Speeches

Madam President, the European Union is talking about objectives, indicators, job quality and transitions. Workers in Greece count dead: 201 workers were killed at work last year. Almost one every two days. 21 was over 60 years old. 330 were seriously injured, not by accident, but by 13 hours that recently became law. Intensification, exhaustion, employer impunity and viewer-state. This is the competitiveness that is being built in a Europe of two-speed workers, with rights in the North and annihilation in the South. Collective contracts demolished, hunger wages, young people fleeing, families that can't even afford rent, security measures non-existent, checks pretentious, but with a lot of profits for the few. And then you talk to us about a pillar of social rights. I ask you: Will you legislate for real protection or will you continue to cover exploitation with fine words? Homelessness, poverty and dead workers are not statistics, they are a political choice. Are you going to clash with that choice, Mrs. Mînzatu?

Mr President, Mrs Kaja Kallas, as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, I would like to ask you why I have this question: How can you not speak, representing the European Union, with Russia? I really wonder why your anti-Russian rage is not a useful tool, you know, for diplomacy. And let me tell you that in this speech you made, after the six minutes you talked about Ukraine, which is a country outside the European Union, in the rest of the speech and up to the tenth minute I did not hear you really say anything about Cyprus or Greece, about the casus belli that Turkey has declared for so many years, and I do not hear anything from the European Union. You only talk about where there are rare earths. That's all your interests are. So, please, I'll be here to listen. I want you to give me an answer to these questions.

Mr President, I would like to make it clear that every time I have intervened I do so without supporting either Putin, Zelenskyy, Trump, von der Leyen or any of them. I am interested in European citizens. They're the ones I've come here to protect and represent. The intention to use the 200 billion euros of Russian state reserves is an extremely dangerous option, and I want what I'm going to say to be heard here, be aware of it before it happens: If Europe breaks the principle of the immunity of state reserves, it will cause capital and deposits to run out of the European banking system. Confidence in the euro will be severely damaged. To prevent a banking collapse, the European Central Bank will be forced to print money. This leads to inflation, perhaps hyperinflation. In practice, citizens with their salaries, pensions and businesses will fall out. Europe cannot shoot at its feet.

Madam President, I agree with the need for a European plan for cardiovascular health. Necessary measures include prevention, Health Life from an early age, information and education in schools, the restriction of ultra-processed food and junk food, strict adherence to dietary standards and a horizontal increase in taxes on tobacco and vaping in all Member States. Mostly strict controls and real sanctions on all those who sell them to minors and institutional cooperation with the national cardiological scientific communities, because they are the ones who really know the issues in each country. Our interlocutors are essential if we are to achieve the right results for the health of citizens. Trust the doctors, not the tobacco companies. Environmental and lifestyle measures. Air pollution, chronic stress, work exhaustion kill. A 13-hour workday has been established in Greece. This is not just a social issue. It's a cardiovascular risk factor. What does Europe's plan say about this?

Madam President, dear colleagues, today I will take this minute to address mainly the men in the room – not so many, unfortunately – since women know, almost to their bones, what I will talk about. How many times have you been catcalled on the street? How many times have you walked home holding your keys, almost running, drenched in fear, just to make it home? How many times have you been judged for your choices? Stripped of your value at the workplace, dismissed for your opinion, for being a woman? 'What are you wearing?' 'Are you sure you are eating that?' 'Isn't this dress short?' 'You provoked him.' 'What were you wearing?' 'He is your husband, you have to forgive him'. Thank you for your time, and please take a moment to ask yourselves: if patriarchy is not in the room with us, then why is femicide an established term?

Mr President, in February 2024, the Committee on Petitions examined Ms Karystianou’s petition on state crime in Tempi, which was supported by 1.5 million citizens’ signatures. However, after the examination, the petition was stuck in a simple exchange of documents between the services. And then silence. No institutional inquiry was launched, only pretentious debates in plenary, closed between groups and mined by the EPP – the Greek government’s party – and the far right. When, as a member of the Committee, I requested that the petition for discussion be urgently reopened, when I informed you that the father of a victim, Panos Routsi, had just started a hunger strike and his life was in danger, what did you do? Nothing at all. Two and a half years of mocking the Greek government towards its relatives. One and a half years of inaction on the part of the European Parliament. It took 23 days of the father's strike to restore the rule of law. Citizens with their demonstrations, their solidarity, forced the authorities to retreat. Not the institutions; citizens. What does the Committee on Petitions actually do? What role does it play? What role do you play, gentlemen?

Madam President, the Rodrigues report abolishes controls, giving rise to scandals involving the misappropriation of European funds, such as that of OPEKEPE in Greece. It leaves the gospel of the CAP intact, 80% of the subsidies going to 20% of the beneficiaries. It does not reduce the cost of the small farmer, it only reduces the obligations of the big ones. The Imart report, on the other hand, has good intentions but they are not enough. Without binding control mechanisms and clauses against Mercosur-type agreements, farmers will continue to be threatened by cheap, uncontrolled imports. Question: Why is the cost of energy and fertilizer out of the question, colleagues? Commissioner, what about sheep pox and goat pox for farmers? Greece kills thousands of animals rather than vaccinates them. The majority of Greek farmers have been completely destroyed. I ask you to immediately and urgently disburse funds for these compensations. You must see it immediately, please.

Madam President, the European Commission and the Council, the European Union indirectly finances the occupation by purchasing Israeli weapons and surveillance software – first and foremost Greece. Ladies and gentlemen, you have violated Article 2 of the EU-Israel Agreement. The European Commission refused me access to the documents proving your complicity, the opinion of your Legal Service. Today you are talking about the two years of the undisputed attack by Hamas. You forget, however, that Israel has been systematically attacking Palestine since 1948, when 700,000 people were expelled from their homes. At the time, Palestine occupied 70% of its historical land. Today, 12% remain under military blockade. Do you have anything to tell us about this?

Mr President, in Greece, citizens are suffering from record heatwaves. The fires erupted from wooden columns and pillars of the Public Power Corporation, which after privatisation were left without maintenance because the cost was considered high. Firefighters remain seasonal workers with incomplete logistical equipment. The mountaintops fill wind turbines within forests and Natura areas. This is the image of a policy that surrenders the country to profit and leaves citizens unprotected. Compensation is not coming. In Albania, Mr. Rama after the fires that burned 111 square kilometers of land of the Greek minority, not only did not offer any help, but now allows building on the burnt. It is an organized effort for the displacement of Greeks and the settlement by Albanians of the territories of the Greek minority. Europe must support local communities, ban the building of burnt buildings, protect the Greek minority in Albania and fund housing, health, civil protection and prevention networks across Europe.

Madam President, the Lalucq report, based on the Draghi report, acknowledges the need for investment. But instead of talking about social needs, inequalities, wages and the welfare state, the answer is more dependence on markets, more power in banks and funds. That is, "casino-capitalism" that has already collapsed is being re-served as a solution. In the North they talk about competitiveness, while in the South people live on poverty wages, youth emigration, public health and education systems in collapse. This is a two-speed Europe. We do not need more "casino capitalism" and dependence on the markets that bankrupted Europe and gave rise to inequalities. We need a new social agreement, public investment, fair taxation, support for workers and small businesses, fairness and transparency for all.

Madam President, the CAP is strangling small farmers, turning subsidies into a trap. Instead of supporting production and self-sufficiency, it produces dependencies and dead ends. Today, farmers are abandoning their land because of European Union policy. That's not enough for you. You also bring the Mercosur agreement. In Greece, CAP money became a vote-buying tool. A government gang squandered the EU funds by distributing them to us through virtual pastures and false declarations, with the participation of the appointed officials of OPEKEPE, the national body for the management and payment of CAP funds. The European Prosecutor uncovered the fraud. Four ministers resigned, 415 million the fine for the people. The real peasants pay the price by seeing the money they were entitled to end up in the party clientele. Europe must support real farmers and must punish the thieves, forgers and government apparatuses of Mitsotakis who conspired to...

Madam President, are you talking about a Preparedness Union? What kind of readiness? When does the European Union itself finance the disaster? The AntiNero programme is being implemented in Greece without an environmental permit, violating European directives, destroying Natura areas and forests with supposedly fire-fighting works that amount to systematic deforestation. It does not prevent fires. It makes it easier for them. Greece is burning again. I put a written question to the Commission. He replied that he had no information about the project, even though he financed it with hundreds of millions of euros from the Recovery Fund. He will check, he says, when the time comes to pay, when the damage will be irreparable. Following this, 213 environmental and social bodies and citizens of Greece submitted an official petition to the European Parliament, denouncing violations, misappropriation of funds and terrible environmental degradation by AntiNero. When will you finally act? How many more fires? If you want real readiness, stop funding the arson of nature. No more programs of destruction. We want forests, transparency, prevention and recruitment of permanent firefighters.

Madam President, are you talking about a Preparedness Union? What kind of readiness? When does the European Union itself finance the disaster? The AntiNero programme is being implemented in Greece without an environmental permit, violating European directives, destroying Natura areas and forests with supposedly fire-fighting works that amount to systematic deforestation. It does not prevent fires. It makes it easier for them. Greece is burning again. I put a written question to the Commission. He replied that he had no information about the project, even though he financed it with hundreds of millions of euros from the Recovery Fund. He will check, he says, when the time comes to pay, when the damage will be irreparable. Following this, 213 environmental and social bodies and citizens of Greece submitted an official petition to the European Parliament, denouncing violations, misappropriation of funds and terrible environmental degradation by AntiNero. When will you finally act? How many more fires? If you want real readiness, stop funding the arson of nature. No more programs of destruction. We want forests, transparency, prevention and recruitment of permanent firefighters.

Madam President, the Prespes Agreement is an invalid agreement, a tool of geopolitical interests and irredentism. A product of coercion and political manipulation dictated by the Trump administration to the then Tsipras government and imposed without democratic legitimacy, with the purchase of MPs and blackmail, both in Greece and in the neighboring country. It is based on a false history, which the leaders of Skopje for decades built a false national identity of the supposed descendants of the ancient Macedonians, in order to unite in this way the so different national identities of the people who lived in the region: Turks, Serbs, Slavs, Albanians, Roma, Greeks, Bulgarians. Neither Macedonian identity nor Macedonian nationality ever existed in ancient Roman Scupi or in the Yugoslav province of Vardarska of the previous century. The Greek people were never asked to accept the pseudo-Macedonia. We will never accept the deliberate falsification of our history. The unacceptable reference in the report to a dispute resolution model is an insult to historical truth and I am voting against it. Macedonia is Greek.

Madam President, the Prespes Agreement is an invalid agreement, a tool of geopolitical interests and irredentism. A product of coercion and political manipulation dictated by the Trump administration to the then Tsipras government and imposed without democratic legitimacy, with the purchase of MPs and blackmail, both in Greece and in the neighboring country. It is based on a false history, which the leaders of Skopje for decades built a false national identity of the supposed descendants of the ancient Macedonians, in order to unite in this way the so different national identities of the people who lived in the region: Turks, Serbs, Slavs, Albanians, Roma, Greeks, Bulgarians. Neither Macedonian identity nor Macedonian nationality ever existed in ancient Roman Scupi or in the Yugoslav province of Vardarska of the previous century. The Greek people were never asked to accept the pseudo-Macedonia. We will never accept the deliberate falsification of our history. The unacceptable reference in the report to a dispute resolution model is an insult to historical truth and I am voting against it. Macedonia is Greek.

Madam President, the report on Albania conceals the grim reality experienced by the Hellenism of Northern Epirus. Areas are trampled, Albanian settlers settle, houses are demolished, as in Himara and Vlora, supposedly in the name of tourism development, with state cover and at the expense of legal owners. The Greek minority is shrinking demographically not only due to immigration, but also due to falsified censuses, according to which the authorities discourage or reject the declaration of Greek identity. The use of the Greek language is severely restricted, schools are closed, while teaching and cultural expression are blocked outside the narrowly recognized ... (incomprehensible words, technical problem). Violations of fundamental rights are documented by international organisations. The OSCE, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report political persecution, restriction of press freedom, police surveillance and unequal access to justice. Yet the European Council and the High Representative celebrated Albania's performance in Luxembourg last April. This report now congratulates them. It is unacceptable and I am voting against it.

Madam President, the report on Albania conceals the grim reality experienced by the Hellenism of Northern Epirus. Areas are trampled, Albanian settlers settle, houses are demolished, as in Himara and Vlora, supposedly in the name of tourism development, with state cover and at the expense of legal owners. The Greek minority is shrinking demographically not only due to immigration, but also due to falsified censuses, according to which the authorities discourage or reject the declaration of Greek identity. The use of the Greek language is severely restricted, schools are closed, while teaching and cultural expression are blocked outside the narrowly recognized ... (incomprehensible words, technical problem). Violations of fundamental rights are documented by international organisations. The OSCE, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report political persecution, restriction of press freedom, police surveillance and unequal access to justice. Yet the European Council and the High Representative celebrated Albania's performance in Luxembourg last April. This report now congratulates them. It is unacceptable and I am voting against it.

Madam President, China is not a trading partner. He's a commercial competitor. First, European industries and multinationals massively relocated their production to China to exploit cheap labor and raw materials. Then, China built shipping fleets, bought ports such as that of Piraeus, in total participates in 10 European ports, established a regime of labour exploitation with contractors and limited labour rights, with accidents at work and accidents, environmental pollution, financial fraud in the customs of the European Union. Three petitions on COSCO can be found in the Committee on Petitions. No response since February. In Greece, he bought politicians from almost all parties, including journalists. The Chinese ambassador himself intervened several times in the country's politics. To get the European Prosecutor to check the Greek scandal with COSCO, see how many will be found guilty. All this signals the loss of sovereignty. But you're not listening. You're not listening. That's a problem. Take back all of Europe's infrastructure from China.