated EU funds and used them for unauthorised purposes. Green MEP Daniel Freund has joined forces with the NGO Society for Civil Liberties He filed a criminal complaint against Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government for alleged espionage. This German NGO in turn receives funding from the NGO Digital Freedom Fund, which in turn receives EU funding from the EU Horizon Programme. This amigo system common to left-wing NGOs, which makes sources of finance opaque, is deliberately non-transparent. In the present case, however, it cannot hide the fact that Mr Freund finances his private legal transactions with support from EU funds. There is therefore a reasonable suspicion that Mr Freund is enriching himself with EU funds.

Madam President, I believe there is great unity in this House, and there is no doubt that women and daughters and little girls must be protected against violence. And maybe to join some things even from the left: It is perfectly true that the 11-year-old girl must be protected against being chased by a 30-year-old. The girl must be protected from the fact that the male teacher says that she cannot do math. But, and we would like to emphasize this at this point, the biggest problem for young girls today is the predominant cityscape. That's what young girls have to experience on trams. That's what young girls in inner cities need to experience. This is exactly what the political left denies. This is exactly the problem that only the political right will solve.

Madam President, The Digital Freedom Fund, the Hungarian alleged research portal Direkt36 and the German NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte have a lot in common. For example, all three organizations are co-financed by the Open society foundations by George Soros. The GFF, for example, has received about $280,000 from the pockets of the dubious US billionaire since 2018. All three organizations are involved in the so-called investigation of alleged espionage allegations against the Hungarian government. The Society for Civil Liberties, which also provides funds from Digital Freedom Fund, i.e. EU funds, supports MEP Daniel Freund in his lawsuit against Orbán. Mr. Freund accuses the oh so evil Orbán of having installed a spyware for him. These accusations can be found in the press itself – a series of conjunctives. There is little evidence, but a lot of need for validity from Daniel Freund. So why are we dealing with such trivialities? Because Soros orders and executes the EU elites.

Mr President! The goals of the Summit for Social Development are usually out of place. Social policy is and remains a national competence, and for good reason. The needs of labour markets and social systems in our Member States are too different for Brussels or anyone else to regulate them with flat-rate approaches. Fighting poverty, overcoming inequalities or promoting decent work would probably be signed by each of us. But we will only achieve this if we finally stop with the previous strategy, which is designed to distribute billions of dollars according to the watering can principle. This has often encouraged corrupt elites and created dependencies. Instead, we need to strengthen the individual responsibility of the respective countries. They need to develop their own markets, industrialise, strengthen education and fight corruption. So let's stop undermining national sovereignty in social policy. Instead, let's invest the energy in concrete national solutions that really make a difference.

Madam President, Whether the Digital Services Act or the AI-Act: Under the pretext of security, totalitarian measures are constantly being promoted here in the EU. The latest idea is chat control. Our data, our opinions, our behaviour, everything should be recorded. Every citizen is potentially suspicious. The perfidious thing is that the rule of law, which we are always talking about here in this House, is being turned into its opposite. That is exactly what the EU stands for. It does not stand for the rule of law. It stands for totalitarian measures. This is exactly what this debate, in which we talk about chat control, stands for. Every citizen is suspected. For security, all freedom of citizens should be sacrificed. And this is a path that we should fundamentally reject.

Dear colleague, first of all I would like to correct you: It was not some Europeans who tore down the Berlin Wall, but it was the Germans who did it – that is the introduction. But I would like to give you a quote from your group. I quote: “I don’t know if it was the Ukrainians who blew up Nord Stream, but even if they did, I think it is a legitimate target”. You and your group also say – it is a quote from your colleague Gahler, by the way – yes: We need billions to escape an alleged threat from Russia. On the other hand, it is people like Mr Gahler who approve of actual attacks on our infrastructure. So is it the position of the EPP that such attacks by Ukraine be approved?

Madam President, At 67, German pensioners have one of the highest retirement ages in the EU. The average pension in 2023 was just 1102 euros, well below the poverty line. In Germany, many pensioners suffer from poverty after working hard for a lifetime and paying into the pension fund. Their pensions are often barely enough to live on. At the same time, refugees receive comprehensive support, accommodation, care, medical care, the all-round carefree package – this is the priority setting of the old parties. But young people are also concerned with intergenerational justice. For them, it is important to secure a future. This is not just about the economy. It is the promise that they can grow up in their homeland, which they can also recognize as their homeland. It is the promise that their culture and identity as a people will be preserved. They have the right to grow up in a country that respects their roots and that does not become foreign to them. However, their needs are often overlooked in favor of short-term policies. We must listen to their voices, protect our culture and offer the boys a strong home where they can live freely and proudly in their country. They are our future, and we must do everything we can to secure that future.

Madam President, More pressure on Russia, sanctions against Russia: It's always the same lyre we hear. In this house, Mrs. von der Leyen, you are still allowed to talk, in the White House someone like you is allowed to maximally still at the cat table. A lot of rearmament, a lot of war – do you know what word you didn’t use? and diplomacy! Maybe it's because you used to be Secretary of Defense, with none of your own sons serving his country. They stand for the fact that the war of the rich is the struggle of the poor. ...

Dear Mr President, In Germany, the economy is on the ground; For years we have been the only industrialized nation in the world in a permanent recession. Responsible for this is the policy of the old parties and the EU: Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be destroyed by them in the shortest possible time, and hundreds of thousands or even millions more will follow. The mark of 3 million unemployed people was recently exceeded. Now the EU would have the opportunity to counter these dramatic developments with the Social Fund Plus. One of the main goals of this 100 billion-dollar fund is, as is well known, to bring the unemployed back into wages and bread. So far, however, Germany has hardly benefited from this fund. This is because we have been very, very strong economically for years, but these times are now over due to the impact of your policies. But the EU would not be the EU if it did not completely screw up potentially meaningful measures itself. In order to master strategic challenges, funds should now be redirected to the arms industry and the so-called green transformation, i.e. precisely those technologies that have led to a historically unprecedented destruction of prosperity in Germany. These strategic challenges, as you call them, should be met with the greatest possible flexibility. This sounds very much like the typical "EU speech" for "without parliamentary scrutiny"; We already know this from the 150 billion-dollar armaments package. As by far the largest net contributor, Germany has paid hundreds of billions into the EU budget and received far too little back. In view of the dramatic economic crisis in my home country, for which the EU has a considerable share of responsibility, it is time to give something back to my compatriots.

Mr President! In a democracy, the people decide who governs, not dubious bodies. In Ludwigshafen, a proud city in the heart of Germany, the AfD candidate Joachim Paul was excluded from the mayoral election. Why? Because a handful of self-proclaimed guardians of the so-called constitutional fidelity decided on the basis of a favor letter from the so-called constitutional protection that his voice, his ideas, his candidacy do not fit into the image of the established powers. Joachim Paul, an elected MP, a teacher, was not excluded for criminal acts or violations of the law. No, he was expelled because his political views are not pleasing to the elites. This exclusion is not an isolated case, but a symptom of a democracy that stands on clay feet in Germany and throughout Europe. Marine Le Pen in France, Georgescu in Romania and Joachim Paul now in Germany – the established fear a free choice of the free peoples of Europe. Forbidding candidates is the real enemy of democracy.

Mr President! The Internet Governance Forum aims to protect the Internet from external influences. We preach freedom, and the EU stands for censorship. Digital Services Act, fact checkers, other opinions are called Hatespeech in the EU, There is discrimination everywhere. If we want a free internet, we have to do one thing: Then we have to protect it from one thing above all else, and that is the EU.

Madam President, Mr Serafin, I would like to disagree very strongly with you on a number of points. Namely, you said here that there is a great deal of agreement on the flexibility of the budget when it comes to the restructuring of the budget, and there is always talk that we need to become more resilient. I don’t know – please read your own budget. We already have a whole range of resources in the existing budget, which are precisely dedicated to crises, such as the European Solidarity Fund. So in this respect we see no need at all for this much invoked flexibility. In the end, flexibility is about one thing: You need more and more money, because you want more and more power, because you inflate this budget more and more. And at the end of the day, it's about the fact that we currently have 1% of gross national income as a standard source of income and that should be increased. And we as ESN reject that, we as patriots strictly reject that. That is to say, the increase in the budget, the increase in the financing that goes with it, is precisely about harming citizens. Citizens have to finance all this, and we don't want that. Instead of inflating this budget further and further, we should finally save. We can save, especially with all the left-wing NGOs, this hoard of the useless, which nobody in the European Union ...