Speeches

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your As a new parliamentarian, I am surprised and angry at the anxiety I have encountered among elected representatives here. Today is the 365th of October, and we remember the worst pogrom since the Holocaust. More than a hundred innocent people, including several young children, are still being held hostage in Gaza, and Parliament has still not adopted a single resolution dealing solely with hostages. Why was it impossible to have a resolution on the attack this session? Why is it impossible to discuss the withdrawal of aid to an organisation that is repeatedly found to be linked to Hamas, or to label Hezbollah as a whole as a terrorist? I am ashamed of the vacillation of the European Parliament. This struggle that Israel is waging is that of the entire Western world; a struggle for a civilization that can distinguish good from evil, victims from perpetrators. That Hamas would be capable of the most inhumane of abuses comes as hardly a surprise. But the fact that the West would be full of anti-Semitic terror hugs and anxious politicians is all the more surprising. The verdict of history will be harsh.

Madam President, I would like to thank you for your If we were to play with the idea that, thanks to Ukraine's sustained defence of its country and thus of Europe, we are still in the 1938 scenario, what do we and our allies need to do to prevent us from being transferred to 1939? Have we really realised the consequences for the Ukrainian people, for every small country in the vicinity of the Russian bear, for the security order that has been in place since the Second World War, if Ukraine is not given the opportunity to win the war? Today, it became known that Putin for the third time wants to expand the army with another 180,000 people. We are heading for another winter in a war that we all say we want Ukraine to win, while some countries with their restrictions are effectively forcing Ukrainians to fight with one arm tied behind them. I do not think that everyone, even in this House, has really realised that the price paid by the Ukrainians to regain their freedom and security may also have to be paid by us. How prepared are we really for that? We need each and every one of us, at all levels, to ask ourselves whether Russia is continuing its war into Europe, knowing full well that we will never use NATO's full strength first, which in itself is a signal that hardly seems deterrent. What do we need to have built up over the next five years to have the capacity to respond to such aggression?

Mr President, I would like to thank you. Many of us have wondered how the Holocaust happened. After October 7th, we'll know. The silence of many about the rapes, hostages and hate attacks against Jews. I have met Jewish mothers who feel guilty for the legacy they passed on and young people who asked Holocaust survivors about their future in Europe. If we do not want Europe's synagogues to be empty in 30 years' time as a museum of the Jewish life that existed, we need clear language. Today's anti-Semitism with its roots in the Middle East does not march in high boots. Instead, it camouflages its hatred with contemporary politically correct language about liberation and tolerance. The Jew was the root of everything. Today it is Israel, for the Jew is the new Israel, but anti-Semitism is the same. Anti-Semitism is stigmatizing. For this, we Europeans have a special responsibility. I expect the European Commission to urgently update the current anti-Semitism strategy when it fails. Never again is now.