Speeches

For socialists, gender equality is a fundamental pillar of political action, even more so in these times of setbacks in women's rights and democracy. That is why we have promoted and voted in favour of the proposal for a Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030. The EPP, including the Spanish PP, has voted against key points, such as the application of the gender perspective to European policies and the budget and the incorporation of equality as a reinforced principle in the next Multiannual Financial Framework. In addition, the Spanish PP abstained in the final vote on the Strategy. This vote makes it clear who considers equality an electoral adornment, with which the PP plays the game to the far right. Without gender mainstreaming in policies or the budget, without conditionality or parity in decision-making, transformation will not be achieved and the far right ends up being right when equality policies do not work.

Madam President, this report should have been an exercise in institutional responsibility to strengthen transparency, ethics and good governance in the European institutions. And we did our part of the work, kept our word and voted on the compromises in the Committee on Petitions. But, as usual in that committee, the EPP Group, instead of sticking to the work done, opened the door to the far right to put its political and ideological slogans that, by the way, they replicate in all committees in the same way and that have nothing to do with the work that has been done in the institution. The result, because we have a report whose real author - who is there - had to give it up. Now what do we do? Our group has kept its word, Madam Ombudsman, Mrs Anjinho, this group, as you know, is serious, responsible and committed to institutionality. The answer has to be given by the Popular Group, which is the one who has to solve the problem because it was the one who created it. That despite adulterating the report, now the far right tells them that they will not vote in favor of the report. Why? Because they don't believe in institutionality. Go back to consensus, go back to common sense and go back to Europeanism.

Mr President, uncertainty is increasing throughout the Union, not only because of wars, but also because of new emerging challenges, such as the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters that we are experiencing, for example, in my homeland, in Valencia. While it is clear that these problems cannot be solved by the annual budget alone, we can ensure that the Union has sufficient resources to act where it is most needed. In this context of so much uncertainty and challenges, both internal and external, our Group wants a budget that creates prosperity for our citizens, creates and improves employment opportunities and strengthens our security without leaving anyone behind. That is why our priorities are social investments, affordable housing, upholding European values, implementing the European Green Deal, security and defence cooperation, but above all a stronger role for Europe on the global stage. These guidelines are very important because they will form the basis of the next multiannual financial framework.

Madam President, I would like to speak in this debate about the terrible reality that children are experiencing. How has a country like the United States come to use a child as bait in order to detain its parents? ICE operations no longer only affect children indirectly, they are part of the strategy to be able to detain their parents. They go to the gates of schools and kindergartens and take the children so that their parents run to them, so that they can stop them. How can you not condemn this? What if it was your son who was in a detention center for weeks and they were watching him lose his health? What if it was your baby who had a respiratory arrest because pepper spray had fallen to stop his father? Children live in panic that their parents are not home when they return from school. Yesterday we talked about cyberbullying; Let them know that a girl committed suicide because her classmates threatened to report her parents. Trump said he was worried the kids would watch Bad Bunny's dance at the final of the Super Bowl, while they force Latino children to watch their parents being held at gunpoint. Brave hypocrites! I hope you at least have more decency than Trump.

Mr President, I would like to begin by stressing that the European Union's election observation in Honduras undoubtedly contributed to building trust and pacifying a very delicate electoral process. It should be remembered that Honduras has experienced, for almost two decades, episodes of political violence. He even suffered a coup d'état in 2009 and that is not a minor detail. We have to contextualize the institutional fragility and democratic weakness experienced by countries such as Honduras. That is why we in the European Parliament have a very important responsibility. The Honduran population offered us a real lesson in civility, pacifism, democratic commitment, even in a context of strong polarization on the part of all political parties. That is why in this Parliament, which has helped to appease the situation, we now have a special responsibility. We have to live up to the responsibility that citizens have given us and we do not have to feed any logic of confrontation or opposing sides. Quite the opposite: Our duty is to call for calm, peace and cooperation between the political forces and thus to accompany Honduras to the democratic responsibility that the European Union wants in Latin America.

Madam President, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Yemen, Myanmar, Nicaragua, to name the most relevant. It has been a black year for human rights, not forgetting the violence and criminalization that migrants and human rights activists are suffering in the United States. It is black, not only because of gravity, but also because of its normalization. The attack is global, cross-cutting and systematic. And what is the European Union doing? What is more, can we guarantee from the European Union that the year 2026 will be better? That is why the report is right when it says that defending human rights means putting more resources, not just words and speeches. We need permanent lines of humanitarian aid in the financial framework. We need an instrument for rebuilding Gaza and suspending our trade agreements when human rights are not respected, to tell those who want to rule with force that the European Union will always be a refuge and hope for the oppressed.

Madam President, first of all I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs for the work we have done in committee. With the approval of this report we will approve a historic aid for the municipalities devastated by the Dana in Valencia and by the cyclones in France. But historical doesn't mean enough. It barely reaches 10%, in the case of Spain, and 2.5, in the case of France, of the total money invested. That is why I would like to appeal to the Commission. A Europe of solidarity means a Europe that protects and helps the territories most vulnerable to increasingly violent climate change. And that is why the proposal they have made for a financial framework is absolutely insufficient for this Europe of solidarity. And I want to make another appeal as well. Just because it's historical doesn't mean it's good. Valencians don't want to receive any more aid. We don't want to have such a deep wound again. Therefore, I want to tell the Popular Party and Vox that, before reaching an agreement in Valencia that abolishes and eliminates the Green Deal, remember that they do so in a land where climate change has left 229 dead and tens of thousands of families destroyed. Let them remember. And, finally: we are more than 700 people – 720 – very different. But I think there is one thing that unites us and that is the will to help those who are worse off, those who need it most. That is why I ask you to vote in favour so that Valencia knows - if you do not respect me, at least respect my city and the memory of the victims when we are talking about this - and so that the victims know that the dignity and memory of what has happened will remain forever in this House.

Mr President, Commissioner, we do not agree with the structure of the plan, but what we do agree on is that it must be an ambitious financial framework. And, to be really ambitious, the current framework does not meet the objectives we have set ourselves. It is not possible to cover new priorities, such as the European Competitiveness and Defence Fund, to maintain traditional priorities, such as agriculture or cohesion, and to pay for NextGenerationEU. That's a reality. Therefore, we have to go much further and we have to make a proposal for own resources that is more ambitious and therefore includes the digital levy, and my group will not stop insisting on that. And I want to address the Popular Party: it is absolutely incoherent to defend defence and competitiveness, to sign manifestos in favour of maintaining the CAP and not to support the Commission's own resources proposal. We have to get wet, we have to decide and we have to support the proposal made by the Commission.

Mr. President, learning from dana is not just investing more in prevention, emergencies or resilience. It is also to do so in humanity and empathy. Because when the institutions mistreat or ignore the victims, as the Generalitat Valenciana has done, that is also damage. The vice president went so far as to blame them for not knowing how to protect themselves and, therefore, for their deaths. Mazón has not met with them, has ignored them, has defamed them and has also accused them of being politicized, as if a mother could pretend or exaggerate the pain of having lost her daughter. Insinuating that is institutional maltreatment and neglect. And it's also part of the disaster. And we have to learn from the political failure of the People's Party in my land. Europe not only needs more and better infrastructure, it needs human institutions that listen, accompany and repair. That is why we should create the European status of victims of natural disasters, so that empathy does not depend on who governs, but is a guaranteed right for all. And we should also talk about how we treat those who suffer these catastrophes.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, Europe and its families are facing a very complex and complicated moment: climate crisis, housing crisis, growing inequality, loss of competitiveness and war. And from us they expect a firm response, with a strong, fair and people-centered budget. However, the proposal made by the Council is for cuts in programmes with unquestionable European value. And why? Because there's no money. We don't have enough resources. And this has to be a clear sign that, if we do not arrive in 2026, we cannot defend maintaining the same size of the financial framework until 2034. It's just absurd. That is why we need to be more ambitious and take advantage of this to support the increase in the size of the financial framework. And I would ask you to please also vote on the amendment that we have tabled as a political group so that women on maternity leave can vote electronically. Because it is shameful that in this House we see women who have to bring their newborn baby to be able to exercise their right to vote. An embarrassing image that we must eradicate from this House.

Mr President, yesterday Trump once again threatened Europe with reopening the trade war, because we sanctioned Google, a large American technology company that blocks legitimate competition from our European search engines. And all that, in addition, in the framework of a dinner, where the owners of the big platforms dined with Trump while boasting that they squeeze, subjugate and subject Europe to their own interests. That is why, Commissioner, the digital tax is not only tax justice, it is also European sovereignty. It is democratic dignity and it is telling Trump that he can put the tablecloth on and serve dinner to a table of millionaires, but that the only thing that matters to us Europeans is that, when they get up from the table, they pay the bill first.