Speeches

Mr. President, dear colleagues, as you know, Romania has finally elected its President. After a series of violations of the Constitution that involved both the liquidation of some candidates and the effective annulment of the elections, we finally have a president who for about a month has been unable to find a prime minister. Since half of the Romanian people feel that you, Brussels and Strasbourg, have put the President in Romania, I respectfully ask you to also put us in charge of a Prime Minister. Put us in a prime minister so that Romania knows where it is going, what its economic and social life will be. No, we leave aside sovereignty, that I understand that sovereignty is no longer important and that you dislike that sovereignty which is the creator of the modern state and which is the keeper of traditions and customs. That sovereignty that ultimately opposes the involvement of global governance institutions that come upon us and impose on us what to eat, how to eat, what to do, how long to stay at home, how much to spend, what money to spend, and ultimately impose on us all our lifestyles. While globalism seems to be more fashionable, that globalism which represents nothing more than a society in decline, a society that evens out...

Madam President, I would start this speech by asking something that seems extremely fundamental to me. Do we here in this House, whenever we speak, really shape the realities? Because I have the feeling, as a member of the two committees, for transport and tourism and for agriculture and rural development, that for a year or so since I've been speaking in these committees, I haven't solved anything. And I feel powerless and I don't like it. Because Romania, folks, if you know it, is the country with the biggest deficit in the European Union and, as such, those who have led it so far and who still lead it, although the people did not necessarily vote for it, want to solve this deficit by increasing VAT, by increasing excise duties on fuel, which will liquidate rural tourism. At the same time, for 17 years we have not been able to make highways. I wonder why? Maybe we can do it now with military mobility. And these things are perpetuated and we get nowhere. Basically, what cohesion policy are we talking about? How will this cohesion policy work in a country that is in deficit and failing to solve its problems? Will this money really reach the people at home, there, in the countryside, where even the roads are not or where they have so many problems?

Mr President, Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas, it is good to see you again. I would ask you a few questions, but I'm afraid you won't answer me that this is what we always do at the Commission. Now, though, I want to tell you a few things. It is interesting that we have always reminded that Romania has not been developed in all these years, for 17 years since it has been in the European Union, at the level of railway and land infrastructure. But still, here we have seen Mr Draghi and his report, that he wants 800 billion to restore competitive Europe. Ursula von der Leyen came and explained that she also wanted 800 billion to arm herself. Now we have seen you too that you want 850 billion to invest in the TEN-T network and that everything is fine, here is finally the interconnectivity between our capitals in Europe. However, here comes the European Commission, which also wants to suggest that 450 million people must prepare for war and stockpile for three days – billions more. The question is whether you consider normal so many investments that in principle would overlap? What would be the priority, after all? What to do first: buy supplies, arm ourselves, build land and rail networks? Or what to do concretely? I'd just love for you to do the railroad network...

Madam President, Commissioner, I have retained two important ideas from your speech, namely that representative democracy is based only on free elections and that citizens must be informed - indeed it is their right - from a plurality of sources. What if I told you that exactly in Romania, the country where I come from, these two fundamental principles are not respected at all!? Because, as you probably know, Romania is the country that has achieved something spectacular: In 1989, he was able to pay off all his debts. Today, after 35 years - and it was a dictatorship - of democracy we have 210 billion debts. How did this situation come about? Because of corrupt, lying politicians who, of course, did not respect anything, not even democracy. So what democracy was this? It was not a democracy, it was a dictatorship with gloves on. It was a dictatorship that, when it saw that it was losing the elections, cancelled the elections, banned the candidates, took off its gloves, smashed the Constitution and punched the people in the face, in the sense that it sent the coercive organs in the morning to arrest people and search them, because they had the nerve to choose someone who had actually won the elections.

Madam President, Commissioner Roxana Mînzatu, I was very happy when I saw that, behold, a Romanian woman, a compatriot of mine, is coming up with a programme aimed at bringing back talent. I thought then that it was about bringing talent back to my country, but I saw that you have a motto here, which is called, if I understood correctly, ‘Europe, we choose Europe’. I would propose a motto: ‘choose our own country’. Because, if in 1998, when I was the leader of the Romanian students, I made a symposium with hundreds of students and I noticed that, bringing the president who had been until 1996, Ion Iliescu, who was part of your party today, I noticed that our talents are leaving, that we are leaving the gray matter. And that's what happened. And in all these years we have lost millions of people to corruption, politicians and poverty. Perhaps we should also think, as a colleague from Hungary said, of a project of this level for each country, because if each country is strong, Europe is strong.

Madam President, dear colleagues, the cruel reality is that we have no strategy, no leaders, no diplomacy. Why am I saying that? Because in reality, if we had, this war would either not have happened or, now, three years later, we would have sat with Trump at the table and engineered not only peace in Ukraine, but peace across the planet. Trump is not looking at us. We have to understand that Trump's America today is no longer Biden's America yesterday. Trump wants peace and prosperity, Biden wants war. Maybe we shouldn't want war either, maybe we shouldn't spend 800 billion on arms, and maybe we should look for solutions. What solutions are they? If the President of the European Parliament, Mrs Roberta Metsola, was in Washington, I understand she went to Arlington Cemetery, but she didn't get to meet Vance or Trump. Then why did he go there to visit a cemetery? Maybe they should resign, put other important leaders in the positions that matter, and sit at the table with Trump to find peace solutions, or we'll go to... (A few words I can't hear)

Mr President, dear colleagues, I understand that this is a discussion aimed at a possible collaboration between conservative forces and forces considered, labelled by you, as extremists. But these extremist forces, in fact, do nothing but represent their citizens, represent the national interest and act in this sense. For example, I, who come from Romania, entered the European Union with all my dearness, because you waved before us a principle, namely the principle of unity in diversity. Where is this principle today? Because when we came here, we had energy security, security in education, food security, security in justice. Today I find with astonishment that we no longer have security in justice or sovereignty in justice, because in Romania candidates are banned and elections are canceled without any arguments. We don't have food security either, because we're led into the idea that we have to replace meat, because, don't we, we have so many diseases over and all these things... (The President interrupted the speaker). God bless President Trump. God bless the people of Romania. God bless the people of Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Romania was the scene of absolutely tragic financial operations for the Romanian people in the 1990s. Ponzi schemes implemented by guys who were manipulated by secret services and politicians managed to rob the pockets of the Romanian people. Afterwards, of course, society evolved. In 2001 appeared the planes that tore down the twin blocks and, of course, began the war against terrorism. In 2008 Bitcoin appeared against the backdrop of the crisis in America, a crisis that was also transferred to Europe, of course, and then cryptocurrencies took off. Have you thought, perhaps, that this impetus of states against the citizen to block the possession of cash has favored this boom of cryptocurrencies? And now, we want to regulate. There is this MiCA regulation that regulates certain things, but it fails to differentiate between people who have bad will from the beginning and people who really want to do serious projects in cryptocurrencies.

I wanted to make a point about emigration. You know that Romania was kept for 13 years at the door of Schengen, noting the fact by Austria, through a veto, that the migrant routes would pass through Romania, although there was no evidence in this regard, because Frontex explained as clearly as possible that the migrant routes did not pass through Romania. Because of this, Romania was punished. Now, I want to ask the MP whether Romania will be able to recover the over 100 billion losses in the transport area because of this.

Dear colleagues, Madam President, I wanted to start this discussion differently, but I was amazed that I was asked to take off the sweater, that it would have the flag of the United States on it. It's not the flag of the United States, it's just a sweater made by Ralph Lauren. But maybe it bothers you Ralph Lauren, that he ever dressed Mélanie? I don't know. Anyway, what I was going to tell you is something else entirely. I understand from the Commission and the Council that there are concerns about energy security and the war in Ukraine. Well, the war in Ukraine will be resolved immediately by Trump. That's what he said, isn't it? And we really trust that it will work out. So some of you will be out of work here, in Brussels or Strasbourg. Energy security in the European Union should also be the energy security of every state in the European Union. Or, in Romania, a country on the edge of the ‘Empire’, where I come from, after closing the mines and intervening with all sorts of NGOs to show us that we need to protect the environment, which has blocked the operation of some hydropower plants, we have lost energy security. Moreover, as the main exporter of gas, I see that we are fluttering gas all over Europe and, finally, when they come back to us, our citizens have to pay very high prices. How can we establish energy security in Romania and in the European Union if we behave this way? I think Trump would not behave like that with the United States, because the European Union is like the United States of America: There are several states, right? Let's treat all states the same.

Dear colleague, so let me understand that it was not the Americans who voted for Trump knowingly, but Elon Musk who influenced the Americans to vote for Trump. If it wasn't for Elon Musk, it wouldn't be Trump. But doesn't that mean that you think Americans are stupid and manipulative? (The Chair interrupted the speaker)... Dear colleague, I understand that you appreciate the fact that the Americans did not vote for Trump because they thought that Trump was better than Kamala Harris. But you're saying that's only because Elon Musk knew how to manipulate Americans. Do you think Americans are so easily manipulated that they don't know which president to elect?

Madam Member, the situation is as follows: I didn't say that he put the CMF, that code of financial trustee, on his materials or not, I said that there was no evidence that he had anything to do with Russia. You moved the center of interest from the thing that interests us, namely, it was financed by Russia or not, to this area that he said he did not use any lions in the campaign, but they helped the influencers. Influencers, whether they were paid or whether they did it for his sake because they liked the way he spoke, that's their problem. Our problem is to find out if there are foreign interferences in the electoral process in Romania and, so far, all the bodies that investigated this issue have not been able to give us a single proof.

Madam President, dear colleagues, a few details that may shed some light on you. In Romania there was this presidential election campaign that was canceled, abolished, finished and were, of course, among those who ran and other candidates, including the Prime Minister of Romania. The Prime Minister, what do you think, has more. viewand likeTikTok than the candidate who won the election itself and reached first place in the second round. So no one asked why the prime minister was not elected, although he has more than one. likeand viewTikTok's on. Maybe the Prime Minister is also fueled by Russia, right? Given the fact that absolutely no evidence was found, but people were arrested, hearings were held in Romania, they were taken off the street and so on. But no one is thinking, wait a minute, is this people, who nevertheless gave two and a half million votes for this candidate, right and are choosing accordingly? Why didn't he choose the Prime Minister of Romania to be the first if he had more likeand viewYou're on TikTok?

It's from me, Mr. Barna, Luis Lazarus. I noticed that Mr. Ştefănuță, here, remarked that there would be Russian interference. I want a clear, concise and accurate answer: Is there any evidence, the slightest evidence that the eventual sponsorship, financial support of Călin Georgescu comes from the Russian branch? Give me a concrete answer.

Madam President, I am a little puzzled: I noticed that the center left has the feeling that Americans are stupid, literally. Are the Americans stupid? Americans have chosen a leader. I've been to America and talked to a lot of them. I spent almost two months at the beginning of this year. And what do you think? Americans were mostly pro-Trump. What are we going to do now, not work with Trump? That would be the culmination. But something else I wanted to remark: the fact that this parliament is also two-thirds centre-left and one-third right. Do you know why? Because of the systematic manipulations that take place on mainstream media television. That's why. Otherwise, if you go down there to the normal audience looking at us, you'll find, what do you think? You'll find they're the right-wing majority. So, after all, this Parliament is also a bit fake! Really, it's fake. In reality, two-thirds should be the right and one-third should be the centre left, if we respected the will of the people and stopped manipulating so many people in European states.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Romania, as is well known, has the slowest railway, if we may say so. I got into a Eurostar and from Brussels to Paris I did an hour and 20 minutes. The same route from point A to point B in Romania can be done in 5 hours and 57 minutes. It's unbelievable, but that's the pure truth. Do you think it's everything? No, not at all. On our streets in Comarnic, in Brasov, somewhere in a resort, in a series of mountain resorts, you can do even three hours for 63 kilometers. The question is whether anyone wanted to block the construction of highways and railway infrastructure or whether Romanians have not been able to do so in 34 years. We have been in the European Union for 17 years and then, if we are in the European Union, it seems that something has happened and we have not been allowed to do so. That is to say, the motorway I was referring to earlier, at one point, a very important Prime Minister, together with a deputy who also has a press trust, went out to the press and said that ‘we wanted to build that motorway, but the head of the secret services called us’, folks, ‘and told us that we are not allowed to build that motorway, because we will go to jail’. And then there remains this question, dear colleagues: who does not allow the development of the railway sector or motorways in Romania? Can the Commission give us an answer?

Madam President, I note that we talk a lot, dear colleagues, about religious intolerance, but we forget to talk about state attacks on religion. I come from an Orthodox-majority country, Romania, and we have all witnessed helplessly how the Orthodox religion and our ancestral traditions were shattered during the pandemic. We saw our dead buried naked, in plastic bags and with formal jobs. I have seen all these years how different NGOs make all sorts of events and blaspheme the Orthodox religion. I saw what happened at the Olympics in Paris. I am very proud to be Orthodox, I am very proud to be Romanian and now I will go to an extraordinary procession to Saint Parascheva, in Iasi, where over 2 million people will gather, dear colleagues. I would like to ask where else is this happening in the West, where churches have been transformed into museums and bars or concert halls?

Madam President, I would like to draw your attention to situations that pass us by and we do not see them. There has been talk of terrorism for 20 years, but this problem has not been solved. However, the states turned against us, the citizens, and forbade us to hold cash in considerable quantities or to make cash operations, to do them only through the bank. Then we talk about fake news and the fact that we might restrict the right to opinion in the future. Moreover, our colleague, here, does not have the right to run, folks, for the presidency of Romania. It's unbelievable! Another colleague said that after winning the elections, the party is going to be made illegal. Where are we headed? Are we going to go, by restricting all these rights, to a concentration camp which we will call a pretentious ‘15-minute city’, where we will no longer have any right, either to be elected, to have the opportunity to express ourselves in one way or another, or to own cash?

Mr. Vice President, I just heard someone from the Left or the Greens, I think, say that we have a problem with not respecting the Nature Restoration LawIn fact, we have interfered with nature, and that is precisely why we now have these floods. My opinion is that precisely because I did not intervene on nature, namely by making infrastructure works and embankments, this is precisely why these things happen and I noticed that you share this opinion. Basically, I know that you, along with the people at...

Mr President, dear colleagues, from our point of view, things are very simple. Basically, I find that through this DSA and other warnings, resolutions and documents, the European Commission is trying to transform itself into a kind of truth police. Let us not, dear friends, turn these opinions into truths. This is a matter of semantics. One is opinion, the other is truth. If you want to moderate something, you can simply say that this is an opinion and this is a truth. Stop mixing concepts so you can take away your right to censor truths. And then I ask: Who are these fact-checkers who are talked about so much that they can determine what is truth and what is not? There are some people who come from areas maybe right or center, and the right is always said to be extreme. Why is the extreme right, because its representatives love their country? Is it wrong to love your country? It's not something extreme. Is it wrong to tell some truths? Is it wrong to have opinions?

Mr President, dear colleagues, I understand that this report is going to answer some questions, to give some solutions. How can we give farmers better prospects, support agriculture, seize opportunities related to technological innovation and lead this European agriculture towards a bright future? Unfortunately, I find that the report did not answer any questions and I will argue, trying to tell you a few things that are happening in my country, in Romania. You know very well that this cyclone caused floods in Romania as well. We also have floods there in a few regions and of course yes, in the same regions we had floods ten years ago. Why is this happening? Maybe because we didn't do any dam, maybe because we didn't do any infrastructure work, maybe because some in Romania are trying to say that they want to respect The Nature Restoration Law Does that mean we don't have to change nature anymore? But if we don't change it, what about agriculture? This is related to agriculture, but to animal husbandry? In Romania, as is well known, the swine fever is nine years old and I see here Mr. Buda, the vice president of the commission, who explained to us that he announced the commission nine years ago and the commission said that he has everything under control. It has nothing under control, which is why Romania is still red on the map and we were forced to import 85% of the pork. So, under these conditions, where is agriculture going and where is livestock farming going?