Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as we spend billions on weapons, we are losing to climate collapse: temperatures up to 50 degrees, droughts, floods, fires. Europe continues to count the dead: only in Milan, 500, especially the elderly and disadvantaged. Children at home with kindergartens closed; The laborers, the riders and the workers collapse under the sun. In Italy, in 2024, 50 000 hectares were burned and more than 9 billion were damaged due to drought. Is this the world we want, where those who have less die? No emergency, those end: It is a structural problem. We need to be prepared with investments in prevention and infrastructure, greener cities, laws that defend workers, renewable energy and fossil fuel releases. We are witnessing a failure with first and last names: Eni, Shell, Exxon, Meloni, Trump, Musk, Bezos and friends. It is named after the EPP, which today voted against the urgency of the climate law, handing it over to the far right and throttling all of our ambitions. Speculators of a massacre announced, what will you answer to your children, when they ask you why there is no more water? That you were busy defending the lobbies and buying weapons?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in 2024 alone, seven Member States threw more than seven billion euros into unused clean energy. There are 1,700 gigawatts of renewable energy blocked waiting to connect to the grid in 16 countries. And these are just the data of the countries we have. These are numbers that speak for themselves: Without robust, high-performance and efficient networks, the ecological transition risks remaining unfinished. Electricity grids are a true lifeblood of Europe's economy and security. But the current system is not ready. It often relies on outdated national plans, unable to capture the acceleration of renewables and drive investment and create an interconnected European network. In doing so, we extend our dependence on gas at very high costs for our companies and our people. It is essential to modernise and digitise networks to integrate storage systems, develop efficient systems for demand flexibility, clean and decentralised technologies. Only in this way can we ensure a just and participatory transition, in which people, local communities, are protagonists, and at the same time electrify industry to improve the competitiveness of our companies, lowering prices and bills.

Madam President, I would like to react to the unproved, serious allegation regarding a youth organisation that is fighting for social rights and inclusion. I think that should not be possible in this House, especially when allegations are so serious and completely unproved. It is unacceptable that we accept the silencing of the voice of young people just because of their religion, just because they are Muslims. The harassment and discrimination that far-right groups carried out during the European Youth Event should be investigated by the Parliament and the Commission, as it made the event unsafe for a lot of young people. We ask for sanctions against Marion Maréchal Le Pen and her racist actions against the people, and for undermining the reputation of this Parliament.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in Gaza it is easier to die than to survive; Sometimes it's better to die, a refugee from Gaza told me. We are tired of plenary debates as people die: Empty words if we do nothing. What more needs to happen to sanction Israel? To break the trade deal? A total arms embargo? I was in Rafah, in front of a border closed for months, separating medicine, water and food from the hungry Palestinian people, trapped between bombs and rubble: It's 40 degrees and there's not a drop of water. Fifteen thousand children could starve to death in the coming days. Hospitals are destroyed. Israeli politicians openly declare that they want to exterminate the Palestinians. Israel wants to use aid as a means of control, militarize it and distribute it only in certain areas and subject to identification: It is planned hunger, deportation, genocide. Why doesn't Europe say that? This Parliament and the Commission remain defenceless. The multilateral humanitarian system is collapsing and we do nothing. Your silence makes you accomplices now and in the history books.

Madam President, I think we should really take some repercussions for our colleague, because there's no justification for the killing of children, and that's what our colleague has just said. I want that – according to our internal rulings – our colleague is sanctioned for justifying the killing of children. There's no justification for the killing of children. And this cannot be allowed in this Chamber. Please, Madam President, do not allow this in this Chamber.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the Second World War did not come because of the madness of a couple of dictators: It was also the short-sighted calculation of those who, in order to stop the advance of social demands, preferred to give way to the fascists. Liberals and popular thought they could use them as a barrier and use their violence for their own momentary profit. Capital has chosen to support them. But the embankment has succumbed and they have found themselves complicit in a catastrophe, the price of which has been paid by millions of people. Those who went on strike or dissented were prosecuted. Police entered universities, journalists were spied on. Hate became political language, rights a temporary concession, women even more discriminated against, homosexuality increasingly illegal. The race to rearmament was called justified, inevitable. And then the darkest page: genocide, covered by complicit silence. Never again, we said. Yet this description could be today's news. Against that war, against those horrors, fascism is born this institution; An institution that was to protect peace, disarmament, unity among peoples, fight for international law and against any genocide. Are we doing this? Colleagues, let's reread the story and look inside and tell me if you think this is the right direction. Whenever you choose to be on the side of those who deprive freedom and the rule of law, the side of Meloni, Orban, Trump, Putin and everyone else, you are selling off freedom, peace and democracy.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, without a clear strategy, energy-intensive industries in Europe risk becoming a thing of the past, squeezed between unsustainable energy costs and a transition that is still too slow, not the other way around. We cannot afford to be left behind, we need significant investments that must be linked to a just transition, which protects our people, improves the quality of work and does not allow relocations. In this sense, a clear roadmap is needed to get out of fossil fuels, with related technologies and investments. Every new euro invested today in fossil gas is a euro wasted on decarbonisation, which instead is a huge industrial opportunity for competitiveness and transition, as Draghi said before. Just chase after false solutions: Blue hydrogen and carbon capture will not save us. Efficiency, direct electrification and circularity yes, because the best material is what we have already produced and the best way to use less energy is to use it better. But the energy market is holding back this change. We need a system that makes the right choice convenient: separate the price of electricity from the price of gas; making long-term supply contracts more accessible; ensure stable prices for businesses; improve the electricity grid and adapt tariffs according to consumption times. The CBAM is a fundamental tool and must be improved and strengthened and, above all, the tax system must stop rewarding the past. European industry can and must be the engine of the transition, but we need courage and political vision.

I want to call for Rule 10(4) of the Rules of Procedure. This is inappropriate behaviour. Offending another member on no stance, just for the intervention we have done is completely unacceptable and we would like the presidency to do something about it.

You talked a lot about all the faults of Hamas, you didn't say a word about the faults of Israel. So for her, the fact that Israel is bombing hospitals, putting them under siege and not allowing health protection; the fact that it has killed tens of thousands of children; the fact that it does not allow the entry of humanitarian aid; the fact that it resumed the siege and genocide of Gaza, after failing to comply with the ceasefire; the fact that they are colonizing the West Bank and are taking people's lands and also doing ethnic cleansing; Isn't it a problem to be violating every comma of humanitarian law?

Mr President, rapporteur, ladies and gentlemen, the European Semester is a crucial time to find ambitious answers to the current social crisis. Amid rampant poverty, wages that do not keep up with inflation, loss of purchasing power and an unprecedented housing crisis, we must have the courage to come up with common answers. Only there are two weights and two measures: Everything from the Stability and Growth Pact to even considering a common debt is questioned for the race to rearmament. What about social spending? Nothing. On the contrary, we must constantly fight against a right that tells us to be at the side of the people but then opposes our demands on employment and social issues. Some examples? A directive on minimum wage and inclusion income would be a ballast; a directive protecting workers from the use of artificial intelligence, too. As Greens, we fought to ask the Commission for recommendations on the right to housing and to propose investments within the European Semester, and then to find ourselves with an amendment from the People's Party that wants to eliminate these demands. The same people who call for a European Year for Demography but then want to cancel the allocation of a fund of 20 billion for child poverty. Who can have children in poverty and without a home? Colleagues, I address you: We need legislation and resources at European level to reduce internal inequalities and make our societies safe and resilient in a broad sense, building on rights and equitable access to essential services.

Thank you for your question. Have I ever said that? Have I ever said that we shouldn't have a common defence? Have I ever said that Europe should not try to build a common defence and a defence that is democratic? I have not said that. I've just said that we spend on weapons already, but we do not co-ordinate weapons. We do not have energy security, we do not have energy independence. If we got cut out from US and Russia, which is happening at the moment, and we do not invest in our welfare and in our energy, how do we make defence? We cannot make defence – we need a union, we need to invest in our people, we need to invest in a Europe, but especially we need to have a more democratic and federal Union. Otherwise the dream of Europe will go away from our population – and if that goes, no one will fight for Europe.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 'ReArm EU': When did we disarm? We spend more on weapons than Russia and China; Yet no one feels safe. And instead of coordinating, we now want to throw more resources into a dysfunctional system, tying ourselves to a war economy with subsidies for the already high profits of the military industry. Trump and Putin laugh at our disorganization and impose their rules on us: an increasingly poor, disorganised Europe without a governance Politics and common defence is what they want and what we are giving them with our idea of defence: 800 billion for 27 armies, without a common mission and without scrutiny by Parliament. More security is one governance unique and democratic, not 27; Interoperability, not other weapons; infrastructure, rights, welfare and renewables, do not cut these investments; diplomacy, peace corps, new allies, no escalation of conflicts. We are born to build peace: It is not our weapons that are scary but our potential as a political, federal and democratic union. Spinelli said: A united Europe is the best way to guarantee freedom and peace.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing an attack on international law and democracy. The new "black axis", composed of Trump, Musk, Netanyahu and Meloni, is dismantling the rule of law. The attack on the International Criminal Court is a first step in a methodical plan to legitimize violence, abuse of power and genocide in Palestine. Because the rules have always been tight for the far-right oligarchs, they must be progressively destroyed in order to consolidate their power. I feel anger because my country, Italy, did not have the courage to oppose President Trump's reckless actions. More than sovereigns! They are genuflecting to the excessive power of the United States, which arrogantly defends criminals wanted by the International Criminal Court. I am disgusted to know that those who in the election campaign promised order, legality and severe punishment for smugglers, freed and brought home Al Masri, as did Giorgia Meloni, who is a rapist and torturer of adults and children, in defiance of an international arrest warrant. Europe can choose to remain silent or be complicit. We have learned from history to oppose authoritarian regimes, resisting, fighting and building democracy together.

Mr Buxadé, you say that the DSA is undermining the freedom of our people, it is practicing censorship, when what it asks is that, instead, if there are censorships that need to be made, they need to be transparent. They are not censures, but they are fact checking, i.e. verification of the veracity of the facts. Instead, these things happen anyway, because it is already the platforms that decide with the algorithms what we see and that decide what can be seen, what must be deleted and what must be eliminated. So, is it good for you that this power is in the hands of the platforms – and therefore of a few billionaires – and not in the hands of this Parliament, where you sit? So what do you think is patriotic?

I remind my colleague that I am a Green and not a Social Democrat. Yes, we could create a green job and lose ten standards, if we do what you say, that is not invest in the transition and still think that the industry, the industry of the past can be the future, when all the rest of the world is going in another direction. We want to create jobs, we want to combine the transition with a real social transition. That is why we are calling for more investment. That's why we ask for a clear vision, one that understands where we need to go. And where we have to go, science tells us, but so does economics. We have a vision, unfortunately you just want to stay anchored to a status quo of self-interest.

1896: Arrhenius wrote about the impact of CO2 with respect to the climate. 1970s: Exxon scientists told us about the devastating impacts of burning fossils, and then hid everything. In 1992 the Rio conference, in 1997 Kyoto. In 2015, in Paris, we pledged to stay within 1.5 oC. The future is today. In 2024, we exceeded the fateful threshold of 1.5 oC. The consequences for our territories are very clear: Droughts, floods and fires are devastating our countries and our lives at worrying rates. If we want to talk about economic and social sustainability we should remember the billions of euros of damage we suffer from climate inaction and the thousands of victims. We must say that public funding subsidizes the fossil and the war and not enough the transition. The future is today. And yet, we continue to put off solutions. The right, from Trump to Meloni, and also in this House, as we have seen, deny climate change, want to anchor us to a status quo where 50% of the population pollutes as much as the richest 1%, and want to keep us in the grip of the fossil just when we need to act the most. The future is now and there is hope for us. We want an ambitious, just and responsible Europe, in both the domestic and international contexts.

Mr Berlato, I would like to ask you two questions. One is if in your scientific studies you have ever found a climate change that has occurred in such a short time, of so many degrees, since you have reported scientific data on the changes that have always occurred, because, unfortunately, it seems to me that there is not. The second question is more political: Do you confirm to me that this is your position, the position of your party, therefore that you say on behalf of your party – and therefore Prime Minister Meloni’s ruling party – that climate change is not dependent on emissions? Because, unfortunately, there is a lot of contrast and confusion about what are the causes of climate change, and this is in the hands of the person and the party that is governing a state like Italy.

You said that we need to address global emissions, but then your party would oppose anything that is tackling that, like the due diligence law or the deforestation law, that is actually tackling what we do outside of Europe. Your party is not addressing anything that is tackling overconsumption, and we know that overconsumption is produced in third countries. Your party is a very, very strong partner and very close to Trump, who is going to be the president, who is going to increase the American emissions, and I would like to remind you that the US is the second most responsible for emissions on the planet. So how do you think we can solve the planetary emissions if your party wants to stop anything that Europe could do to play its part on the international level?

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, one in ten workers in Europe is at risk of poverty, with a totally inadequate level of wages. An entire generation is in precariousness and austerity and its cuts loom over our lives. In the face of all this, the right, instead of thinking about improving working conditions, says that the problem is with those who strike for their rights, because it creates discomfort. What about the inconvenience of working in poverty? The inconvenience of having to pay for strike days, which are unpaid? The strike is an instrument of struggle and dignity. Yet there are still those who question it: Minister Salvini in Italy, for example, who, between precepts, constantly threatens to revise the legislation on strike. And with him there is a piece, unfortunately broad, of the right in Europe that wants only silence: When we ask for a minimum wage, this right responds that there is collective bargaining, but then it does not want to reopen it to improve the conditions of workers and prevents the strike. Europe must give a completely different answer, because the rights of an abused working class are not negotiable and must be represented in a real social dialogue, which must translate into the ability to influence and determine European strategic choices.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let us 'deport them all': This is how the far-right youth group of the AFD praises hatred on TikTok. ‘COVID does not exist’: Millions of shares for videos denying the pandemic, while thousands died. These are just a few examples but every day we are bombarded with images and videos presented as absolute truths, whose popularity and adequacy are decided by some billionaire like Elon Musk or by a third state. The lack of transparency of algorithms and the ability to create fake accounts are clearly undermining our democratic processes. We are tired of talking about the freedom of speech of those who repress any dissent and prevent us from talking about genocide; We are tired of talking about freedom of speech when the only thing we do is praise hate. Freedom of speech is not freedom to spread scientifically false news. Our democracy works for the social rules we have set ourselves and these must also, and above all, concern the media. How do we choose freely if we do not know that the news they wanted us to see and is verifiedly false? Ensuring the democratic nature of social networks and the transparency of algorithms is essential to protect our...

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 35 years after the historic adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, I am thinking of the road that still needs to be taken to effectively guarantee a safe and happy childhood. I think of the girls and boys who die at our borders fleeing war, persecution and the devastating impacts of climate change. I am thinking of the girls in Afghanistan, whose right to education and to existence itself is brutally trampled on; to young Iranians and their cry for freedom suffocated in the streets by an authoritarian regime; Gaza's children and their right to life, not mere survival but a full life, free from bombs, hunger and poverty. I am thinking of the millions of girls and boys living in absolute poverty within our Europe: One in ten children in Italy cannot eat one protein meal a day. This is the Europe that needs to do more. We must ensure that the initiative such as that of the Child Guarantee continue to be pursued and that the necessary resources are put in place. There can be no austerity in front of the present and the future of the younger generations. Europe will only find itself again when it comes back to the words that made it a project of hope: peace, rights and freedoms.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Giovanna is 81 years old and is forced to live in a damp, cold and draughty house, without being able to pay for her own heating. In 2023, 47 million Europeans are in this condition, unable to warm up properly, cook, move or turn on the light. Europe must put the protection of its population before the profit of the few, those few who profit on energy prices by recording record gains: Europe's six largest oil companies earned $75 billion in extra profits in the first quarter of 2022 alone, the same few that receive $400 billion a year in public fossil fuel subsidies. These economic resources belong to the people and should go back to the people. Starting from these resources, we could finally invest in renewable energy, which is the best way to lower energy prices, or in energy communities, for energy for and of people. We could support a plan to help people make their homes more efficient through financing and loans, as we asked Commissioner Jørgensen, to enable them to live better and drastically reduce the cost of their bills. Let us remember our promise to leave no one behind: Too many people are behind now. We need to act.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the ecological and digital transitions offer us an incredible opportunity, not only to create millions of jobs but also to revolutionise our productive and socio-economic paradigm towards a more just and inclusive world of work. The shortage of skilled labour is evident and it is therefore essential to close the skills gap through vocational training and retraining. This commitment, however, must not only be taken by the industry but also by us institutions, by the public. Only in this way, in fact, can we include in the world of work all the people who are systematically excluded from it. I am thinking of women, racialized people, trans people, those with disabilities and all those who suffer discrimination. I am thinking of young people and of all the difficulties in entering the world of work through unpaid internships and very low wages. It is therefore good to put European industry back at the centre of the political agenda: But to do so, we cannot make the same mistakes as in the past. Let us talk to the social partners seriously again, strengthen collective bargaining, guarantee high standards of safety in the workplace, fight anti-union practices, fraud, social exploitation and, above all, decent wages. A labour market resulting from an unequal society and an impoverished social fabric cannot be competitive.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the United Nations Special Committee has made it clear that the law against abortion in Poland inflicts physical and psychological suffering on women, putting their health and lives at risk. This is a serious violation of fundamental rights. However, access to unrestricted abortion is not guaranteed even when the law does not prohibit it. In Italy, for example, free abortion is not safe, it is not a right and, too often, it is denied: endless waiting lists, dozens of hospitals with 100% conscientious objectors, anti-abortionists also paid by European funds in public health places, which force those who want access to abortion to psychological torture. Too many women are forced to do the impossible to access a basic health service. It is again the extreme right that tries to threaten our freedoms. That is why we are asking the Commission to monitor the adoption of a new law in Poland, but also to do everything in its power to ensure that this right is guaranteed in all the Member States and to ensure that European funds are not used to hinder it. Therefore, it is necessary to include the right to abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Stop doing politics on our bodies! Those who oppose safe abortion are not for life but against our lives.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the territory I represent has always played a central role in the automotive industry and Stellantis is the best example of what we are experiencing. Thousands of people have been on layoffs for years and 25,000 jobs have been announced at risk throughout the supply chain. But let's make one thing clear: What we call the "car crisis" is not the result of the switch to electric, but goes far back, from decades of wrong political and economic choices. In fact, instead of investing in innovation and sustainability, we decided to focus on maximizing profits for shareholders, subsidizing the fossil fuel, relocating, often at the expense of workers. Today we are at a crossroads: we can look ahead and seize the opportunities of electric, or we can remain anchored in a more inefficient technology that cannot evolve further, just to please the fossil lobby. So instead of bowing to China, we will give China our market. I ask you: When the global car market is electric, how will we sell our endothermic cars? What is needed is an industrial plan decided for the future, without hesitation, guaranteeing investment certainty and thinking about how to accompany workers in this transition.