What Maria spoke about.

Madam President, you agreed among yourselves behind closed doors and brought us spectators to a rigged game. Hearings are a cheap show and you untalented actors in a badly played play. You have not kept your pretexts, since you have not cut a single Commissioner. There are "appointments" by the governments themselves, such as the Greek Commissioner Tzitzikostas in the Transport portfolio, with whom the President of the Commission repays the hospitality of Mr. Mitsotakis in Chania, to cover up the Greek government and at European level the scandal of the railway crime of 57 young people in Tempi in 2023. Those who vote in favour, unfortunately, become their accomplices. As a trade unionist, I find the absence of a portfolio exclusively for work provocative and unacceptable. This shows that social policy is well on the sidelines and that the world of work will be hit harder by its rights. Colleagues, I will vote against this theatre, but I will continue to fight for a Europe of values, transparency, democracy, peace, humanism and culture.

Mr President, the Tempi tragedy, with 57 dead and 180 injured, is the biggest railway accident in Europe. A terrible crime of corruption and state responsibility, with the protagonists of the New Democracy government and its executives. Despite the initial resignation of Transport Minister Costas Karamanlis, the government intervened in the judiciary and tampered with the crime scene, with funds earmarked for development projects, with the assistance of its executive – the Regional Governor of Thessaly. One and a half million citizens are calling for the rulers to be controlled by the judiciary. The European Public Prosecutor sued for wasted European funds leaving behind a dangerous rail network with blind trains, but New Democracy in Parliament blocked the investigation protecting its former minister. In this environment of immunity and impunity, President von der Leyen is helping to cover up the crime by giving the Transport portfolio to Mr Tzitzikostas, a member of the ruling party, while the Transport Committee is already chaired by a member of New Democracy. These moves involve the European Union in the cover-up and I ask you to stop them.

Mr President, I received an e-mail from the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Belgium, in which I was notified along with 20 other colleagues. He was replying to a letter from a fellow Member, which had never been sent to me, and he was replying in an intense, almost threatening tone to the introduction, in order to follow his narrative. Obviously, he included me in the notification because I signed a text calling for the release of the Armenian prisoners. I want to state here, from the plenary, in the most formal way, that I am not terrified. The European Parliament is not terrified. I express my solidarity with the Armenians who were deported from their homeland after the unjust war against them by Azerbaijan, with the help of the Turkish war machine. I call for the release of the Armenian prisoners. The European Union cannot cooperate with countries that have made human rights and international law rusty paper. We must take a stand to support the Armenians who have historically been entitled to return to their homeland.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the employment guidelines are nothing more than the wishes of Members of the European Parliament, which are usually ignored by the Member States. In Greece, free collective bargaining has been abolished since 2012. The Minister of Labour decides the minimum wage. We were subjected to further restrictions on the right to strike, six days and eleven hours. Employees at the mercy of employers. Why is it? Because it is a key component of the European free market union to curtail labour rights. What are the markets? Bankers, industrialists, shipowners, multinationals and investment funds who only care about their profit. Capital is markets. Therefore, when you say that the minimum wage will be determined by the market, you mean that employers will be in charge. Returning full speed to the slave model with night-to-night work for a dry piece. In fact, the Commission in its original text asks us to raise the retirement age, to work until we die. These policies only serve their profits. I call on the millions of workers in Europe to resist.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Greece is in a new dark age of encroachment on the rule of law. The surveillance with Predator and EYP was not just a scandal. It was the means for the government to gain full control over the institutions. The government of Mr. Mitsotakis controls the judiciary and the major media, intervenes in the work and composition of independent authorities, such as the Authority for Communication Security and Privacy, and in the work of the Ombudsman, while trying to silence any voice that resists corruption. In the crime of Tempi with the 57 dead, the government intervened and altered the crime scene to cover up its responsibilities. He is therefore seeking to appoint Mr Tzitzikostas as Commissioner for Transport. To avoid the consequences. I call on the TRAN Committee to rise to the occasion, to vote against it and to require the President of the Commission to appoint a Commissioner for Transport from another Member State. We demand sanctions against the Greek government for violating the principles of the rule of law.

Mr President, what future of agriculture in Europe are we talking about today, when in Greece in 2024 farmers and stockbreeders are still claiming what is given in all the countries of Europe? Last year Thessaly was destroyed by the bad weather Daniel, animals were lost, drowned, production will take years to restore, and this year the plague in animals finished off what was left. The government's promises are not being fulfilled. The current policy of the European Union dramatically reduces the income of small and medium-sized enterprises, with soaring production costs, oil and electricity in rallies of taxes and prices. Drastic financial support, price reductions, tax deductions, compensation for damaged plant and livestock, flood defences, drought measures and tighter border controls are needed to combat illegal imports – Hellenisations that brought the plague. These are the key issues for the future of agriculture in Greece. We all need to understand the value of agriculture in our lives, because – as farmers say and Greek life knows – ‘without us, what will you eat?’.