Speeches

Madam President, this Parliament takes a step that will always be remembered: To recognize something as simple and at the same time as important as that if a person lives a sexual relationship in which he has not consented, in which there is no consensus, in which there is no agreement, it is not a free relationship, it is sexual violence. For centuries, women's bodies have been conceived as objects at the disposal of men and, according to that maxim, a culture was built according to which women have only been assaulted, we have only been raped, when we resisted and, if not, is that we wanted, is that we sought it or is that we lied. So much so that women are only believed when we are dead; We were only believed, for so long, when we were dead. And the gentlemen of the extreme right, when they insist on their speeches denying the truth of women, not believing women, saying that they are false denunciations, what they do is want the world to continue functioning that way. But the struggle of women is unstoppable: the struggle for our emancipation. Although we live in times of uncertainty, there is feminism opening horizons for the whole of humanity. Although the forces of reaction want to resubmit us to women, want to return us to private space, they will not be able to stop the force of feminism, because there is a consensus today among the younger generations. There is a consensus that sexual relations must be based on good treatment, consent, equality and respect. So, gentlemen of the extreme right, we are going to keep moving forward, because only yes is yes.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Iran, bombed by oil; Venezuela, intervened by oil; Cuba, suffocated without light; the Strait of Hormuz, burns... The illegal wars of their heads in the United States and Israel are leading us to an energy crisis like that of the 1970s. Oil already exceeds 120 dollars, gasoline, electricity, food... And who pays? You guys? The big oil bosses? No. It is always paid by working people, working families and humble people. In Spain, filling the gas tank exceeds two euros a liter while Josu Jon Imaz pays congratulations to Trump to do business in Venezuela, and you, on top, want to lower taxes. Where the majority suffers there is a minority that is getting rich and that is benefiting. You are responsible for the genocide against the Palestinian people and in Lebanon, you are responsible for the war and you are responsible for this crisis. They are handing over the future of our peoples by obeying NATO, Netanyahu, Trump. And we will say it loud and clear as many times as necessary: no to war, no to NATO.

(start of off-microphone intervention) ... While bombing Caracas and illegally abducting the president of Venezuela on the excuse that he was releasing a non-existent drug cartel, in Honduras he insulted a former president convicted of drug trafficking so that his party would come to power. Donald Trump has made it very clear: He wants Latin America for the United States, to be his backyard. Thanks to the impunity he enjoys and the submission, of course, of the European elites, he will continue to coerce peoples and their governments, kidnap presidents, bomb countries, manipulate elections and blackmail populations to vote what he imposes. There has to be democracy in Honduras and that is only guaranteed if there is respect for sovereignty and free elections, without coercion from a fascist tyrant like Donald Trump, but it is sovereignty that neither imperialism nor colonialism respect. The submission and vassalage of European elites to Donald Trump will not protect us; first it goes for Latin America and then it goes for Europe. Stop handing over our sovereignty to a fascist like Donald Trump.

Mr President, it no longer takes much imagination to know what you want to do here with migrants in Europe. We are seeing it in the United States: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), under Trump's orders, murders people, massively locks up those who have not committed any crime, separates children from their parents, and terrorizes the population. Terrorism and fascism in broad daylight. That is their model of freedom and that is what they are preparing here, with the Return Regulation: mass deportations, racial persecution against Arabs and blacks, and confinements for innocent people; a real atrocity. Then citizens will wonder what Europe is doing that is not stopping Donald Trump. But if you look more and more like Donald Trump. Long ago they buried the right to asylum and declared war on migrants, denying a fundamental human right: the right to free movement. Now that we are seeing the Black Panthers organize again in the United States, Assata Shakur said that no one has ever achieved their freedom by appealing to the morals of their oppressors. It would be absurd for me to try it with you, because you do not understand morality. You only defend the interests of the big exploiters and do not want to prevent migration from coming. That's a lie. What you want is for them to come in the worst conditions, in the most devastating and inhumane conditions, to accept any working condition; that the deaths in the Mediterranean are a warning of: Your life is worthless. That's what their racism is for, to divide the working class, to over-exploit one part, to make us all precarious. Because insecurity is what you racists generate.

Mr President, Spain is not a full democracy. The party of the ERE in Andalusia attacks the party of the Gürtel and, in turn, the party of the Punica and Mrs. Ayuso attacks the party of the Ábalos case or the Santos Cerdán case. It seems that you are competing for who is the corrupt exemplar, for which of the two he steals best. What is behind – what is at issue – is the case of ‘bipartisanship’: that both the People's Party and the Socialist Party rob the citizens with full hands. Both, whenever they rule, demonstrate that they are not qualified to do so democratically and both govern for large companies that pay the favors with envelopes. And look, notice, while bipartisanship steals with impunity, those who do fight for a full democracy in Spain are persecuted. The six of Zaragoza, the six of Switzerland, the seven of Somosaguas, the four of Rebeldía, those of Futuro Vegetal and so many other retaliated activists. I myself was condemned for mobilizing against an eviction with all the evidence against it, because the economic powers work like this: Either they buy you as the People's Party and the Socialist Party or they make you the dirty judicial war with the sewers, precisely for trying to fight for a full democracy in our country. But let it be clear to them that we are not going to abandon our conviction so that in our country there is a future and they do not steal it.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, you are as immoral as the genocidal ones. How far will your support for Israel go? How far will they support a genocidal state? After murdering 57,000 Palestinians with impunity, burning children alive, razing Gaza, trying to exterminate the entire population with famine, Israel has decided to launch an illegal offensive against Iran that can lead to a global nuclear war. And all this is thanks to their unconditional support, to decades and decades of occupation over the Palestinian territory, to bombings day after day on the civilian population, to the Israeli arms industry, to changing UNRWA for a private company that shoots Palestinians when they are starving, murders them and locks them up and cages them like the Nazis caged the Jews in the Holocaust. Can you really sleep peacefully at night? Despite their unconditional and criminal support, the Palestinian people are resisting. It also resists thanks to international solidarity, like the Freedom Flotilla or like that march to Egypt, even though the Egyptian dictatorship is repressing it. Not in our name, not in our name, yours will appear...

Mr President, Commissioner, when the war in Ukraine began, you said that with the escalation of war, increased military spending would make us more independent and more sovereign; Today you see that's a big lie. After three years we are more dependent – mainly on energy – on the United States, which since 2018 has increased its export of liquefied gas by 1 749 %. Those who have fought the war, apart from the big arms companies, are the energy companies. And now, faced with their failure, they are proposing more military spending and cuts to social rights, which also increases energy poverty. This plan that they are proposing today is a wet paper, you know perfectly well, in a European Union where there are no less than 42 million people who suffer from energy poverty and where, since its inception, the energy market is an oligopoly, a robbery and a scam to the citizenry. To lower the electricity bill, for us to be truly sovereign, we need more taxes on the big energy companies, a determined intervention of the energy market, public control and peace.

Mr President, Turkey systematically violates human rights, persecutes Kurdish opponents, locks up political prisoners, removes mayors... it is a state where the rule of law does not exist. Europe must not conclude agreements with countries that violate human rights and must not pay millions for border control, impeding the right to asylum, because Turkey will care more about continuing to receive those funds than the resolutions we adopt in this Parliament. I would like to recall that the deposed mayors must regain their mandate immediately and that the system of appointment of administrators by the Government must be abolished. From here the support to the Kurdish people without double standards - decided also in Syria - and the right to decide of all the oppressed peoples to live in their territories and to self-determination ... the recognition to the Kurdish people, also to the Saharawi people, to the people of Palestine, so that they can live once and for all in peace.

(start of off-microphone intervention) ...breaks with the World Health Organization or the Paris Agreement, or leaves USAID without funds. What are you telling us? Let the world rot; that the poor die; We are a government of the rich, of technobros who have come to save the big corporations, and goodbye to public health, humanitarian aid and the fight against the climate crisis. And for that they have a strategy: Do not look up, hate next door, forget that it is big companies that exploit you, charge a thousand dollars to betray your friend or your migrant neighbor, call trans people sick, feel empowered to denigrate women or say that Palestinians are animals. Trump is the representative of the most savage capitalism, without mask and without complexes, but, also, what is the European Union proposing at the moment? Because it has been walking along the same precipice for a long time, the big corporations defend in the same way, the submission to US imperialism, fifteen months financing a genocide against Palestine: They are betting on a more racist and more warmongering Europe and they are agreeing with their representative here in the European Union, which is Meloni's far right.

Madam President, the death penalty should be abolished worldwide, in Iran or in the United States. Two activists – two Kurdish women – are currently facing the death penalty in Iran. These are Pajshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi. Their crimes are opposing the Iranian regime, fighting for women's rights, defending and being part of the Kurdish minority: They are political prisoners. From here I express my appreciation to the Iranian women who two and a half years ago rose up in the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. And, from here, I express my rejection of the torture and repression they suffered and continue to suffer from the Iranian regime. Activists must be released. Human rights must always be defended. Stop, therefore, opposing our proposal for humanitarian visas. Women are changing the world. Listen to this, gentlemen of the far right, because you love to instrumentalize the feminist struggle for your geopolitical, racist or Islamophobic interests, but women's rights must always be defended. They must be defended in Iran, in Palestine, in Saudi Arabia or in the United States, where a sexual aggressor has declared war on women: Trump. In Iran and around the world, let the struggle of women live!

Mr President, the genocide did not begin on 7 October and, unfortunately, it does not end today, because the Zionist project of the State of Israel is the extermination of the Palestinian people, because Netanyahu and his collaborators have to be tried for war crimes and because the Palestinian territory has to be vacated and recovered. You come here today to say that you are celebrating the ceasefire, although you are responsible for this coming this far. Fifteen months! Fifteen months in which Israel has ravaged Gaza... (the Chair interrupted the speaker) As I said, fifteen months in which Israel has devastated Gaza, thanks to its unconditional support. Fifteen months in which humanitarian aid rotted in trucks, while weapons entered, which continued to kill Palestinian children. Not the ceasefire, but that's his doing. The genocide could have been avoided by you, from the governments of Europe, but you decided to support the genocidal and today you speak here to wash your consciences or to continue supporting Netanyahu. What will they tell the next generations? Will the history books dictate to hide their deeds? This photo is the symbol of cruelty, the collapse of Europe and the collapse of international law. We continue to support Palestine until Palestine is free.

Mr President, Commissioner, predatory tourism is sweeping our cities, our health, our life time, our neighbourhood networks, our planet. Degrade our spaces at high speed. Where there was a neighborhood store, there is now a neighborhood store. souvenirs; where there was a square, there is a tourist attraction; where there was a beach, there is concrete and large hotels; where there were streets, there are traffic jams, there are crowds. What needs to be fought is the mantra, which they insist over and over again, that it is good for the economy. For what economy? For those affected by natural disasters such as the Dana, for the Kellys who work in hotels for misery or for young people who in my country cannot pay rent because of tourist flats? The ones that always win are the hotel chains, the big companies, the real estate employers. In my country, to enter the European Union, what was said is that we had to be the chiringuito of Europe and that we had to have fewer engineers and more waiters, nothing for industry and everything for brick and for tourism. And there were the Socialist Party and the Popular Party to fulfill it. Now people can't do it anymore. She is fed up and knows that tourism has become unbearable for their lives and is taking to the streets, mobilizing, to demand that there be limits, that there be regulation against unbridled tourism. So, Commissioner, to protect our lives, to protect our planet, put limits on unbridled tourism.

Madam President, sexual violence is a weapon of war. And today, in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many women are suffering this most serious violation of human rights. Also in Palestine, by the way. But, ladies and gentlemen, beyond empty words and a return to the normalisation and impunity of sexual violence in our society, what should the European Union do? First, more humanitarian aid: it is clear – and this is stated by human rights organisations – that this is not enough. Secondly, to stop investing in more weapons, in more militarization, in the business of arms companies that manufacture weapons that go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sudan. Increasing military spending never creates more security. Third, to stop pushing a colonialist and extractivist policy: They call it cooperation but it means diverting official development aid for European companies to do business and it impedes the sovereignty of peoples in the global south, democracy and rights. Fourth, do not compromise with an ultra-right that denies violence against women to form a government here in the European Union. And, fifthly, not to make agreements with countries that violate human rights.

Madam President, today, as we commemorate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, I want to talk about one of the most common and most terrible causes of the violation of children's rights, which is gender-based violence against children: violence against women that directly affects children, because they are direct victims – not only witnesses – and many are orphans; vicarious violence, which is a form of violence against women where it hurts them most: mistreating and murdering children; violence which, moreover, is a reaction to feminist advances. Or sexual violence against children, which affects one in five children in the European Union and remains invisible, silent, protected and unpunished. Last week the Council of Europe highlighted my country, Spain, because it said that there is institutional abuse against protective mothers; mothers who, for protecting children, are criminalized and persecuted by the justice system. From here, my recognition and support to those mothers, those boys and those girls. Justice must cease to be adult-centric and patriarchal. The right to listen must be a guaranteed right. And an abuser is never a good father.

Mr President, the Cambodian Government is politically persecuting workers who organise to defend their rights, trade unionists, activists and journalists, the workers' rights organisation CENTRAL and its director. Today we call from this Parliament for the government to drop the charges, the persecution, the witch hunt against those who defend a democratic country, a democratic society based on labour rights and human rights. We also call for the European Union to put sanctions in place. But, ladies and gentlemen, this is not enough. The question is: who benefits from the violation of labour rights in Cambodia? Because many are owners of large textile companies, European companies. Cambodia is a country where one million people work in the textile industry (90% are women in absolutely inhumane conditions) and the European Union is Cambodia's second largest export market. Brands such as H&M or Inditex – whose owner is one of the richest men in the world – take advantage of this persecution of labour rights defenders by the Cambodian government. We therefore believe that Europe must take action against European companies that take advantage of the persecution that we all claim to be fighting.

Madam President, gentlemen of the far right, the integral sexual right in integral sexual education is a right of all boys and girls, regardless of what their parents say, regardless of the families of which they are part. Because comprehensive sex education is a guarantee to educate against harassment, to respect, to educate in respect for the diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity; also to respect the diversity of bodies, to identify violence, not to reproduce violence, to build relationships based on good treatment and consent and so that, as a society, we know that we can transform relationships and be better. Commissioner, you say that hatred against LGBTQI people is growing and that's true. It is not new that the far right identifies LGBTQI people as its main enemy, but what is new is that today, here, a new government has been signed in Europe that has at the center the ideas of the far right and that has the far right - who hate LGBTQI people - in the leadership of that government. How can Europe not be tinged with hatred if it has professional haters in its government? The far right speaks a lot about insecurity, but it is precisely she who generates insecurity against LGBTQI people. That is why, if they do not do it here, if the European Commission does not do it, if the Government of Europe does not do it...

Madam President, I would like to request that today's sitting be extended until 11 p.m. to include the debate on the obligations of the European Union and the Member States following the issuance by the International Criminal Court of arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Mohamed Deif Ibrahim for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These arrest warrants are a victory of international law over barbarism, a victory of the citizens – who have mobilised around the world to defend Palestine – and also a victory of the Palestinian people. But if Netanyahu has been perpetrating ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people for more than a year, it is because he has had the support of the European Union: diplomatic support, political support and financial support. Today, the European institutions have to comply, they have to oblige the Member States that have signed the Rome Statute to comply. It is an unbearable shame that we have Germany, Italy and Hungary saying that they will not comply. To fail to do so is to take international law for granted. Stop siding with war criminals and side with human rights once and for all.

Madam President, Turkey's authoritarian government is becoming more dangerous every day. The case of Bülent Mumay, sentenced in May 2023 to 20 months in prison for telling what the government did not want him to tell, is just one more case, one of many, and a very serious case showing that freedom of the press and the right to information are increasingly persecuted. But, unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg of persecution against civil society, against journalists, against human rights defenders, against Kurds and against political opposition. The Turkish government censors voices defending human rights and democracy, and controls the mainstream media and judges. But, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to convey to you an important point, which is that the European Union has given Turkey no less than EUR 10 billion since 2011 and has done so to externalise borders, to expel migrants, to do the dirty work of the European Union in violation of human rights. In fact, the Turkish Government itself boasted and welcomed the expulsion of Syrians and Afghans, Afghans and Afghans with the Taliban regime, namely 28 thousand Afghans and Afghans. So we defend human rights always and for all people.

Mr President, Commissioner, you speak in your report on the rule of law in the European Union about the declassification of official secrets. And these days in my country everyone talks about some audios that have leaked some conversations of the nineties between the king emeritus and an examante, Barbara Rey. In these conversations, the emeritus celebrates the silence of General Armada, who promoted and directed the attempted coup d'état in 1981 in my country. What does the king know that, more than forty years later, the citizenry still does not know? The truth is that the king emeritus could have participated in an attempted coup d'état, but the parties of the bipartisanship imposed silence and made the citizenry not know the truth, protecting those responsible. It is urgent to declassify official secrets. These audios do not talk about the sex-affective messes of the king emeritus, but they talk about the economic and political functioning of the system in my country: of a corrupt monarchy, heir to Francoism, which is above the citizens and outside the law. That's why, that's all right. Citizens have the right to know what has happened in the history of our country. And not to know it because it breaks the omertá among gangsters, but precisely because democracy works. So please tell your colleagues in the People's Party and the Socialist Party to declassify these official secrets once and for all.