Speeches

Mr President, Portugal and Europe have Africa in their flesh. Not only in maps, trade routes or diplomatic treaties, but in veins, in blood, in the living memory of our collective being. Álvaro de Campos wrote about the "old ships", the "ports of Africa" and the "winds of the South" he felt in his flesh. Like the poet, we feel Africa in our flesh, because our destiny has intersected with hers, in pains, hopes, exchanges and promises. So for us, Africa is much more than a resource-rich continent or a stage of dispute between the great powers. And that is why when, in Nigeria, Mozambique or Congo, Christians are persecuted and killed, a wound opens up in our common body. Now, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the EU-Africa partnership in Luanda, let us remember that to forget that common body is to lose one’s soul. To forget the flesh of Africa is to lose the soul of Europe.

Madam President, since the beginning, men have dreamed of freedom with the face of a woman. It's not by chance. The feminine contains the alchemy of the world: the tenderness that consoles, the fury that liberates, the patience that knows no surrender, the beauty that does not consent, sir. She was Athena in the marbles, Joan of Arc in the flames, Marianne in the barricades and the colossal freedom in bronze illuminating the exiles. Before each and every one of them, she was Antigone, facing the absurd orders of men. Today, the flame of freedom burns again in a South American Antigone: María Corina Machado. Because only the feminine preserves, before death, the gift of the metamorphosis of life: falls, bleeds and is reborn. No tyranny will survive. Freedom is coming to Venezuela with the face of a woman who has, in her right hand, the Nobel Peace Prize and, in her left hand, the Sakharov Prize.

Mr President, today, on the second anniversary of 7 October, Europe is filled with demonstrations, not to remember it, but to erase it, not to remember the victims, nor to demand the release of the hostages still in Gaza, but to ignore them. Europe is sick again, with the same moral infection that less than a century ago led to the persecution and extermination of the Jews. In Europe of never again, the Jews, in order not to have to leave, go back into hiding, and those who do not want to hide go back into hiding. Every day we see the reversal of the Holocaust, the miserable appropriation of the suffering of the Jewish people to accuse the Jews themselves. Today, Europe is once again surrendering to its two favourite passions: Condolence and condemnation. He loves to show condolences for dead Jews and condemn Jews who refuse to die. Today, each of us can still choose where we stand in the fight against anti-Semitism. What we cannot choose is the place that history holds for us, or against us, for all eternity.

Thank you for your question. I will make an effort to speak in French. My colleague is not here. She is able to answer for herself. But what I can say is that Portugal this summer has done a lot of things, but I don't have the... I don't have the numbers to compare these years with the previous years, so actually I cannot respond to your question except to say that my colleague is very good and she can answer for herself.

Mr President, Europe is facing increasingly intense heat waves, with significant impacts on public health, especially among the most vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children and the chronically ill. This happens in Portugal, where we also had the largest wave of fires in the whole of Europe, which further evidenced the insufficient protection of the populations. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the victims of this summer's fires in Portugal and to the Portuguese firefighters, the true national heroes. It is imperative that Member States take responsibility for addressing these challenges by developing solutions tailored to the cultural and social specificities of each country. The effectiveness of the measures depends on their adequacy to the local context. However, in the fight against both heat waves and fires, negligent actions and political omissions persist that put our safety and well-being at risk. The European Union should not impose uniform rules, as the basic principle of subsidiarity says, but support the 27 countries to lead effective policies, respecting their particularities and ensuring the protection of the most exposed citizens. Above all, we need leadership and action, because, as Dante wrote, "laws already exist, but who applies them?"

Mr President, 'education is everything. We don't need small changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces, competition for the best teachers should be fierce. These words from the series The West Wing They remind us that education is not a building like any other. It must rise like a palace: with foundations of cooperation that add strength, and columns of competitiveness that refine excellence. We therefore agree, as a matter of principle, with alliances between universities that act as true monuments of European knowledge, able to compete with the rest of the world: from the United States to the United Kingdom, increasingly passing through Asia itself. But no palace can resist if it is occupied and captured by ideologies dedicated to demolishing palaces. The de-politicization and de-wokization of academic institutions, long captured by political militancy, is absolutely indispensable. Only in this way will universities fulfill their promise to be spaces of light, not dungeons of militancy, temples of reason, not trenches of ideology.

Mr President, last month the plenary of the European Parliament rejected the report on the Seville Conference. There were 340 MEPs against, 282 in favour. A new political majority has realized that what many pretend not to see: the current development finance model is exhausted. The Seville Conference ended with more vague promises and a general declaration, the so-called 'Seville Commitment', where everything is repeated and little is committed. Meanwhile, the Court of Auditors of the European Union continues to warn that there are serious flaws in the way European funds are allocated to NGOs, often without criteria or visible consequences. It takes courage to say "enough." And it is emerging – the European Commission has already withdrawn the directive from Green Claims, yet another environmentalist legislative delusion, with no scientific basis or practical impact. These are victories of the Right – conservative and realistic – advocating a new paradigm: Less ideology, more results. Instead of weeping at USAID's departure from the scene, we should follow Margaret Thatcher's advice: Do not follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you. Europe must lead – with its own solutions, serious bilateral partnerships with governments and local actors, more active multilateral development banks, well-implemented funds and a full focus on results and accountability. No more funding doctrinal speeches. It's time to finance impact. It is time to demand responsibility and not mere rhetoric.

Madam President, in 1945, contemplating the devastating power of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, leader of the Manhattan Project, quoted the Hindu Vedic scriptures: Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Nuclear proliferation is the most serious threat to international security. She is the slow poison of our age: silent, strategic, relentless. Every clandestine facility, every centrifuge hidden in the desert, is a step closer to the destruction of worlds. When, in Iran, the tyranny of the Ayatollahs was clandestinely advancing along this path, threatening not only their neighbours but world peace, it was necessary to say 'No'. And we have to thank Donald Trump for doing so. In ordering the surgical destruction of three Iranian nuclear facilities, Trump did not destroy worlds. Trump has preserved worlds. He did what many before him feared to do: acted. With courage and precision. It did not escalate the war: It did not increase the risk of escalation: And in so doing, it saved more than one region: He saved a world of possibilities.

Mr President, in the doctrine of Ordo Amoris, St. Augustine taught that love must be ordained: from the nearest to the furthest. First to God, then to the family, then to the community, and then to the most distant. Today, with family reunification at the heart of migration policy, it is essential to assert our position head-on against policies that promote uncontrolled immigration. Portugal already has 1.6 million immigrants. Without limits, we will exceed 2 million. This pressure erases our identity, undermines our security, challenges national cohesion and puts Schengen, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, at risk. We have to have a heart, but also a head. Generosity doesn't have to be naive. Our first obligation is to our community and who elected us. The river out of the bed becomes a flood. The medicine, without measure, makes you sick. Even good, when ungoverned, can destroy. So that we do not destroy the cohesion of our countries and the Schengen Europe, we will fight the family reunification of migrants.

Mr President, Thomas Hobbes' monumental work 'Leviathan' refers to the image of a monstrous state in size and absolute in power, which becomes an end in itself and lives for its own survival and expansion. The budgets of the European Union – what is under discussion today and the previous ones – increasingly resemble Hobbes’s Leviathan, a huge financial monster, sustained by taxpayers, but dedicated above all to a bureaucratic machine that keeps growing. In particular for development funds, this budget reflects a worrying lack of rigour and scrutiny. In 2023, the External Action Service managed billions of euros, but the effectiveness of these funds in third countries remains opaque, with reports from the Court of Auditors pointing to serious weaknesses and serious risks of corruption. It is time to tackle waste in politically oriented programs that consume resources without tangible results. We don't need Leviathans. we need open societies based on individual freedom and the scrupulous management of public affairs.

Mr President, the wave of executions plaguing Iran once again exposes the nature of a regime that does not govern, it haunts. Iran is not just a political regime. It is a night without stars, a theological project of darkness, an immense moral eclipse dedicated to extinguishing, under the same cruelty, the light of reason, the flame of freedom and the brilliance of woman. Against this heavy and anachronistic darkness, the Abraham Accords are more than diplomacy, they are the spark of a new principle, ripping like dawn, a long night. St. Abraham, the patriarch of the possible, confronts Khomeini, the fanatic of the absolute. In this battle between the descendants of the promise and the priests of punishment, between the light of Abraham and the darkness of Khomeini, what is at stake is the soul of a civilization. In Iran, executions, especially public executions, are typically carried out at dawn, as if the regime ending a life, just as the world begins again, wanted to disrupt the inevitable transition between night and day, between darkness and light. But one day the dark regime will finally see its last sunrise.

Mr President, the flight of the most talented young Europeans is a symptom of a more fundamental problem: The Decline of Europe. This escape is a warning, a signaling system on the road of history. It is in their youth that civilizations see their own future, and what they tell us as they depart is clear: Europe has no future and loses ground every day to the United States, Asia and even parts of the Middle East. Let us return to the young the Europe that lives according to the famous normative imperative transmitted by Polonius to his son Laertes, in Shakespeare's Hamlet: Be faithful to yourself, and from this it will follow, as from night to day, that you cannot be false to anyone. Let us give young people back the Europe of freedom. Europe focused on the individual and families, not the state. Europe with less regulation, less taxes, more economic and technological competitiveness. Let us return to young people a Europe capable of controlling illegal immigration, defending its identity and fighting unceasingly against the corruption that erodes democratic institutions. The Europe of the Ivy Leagues, of the universities of reference. The solution is not only to bring our new talents back, but to reverse the decline that drives them away. That's the only way we'll be, not an exile factory, but a talent hub.

Madam President, recently, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, revealed hidden USAID funding to media outlets such as Politico and the BBC, as well as to NGOs associated with specific ideologies. This scandal exposed the lack of transparency in the use of public funds in the United States. In the European Union, we face similar challenges. We have the right to know where our taxpayers' money goes, what projects are financed, who benefits from European Official Development Assistance funds. That think tanks, which media were funded by the European Commission? What policy are we unknowingly subsidizing? Without clear answers, trust in the European institutions is shattered and democracy weakened. It is imperative to create a European Department for Government Efficiency. This body will ensure that every euro is spent in a transparent and accountable manner, ensuring that funding does not serve hidden interests, but the common good.

Madam President, Commissioner, we strongly support free trade, recognising its benefits for economic growth and the prosperity of nations. We know well the history of the 1920s and 1930s and we do not want to repeat it. We also believe that the EU-Mercosur Agreement has geopolitical advantages, such as curbing China’s growing influence in South America and strengthening Europe’s Atlantic axis. But, as always, we will shape our positions in accordance with our national interests, especially those of our farmers, fishermen, industrialists and small and medium-sized traders, who are the backbone of our economy. We are in constant contact with entrepreneurs and workers in the sectors covered by the Agreement, as no one knows the reality better than they do. Your concerns are legitimate, especially in the face of competition from products from third countries that do not meet the same quality and safety standards that we demand from our producers. We have an obligation to ensure fair and just competition, and to ensure that our productive sectors are properly safeguarded. That's how we'll do it.

Mr President, it is precisely because I respect the Venezuelan people that I take this position. I think everyone – perhaps less the Honourable Member and his party – recognises that the last elections were not free and fair elections. That is what this is all about. If, in free and fair elections, the people had chosen who is there in power now, the question would be different, but unanimously knows that this is not what happened. It is respect for the people that is at stake here.

Mr President, Venezuela is going through one of the worst crises in its history. This country, once the leader in Latin America, is collapsing. In 1998, GDP per capita exceeded $8,000. Today it is only 1,500. More than 40% of the population lives in extreme poverty and almost seven million Venezuelans have left the country, seeking refuge abroad. This tragedy is the direct result of the corruption, mismanagement and authoritarianism of the regimes of Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro. Basic services are destroyed: hospitals without medicines and schools where thousands of children have lost access to education and food. Despite this, resistance persists. Maria Corina Machado faces constant persecution and even kidnapping attempts, but keeps the hope of millions of Venezuelans alive. Edmundo González, recognised by several European institutions as the legitimate president of Venezuela, represents a democratic alternative. On the issue of Venezuela, the European Union must act with firmness and leadership. I propose that the Union organise an international conference to coordinate political and economic support for Venezuela. This unprecedented effort should include strengthening sanctions directed at Maduro's regime, while offering support to González and Corina Machado to prepare for a future transition of power. Europe must work side by side with the United States, seizing the opportunity of the new Trump administration to push for a democratic transition in the country. Finally, a word to the Portuguese community in Venezuela, people of work and resilience, who helped build the country and now face immense challenges. We will not forget you and we will not fail you.

Thank you very much for the question. The victim is not, on the contrary, the trust of those who are not afraid of social networks and of those who are not afraid of freedom. And the answer to your question is one: It is trust in the people, in the discernment of the people, in the common sense of the people, in the intelligence of the people. Since, besides everything else, the alternative, which is to prohibit and censor, is always much worse than the risks that freedom may have, according to your question. I think freedom has no risks. Freedom must be total and is always welcome.

Mr President, this debate is about TikTok as much as it is about social media and the fear of the power that it gives to ordinary people. If the 20th century was called "the century of the people," the 21st century will go down in history as the century of the people's power. And that's essentially because of X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Under the pretext of fighting disinformation and hate speech or preventing outside interference, what is really intended is to destroy the political revolution that social media is carrying out, by increasing the power of the people in an unprecedented way, while reducing the power of representatives. What is at stake is the reaction of the current power elite to the shift from representative democracy to participatory democracy. What is at stake is the fear that the elites have of the people. But this debate is also against all the protagonists of the current political and technological revolution. It's against Donald Trump, it's against Elon Musk, it's against the political parties now grouped together in Patriots for Europe. And worst of all, this debate is about the fear of freedom, the fuel of all tyrannies. Let us return, then, to Karl Popper, to his defence of the open society and to his paradox of tolerance, which, it should be remembered, referred to 'fists and pistols', not to opinions and ideas.

Mr President, with the reopening of Notre-Dame, we are witnessing more than the restoration of a monument, it is the rebirth of a vital symbol of faith and Western civilization. After the devastation of the flames, its reconstruction is a call to unity in defence of our values. As Pope John Paul II said: Do not be afraid. Open, or rather, open wide the doors to Christ. This appeal now echoes in the restored stones of Notre-Dame. The presence in the cathedral of leaders like Donald Trump on the 8th reaffirms the importance of protecting our Christian roots in the West. Movements such as Patriot for Europe and Make America Great Again reflect this political, cultural and civic resistance, at a time when many attack the symbols of faith to reach good men, their dreams and their achievements. At the limit, our way of life. But Notre-Dame also reminds us of our duty to protect Christianity in the world. All our attention and prayers are with the Christians of Syria. Europe must safeguard itself from a new migration crisis, which it cannot endure without leaving the Syrian Christian community unprotected. Let us celebrate the strength of the Christian heritage as a beacon for the future. May this reconstruction inspire not only Europe, but all those who believe in freedom and human dignity sustained by faith.

Mr President, on the subject of revolt, Albert Camus reminded us that freedom is that terrible name inscribed on the chariot of storms. In Iran, this name echoes today in the voice of women who refuse the veil and, even under the whipping of the whips and the darkness of the prisons, dare to say: We are the storm. The veil imposed upon them conceals the flesh, but it does not cover the truth which they bear, nor does it cover the tempest which the skies of Persia, heavy with the most indomitable promise ever made to the human soul, announce. They are the storm. Oppressors who do not understand freedom, because they do not understand either the coming of storms or the determination of women, are doomed to be swept away by one or the other. They are the storm. One day, the long but already decrepit shackle of the Iranian theocracy will be struck by a Persian storm under the name of woman. Because in its essence, Iran will always be Persian and woman will always be free. The skies of Persia no longer deceive and the veils of Iran can no longer stand. They are the storm.

Mr President, Donald Trump's landslide victory in the recent election in the United States is a historic break almost as deep as the fall of the Berlin Wall or the end of the Soviet Union. Born from the strength of a wider popular movement, this election inhabits the hearts and minds of the American people and also of the European. Europe now faces a choice: subject transatlantic relations to outdated ideologies and party-political interests or stand up with dignity, aligning with this irreversible change and seizing this opportunity. Regrettably, what we see in the reactions in Parliament and the Commission, in the parties on our left, including part of the EPP, is a total failure to understand this historic moment, persisting in the criticisms and offenses of Donald Trump and the lawsuits against Elon Musk. Let us be clear: In this way, it will be you, not Trump, who will end NATO. You should be the first to remember Gore Vidal's warning in his book Empire. When the story starts moving under our feet, we have to hitch a ride or we're hit by it.