What Hans spoke about.

16

Jun

2025

Speeches EN

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The human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the urgent need to end Russian aggression: the situation of illegally detained civilians and prisoners of war, and the continued bombing of civilians (debate)

Madam President, colleagues, Donald Trump is a prudent statesman: he upholds the time-honoured principle of audiatur et altera pars – let the other side be heard as well. Trump speaks with Putin. The European Union, by contrast, wants to end the bloodshed in Ukraine and bring the war to a close, but in doing so, it listens only to itself and to the Ukrainian side. No one has seriously attempted to consider the Russian perspective. No effort has been made to understand why Russian leaders perceive NATO's eastward expansion – reaching as far as the Donbas – as an existential threat. The deliberate ignorance, I predict, is precisely why the EU is doomed to fail in the matter. Trump is a realist; the EU acts blindly. George F. Kennan, the architect of the containment strategy, once called NATO's expansion to Russia's border a fateful error. Yet we continue to repeat it. History will judge us with utter harshness.

8

May

2025

Speeches DE

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Suspending certain parts of Regulation (EU) 2015/478 as regards imports of Ukrainian products into the European Union (A10-0059/2025 - Karin Karlsbro) (vote)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, In accordance with Rule 206(4) of the Rules of Procedure, I request that the vote on this item on the agenda be postponed. Let me just say a few words: Solidarity with third countries must not become Europe's self-sacrifice. Our companies, from industrial SMEs to agriculture and large industrial employers, are feeling the consequences of a trade policy that is unilaterally oriented towards Ukraine. Dumping imports do not only endanger individual sectors such as steel tube manufacturers. They cover the entire European value chain, from the raw materials industries to the processing sectors and suppliers. This policy threatens jobs and livelihoods across Europe, including in agriculture, including manufacturing. Those who vote today for the further suspension of the protective measures decide not only against fair conditions of competition, but also against people in our regions who support prosperity and prosperity.

7

May

2025

Speeches DE

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EU support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace in Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! They all like to talk about a value-driven foreign policy. Today, the EU is facing the heap of illusion-driven foreign policy. It was an illusion to believe that economic power alone was sufficient to have geopolitical influence. And it was an illusion to think you could extend NATO and the EU to the Donbass, and Russia would accept that. The system of international relations is not subject to Western values, Rule of lawNo rule of law. It is subject to only one law, and that is balance of power – Balance of forces. It is therefore right that the European states should finally take responsibility for their security into their own hands and form their own pole in the multipolar world order. Because that's how they achieve balance of power. But it was wrong to encourage Ukraine to give up its long-standing neutrality. It was wrong to send them into the field as proxies of US interests against Russia, an ultimately overpowering neighbor. Ukraine is now in a war of attrition. Russia is waging this war with open borders, Ukraine with closed borders, so that the men cannot leave the country. This fact alone should make everyone think. That Ukraine could recapture the territories held by Russia is another illusion. And it is your illusion today that there can be a just peace in the Ukraine war. Pope Francis – rest in peace – was right. The best thing the Ukrainian leadership could do to save their country and its people from even greater damage would be to raise the white flag and return to diplomacy.

1

Apr

2025

Speeches DE

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CFSP and CSDP (Article 36 TUE) (joint debate)

Madam President, The Union's foreign and security policy is a mess of distorted perception and moral obsolescence. Islamism is not worth a syllable to the EPP rapporteurs. In Germany, Christmas markets, carnival parades, railway stations must be protected from Islamist perpetrators of violence, not from Russian infantry. What does the EU do? It finances a Taliban emirate in Syria. Russia is not the enemy of Europe. Russia is a defensive empire that sees itself as existentially threatened by the expansion of NATO to the Donbass and the South Caucasus. Anyone who does not understand this and prepares for the Holy War against Russia will lead us to ruin. Ceterum censeo: The ESN Group rejects Ukraine's membership of NATO and the EU. The future of Ukraine can only be its return to neutrality.

13

Feb

2025

Speeches DE

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Threats to EU sovereignty through strategic dependencies in communication infrastructure (debate)

Mr President! Colleagues! The dark side of globalization is the entanglement of states in networks of global dependencies. We therefore expressly support the objective of strategic autonomy for Europe. Strategic autonomy has three dimensions: political, military-operational and industrial autonomy. Own technological platforms are the basic prerequisite for every ability to act. The decision to set up the IRIS system was therefore correct. However, it is not enough to provide only the government departments with secure communication systems. First, the provision of infrastructure must also benefit businesses – no strong state without a strong economy. Secondly, one must have sufficient own capacities for the safety-relevant basic goods, for example in semiconductor production. Whoever becomes dependent on it will perish in it.

11

Feb

2025

Speeches DE

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Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)

Mr President! Colleagues! The years of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine are also the years of the EU's final geopolitical failure. Ultimately, this failure is because it represents the endpoint of a development that begins with the US decision to bring Ukraine into NATO. For a quarter of a century now, Europeans have been guided by the US on the nose ring through the geopolitical arena. Please note, Ms Strack-Zimmermann, that the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine will be conducted without you, without Ms von der Leyen, without the European Heads of State and Government – yes, possibly without Ukraine itself. At the end of the day, Europeans can only pay one thing: the bill. Ladies and gentlemen, if there had been any need to prove that this war was a geostrategic confrontation between two major powers, if there had been any need to prove that the EU is not a relevant geopolitical actor, then it has been produced here.

22

Jan

2025

Speeches DE

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Uniting Europe against actors hostile to the EU: time to strengthen our security and defence (topical debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. "We have to deal with realities, not fiction," Otto von Bismarck once said. Their first fiction is the belief that international relations would be subject to a binding legal order. The reality is that the system of international relations is anarchic. It is subject to the principle of power. A second fiction is that Russia, a major military power, will accept NATO entering its strategic apron. The reality is that Russia will see Ukraine's accession to NATO as an existential threat and will frustrate it militarily. We can condemn it – we cannot change it. The consequential fiction is that the EU sees Russia as an enemy that will soon attack a member state. The truth is – and I can refer here to the head of NATO’s intelligence service – that there is no indication of such intentions on the part of the Russian leadership and, moreover, no motive for such a kamikaze action. Ladies and gentlemen, the world order is in a state of upheaval. The old order has sunk, the new order is not yet there. Such a state gives birth to monsters. But instead of falling into hysteria, we should turn on the mind. And what we need then is a comprehensive and realistic risk analysis. We of the Sovereignists strongly support the development of an independent European defence capability. Independently, however, it must mean: independent; independent of non-European powers, including the United States. Secretary-General Rutte's proposal to buy the favor of the U.S. by throwing our two-percent plus funds into the throats of the U.S. defense industry is hard to beat in folly. The French position of investing this money solely in European development and production, on the other hand, is correct. We have to deal with reality, not fiction.

17

Dec

2024

Speeches DE

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Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! Your own propaganda is like your own body odor: You don't notice them because you're always used to them. Russia is misinforming and distorting, the EU is telling the truth – the world is as simple as that. Ladies and gentlemen, if this Parliament declares that it wants to support Ukraine until its victory, it is misleading the European public. The truth is: Ukraine stands militarily with its back to the wall and will lose this war! The Oreshnik missile is not disinformation, but a hard-hitting impact of truth on the illusion world of this House as well, including yours, Mr Gahler. The cause of the Ukraine conflict is not, as the High Representative explains to us, a new Russian imperialism that does not exist. The cause of the conflict is NATO's eastward expansion to the Russian-Ukrainian border. Those who deny it falsify history.

17

Dec

2024

Speeches DE

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Crackdown on peaceful pro-European demonstrators in Georgia (debate)

Dear Mr President, Wenn im georgischen Parlament wie im Deutschen Bundestag der Opposition alle Parlamentsämter verweigert würden, wenn Oppositionspolitiker tätlich angegriffen, ihre Wohnhäuser beschmiert und ihre Autos beschädigt würden, wenn es in Georgien wie in Deutschland ein staatliches Programm mit dem Namen „Kampf gegen das Böse″ gäbe, das Freiwilligenverbände zur Bekämpfung der Opposition finanziert, wenn Staatsmedien die Opposition diskreditieren würden, wenn die Opposition von der Teilnahme an der politischen Debatte ferngehalten würde, wenn Wirte bedroht und ihre Lokale beschädigt würden, sobald sie diese an die Opposition vermieten, wenn es in Georgien wie in Deutschland einen Inlandsgeheimdienst mit dem Namen „Verfassungsschutz″ gäbe, der die Opposition ausspioniert und sie zur Gefahr für den Staat erklärt – dann, meine Damen und Herren, würde dieses Parlament hier zu Recht zu der Auffassung gelangen, dass Georgien nicht Mitglied der EU sein kann.

26

Nov

2024

Speeches DE

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Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

14

Nov

2024

Speeches DE

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Enhancing Europe’s civilian and defence preparedness and readiness (debate)

Madam President, dear special adviser Niinistö, thank you very much for your detailed report on the preparation and readiness of Europe in the civil and defence field. We strongly support its objectives. Our main point of criticism: We lack the ability to perform qualified risk analysis. Example: The war in Ukraine. The Russian attack on Ukraine was not a sudden attack. Qualified analysts such as John Mearsheimer predicted not only the war, but also the character of the war. How was that possible? Because Mearsheimer has a powerful theory of international relations and is not guided by wishful thinking like the EU. And so there is now a threat that we will soon again succumb to the transatlantic illusion – including your report. Because there are well-founded concerns that under the new leadership, the US will focus entirely on its geostrategic rival China and pay less attention to Europe and NATO. Colleagues, what is needed is a comprehensive and qualified risk analysis.

13

Nov

2024

Speeches DE

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Georgia's worsening democratic crisis following the recent parliamentary elections and alleged electoral fraud (debate)

We had a tense but fairly well-run election day. A few incidents were reported, but none to impact the overall integrity of the elections.' Ladies and gentlemen! The Georgians are a smart people. They know that the geographical location of their country matters, and they don't want to be drawn into a conflict between power blocs. Georgians are also a proud people. They are open to Europe, but they do not want to submit to the Brussels rainbow agenda. Respect Georgia's democratic decision, respect the country's sovereignty, and learn from Georgians not to overestimate their own opportunities in the new world order.

13

Nov

2024

Speeches DE

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Georgia's worsening democratic crisis following the recent parliamentary elections and alleged electoral fraud (debate)

Mr President! Commissioner Schinas, even if you do not want to admit it, the parliamentary elections in Georgia were a properly conducted democratic election with a clear winner. I myself was a member of the parliamentary delegation to observe the elections on the ground – there could be no question of an atmosphere of repression at all. The opposition was able to present itself in unrestricted freedom and openly articulate its criticism of the government. The OSCE's morning briefing was accordingly, I quote: ‘We had a tense, but fairly well-run election day. A few incidents were reported but none to impact the overall integrity of the elections“.

22

Oct

2024

Speeches DE

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People’s Republic of China’s misinterpretation of the UN resolution 2758 and its continuous military provocations around Taiwan (debate)

Madam President, Two thirds of the world’s population, 90% of the new global middle class, now live in the Indo-Pacific – time and opportunity to take care of it. For decades, as a result of resolution 2758, the US had pursued a systematic recovery policy in China, making the country so strong that it now needs to be contained. In 2020, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China was founded, funded, among other things, by George Soros' Open Society Foundation. This summer, she decided Alliance against China, which also includes many colleagues from the House, to launch a broad international campaign. In NATO's strategy concept of 2022, China is marked as a strategic opponent of the alliance for the first time. At the same time, the German Marshall Fund is launching a study accusing China of falsifying Resolution 2758. Strategic autonomy, as proclaimed by the High Representative for the EU, must no longer mean confusing European interests with American ones. At a time of increasing geopolitical tensions, it is essential that the EU adopts a pragmatic stance. Stability in the region, the functioning of global supply chains should be our top priority. Taiwan cannot become China's Ukraine.

22

Oct

2024

Speeches DE

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Establishing the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism and providing exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. The war in Ukraine is widely misunderstood, especially in this House. The great US strategist of Polish origin, Zbigniew Brzeziński, described the atrophied geopolitical consciousness of Europeans with merciless sharpness in his 1997 masterpiece ‘The Grand Chessboard’: Tribute-paying vassals, according to Brzeziński, willingly take over the thinking of their master. And so the Europeans did not want to understand that the war in Ukraine could have been prevented if they, the Europeans, had made it clear from the outset that Ukraine's admission to NATO was out of the question for them. We are making one wrong decision after another, to the detriment of all who inhabit the Eurasian continent. If Parliament decides today to establish the cooperation mechanism on Ukraine loans, it will not only push Ukraine even deeper into a conflict that it can only lose. Rather, we also harm ourselves by violating the Roman legal principle of usus fructus They are the only major economic area in the world to announce that the fruits of deposits can be used for other purposes without the consent of the owner. If you want to deter foreign investors, especially from the BRICS+ countries, from investing their money in the EU, then you do exactly the same. Ukraine needs to be helped. What Ukraine needs is a ceasefire as the basis for peace negotiations. What Europe needs is a pan-European new peace order. What Europe needs is a new...

10

Oct

2024

Questions DE

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The rise of religious intolerance in Europe (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner Schinas, even if you do not want to hear it: The mass immigration of Muslims into Christian and secular Europe is the mass immigration of latent religious intolerance. To know this, no one needs to consult media reports about Islamist-motivated crimes anymore. The disaster has long since arrived in our everyday lives. At the school of my 13-year-old son, at a high school in the Bonn district of Plittersdorf, a group of radical Muslim students has been doing their mischief for more than a year by urging other students to observe Islamic behavior. My son was approached during Ramadan when he ate his break bread. The school's music teacher and choirmaster submitted his request for early retirement this summer because the group occupied a choir rehearsal and shouted that music was haram, and half of the young people left the choir permanently out of fear. And then the left-green educational emergency – not only in this House – dares to declare the rational criticism of Islam Islamophobia, a mental disorder. You, Mr Schinas, consider yourself, in your boundless hubris, to be a perfecter of Europe. But the bitter truth is: You're his gravedigger.

9

Oct

2024

Speeches DE

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Strengthening the security of Europe’s external borders: need for a comprehensive approach and enhanced Frontex support (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Illegal and mass supply immigration from non-cultural regions is the central problem of European states. It can only be solved if borders are borders again. However, it is pointless to increase the number of staff of the European Border and Coast Guard as long as Frontex is not given a robust mandate and is supported in the exercise of that mandate by all the institutions of the Union, including this Parliament. The mandate must include: firstly, the establishment of effective physical barriers, secondly, modern technical surveillance and, thirdly, the use of trained border guards. Border states also need to be empowered to use technical and personnel support from their armed forces to enforce border management. The open Europe is coming to an end. Stop this mistake! Hungary and Orbán have shown it: What we need is fortress Europe.

8

Oct

2024

Speeches DE

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The democratic backsliding and threats to political pluralism in Georgia (debate)

Mr President, colleagues of the United Eco-Left! They are now outraged by a law passed by the Georgian parliament to protect family values and minors. May I ask if you have read this law at all? There is nothing in this to justify your abstruse draft resolution. The truth is: They are not afraid of democracy, but of democracy in Georgia. You cannot stand it if a parliament does not adopt your rainbow propaganda and instead declares the two-sex nature of the human being as the basis of the family estate regulations. They presume to want to override natural laws by parliamentary majority. They celebrate a cult of infertility as a pan-European street festival, while birth rates in our countries are falling to historic lows. Colleagues of the United Eco-Left! Respect the prohibition of intervention under international law. Respect Georgia's sovereignty, its right to choose the political leadership itself and make its own laws. Say goodbye to the green fool ship and return to reality.

8

Oct

2024

Speeches DE

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Escalation of violence in the Middle East and the situation in Lebanon (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! Europe's greatest weakness lies in the denial of the danger posed by globally operating militant Islam. The territorial claims of the Palestinians have long since been transformed into a religious struggle against the infidels. In this sense, the borders of Israel are also the borders of Europe. Israel's struggle for existence manifests itself in the open confrontation with Islamic militias, and it shows us a strong Israel. On the other hand, Vice-President Borrell, you did not even begin to understand that the EU’s open borders policy is bringing the fight right into the heart of our cities. They represent a weak Europe. The tragic fate of Lebanon is a matter of concern to us. The once Christian-Arab country was considered Switzerland of the Middle East. Civil war resulted from the constant immigration of radicalizing Muslims, the later takeover of Hezbollah and thus the involvement in the war of cultures. The conflicts and wars in the Middle East, and this is where I come to an end, will in the long run only be resolved from their embedding in a multipolar world order, from the minimum of political coexistence between the great powers.

18

Sep

2024

Speeches DE

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The Hungarian “National Card” scheme and its consequences for Schengen and the area of freedom, security and justice (debate)

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! The new rules on the Hungarian national card will allow natural and legal persons from Russia and Belarus to settle in Hungary in the future. Similar rights are already available to the same group of persons in other EU countries, e.g. in Germany. The EU's security rules are fully respected when issuing the entry permit. The regulations do not contain provisions to facilitate entry or stay, nor do they circumvent security provisions of any kind. On the contrary, they contain even more conditions than would be necessary for the EU standard procedure. In that regard, those provisions also do not undermine the suspension of the EU-Russia-Belarus Visa Facilitation Agreement of September 2022 and November 2021. No threat to the security of the EU or even an undermining of the cohesion of the EU's foreign, security and defence policy can be seen from this action by Hungary. Finally, I would like to thank Mr Leggeri for making it clear that the real threat to the security of the EU and its foreign, security and defence policy stems from the actions of the von der Leyen Commissions.

17

Sep

2024

Speeches DE

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Situation in Venezuela (debate)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! The resolution on the situation in Venezuela is based on several problematic assumptions. First, Venezuela is a sovereign state. Foreign interference in the country's internal affairs would be a violation of Article 2(1) of the Charter of the United Nations. Secondly, the Charter does not oblige any state to adopt a particular political system, including a representative democracy modelled on the West. Third, electoral irregularities are a global phenomenon. They also occur in Western democracies, such as Berlin in 2021, but never lead to outside interference. And fourth, imputed electoral irregularities were all too often used as a pretext to overthrow unwelcome governments and replace them with politically pleasing ones. Conclusion: It is the task of the Venezuelan people, not the EU, to shape the political future of Venezuela. Take care, Madam President, Commissioner, of the problems in your own house – Europe!

17

Sep

2024

Speeches DE

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Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! Ukraine needs peace. Realistically, this peace will not be a just peace. The belief that Ukraine can defeat Russia militarily with Western help is a misconception. It does not lead to peace, but to escalation. The system of international relations is shaped by the great powers. Peace can only be maintained by striking a balance between them. Balance of power. The EU should therefore finally pursue a realistic geopolitics. The narrative that Russia pursues neo-imperial goals and could also attack NATO states is irrational. The reason for the Russian attack on Ukraine is its planned admission to NATO, which seriously violates the security interests of the nuclear power Russia. The war in Ukraine could have been prevented if we had made it clear from the outset that Ukraine's accession to NATO was out of the question and supported Ukraine's neutrality status. Instead, we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into a geostrategic confrontation between two major powers that is not in our interest. You, Vice-President Borrell, who shines with your absence, have declared that this war will be decided on the battlefield and today you are calling for further military support for Ukraine. But what Ukraine really needs is diplomacy and negotiations. In this central area of your office, Mr Borrell, you have failed completely and let Viktor Orbán do your work. The ESN Group supports the initiatives of the Hungarian Prime Minister – they are exemplary.