Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, conversion practices are not therapies, as has already been said. They are violence, they are attempts to break what a person is, to turn love into guilt and identity into shame. Behind these phantom treatments are stories of fear, of isolation, of young people who cannot be themselves. But the suffering of seeing oneself different from others is not eliminated by removing one's own identity, but by accepting it. This is the first lesson I learned when I realized that I could fall in love with a woman. Ending conversion practices means protecting people like me. It means saying to every boy, girl and LGBTQ+ person: "There is nothing in you that needs to be cared for." I ask this House to choose courage, science and humanity. Gay people are not left-wing or right-wing: they are sons, daughters, citizens that we all represent here. So ask yourself one question, the only legitimate one: are your children happy?

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, sport is a popular phenomenon. I have been a professional athlete and for my generation and for many to follow the sport is the cradle of dreams and is a source of inspiration. Today, however, sport is becoming elitist. Expensive subscriptions and fragmented and expensive television platforms are alienating citizens, especially the youngest. This has a real impact, especially in the new generations who have fewer and fewer opportunities to be inspired by the achievements of the great champions and above all to recognize themselves in the positive values of sport. That said, we need to be clear. None of this justifies online piracy. Piracy is not a harmless loophole. We must counter it with new legislation at European level, because the fragmented responses of individual states are doomed to both technological and legal failure. Let's never forget: There are organized criminal networks behind piracy. Countering it means not only removing oxygen from crime, but defending the work of thousands of employees, in addition to the sport itself. We therefore need a European approach that combines the rigour of legality with political foresight, because if we take away sport from young people we do not just lose spectators, we lose dreams, positive models and a fundamental part of our culture.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, this strategy is a step forward, but women can no longer be content with slow steps. It is not enough to enunciate principles, it is necessary to have the courage to make them binding with laws and shared resources. Yet we have read that the Italian Government is opposed to the adoption of the Equal Treatment Directive. The government led by a woman, Giorgia Meloni, does not want a law against discrimination against women. The right wing wants to take us back decades. For us, gender-based violence must be recognized and persecuted as a European crime, and femicide must finally have a unified name and political response. A true equality passes through a Europe that guarantees women the same economic independence, that offers full freedom of choice over their bodies and that closes the wage gap. Women today do not ask for privileges – they have never asked for them – but for justice, dignity and equal rights, in every field, every day and across Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Bulgaria receives EUR 600 million every year from the European Union and, also thanks to these European funds, since 2007 – the year in which it entered our European home – its GDP has grown by 160%. Bulgaria will officially join the Eurozone on 1 January and its citizens will be able to use the single currency. In the face of these positive results, Bulgaria has made no progress in the field of civil and social rights. If I had married in Italy to a Bulgarian citizen instead of an Australian, that marriage would have been waste paper in her country. The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Bulgaria for refusing to recognise the union of two women contracted abroad. But nothing: Bulgaria remains in the Middle Ages. If this European Union were not just an ATM, but a community of citizens who recognize rights and values, then it would use every legal and diplomatic tool to change things.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we can approve all the statements we want, but as long as women continue to suffer violence, earn less than men, be excluded from decision-making and have to justify themselves for their choices, equality will remain only an abstract principle. This declaration should defend a very simple but apparently still revolutionary principle, namely that every woman can decide her own body, her own time and her own destiny. Europe must show that it truly believes in women's rights, not with new words, but with the political courage to turn them into actions. As long as the world of women, and I say of all women, even those who are not mothers, continues to frighten, even women, equality will always remain a chimera.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, first of all I would like to congratulate the rapporteur on his excellent work. The text reaffirms a fundamental principle for us: Sport is a European public good, a tool for inclusion, equality and social cohesion and not just a business. This means investing in the future of our communities, in young people and grassroots sport, in people with disabilities, but it also means closing the gender gap that still marks the sports world today. Athletes, coaches and managers cannot be considered to be second-class, either economically or in terms of representation. Precisely because sport is a bearer of values, today we cannot be silent. While a tragedy continues in Gaza that kills innocent women and children and civilians, we must say forcefully that sport cannot be bent to interests of profit or power, because sport builds bridges and not walls. Defending the European sports model means defending an idea of society based on solidarity, respect and peace. And this Parliament must have the courage to state this clearly, today more than ever, not only by approving this report, but in all its policies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of my group, I am announcing the vote in favour of this report and I thank my colleague for her excellent work. This report is a step forward for the future of European university alliances. However, some critical issues need to be highlighted, for example: Access to higher education must be guaranteed to all, without discrimination on grounds of sex, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic background. Today, however, it is precisely young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who participate less in mobility programmes, also due to obstacles such as, for example, the housing crisis, the high cost of living and difficulties in the recognition of qualifications. It is also crucial that European universities remain places of culture, inclusion and cooperation, not instruments subordinated to the logic of competitiveness and the market. For this reason, we asked for the reference to defence as a research area to be removed from the text; We believe that the university should serve peace and not contribute to the arms race. The genocide in Gaza reminds us that culture, if it is not an instrument of justice and peace, becomes empty and rhetorical. Universities must form free consciences and not silent spectators.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I was proudly there, and simply because of the love I have for my wife. I was there when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian and non-Hungarian citizens took to the streets to demonstrate that love is love and knows no distinction of sex, race or age. Only Orbán and his right-wing friends think that by preventing demonstrations like Pride, citizens stop loving whoever they want. I was in Budapest, but there was no Europe when laws were passed that discriminate, censor and target rainbow families. There was no Europe with sanctions, with a law against hatred, with a response worthy of its values. So I ask you today here: Protect children – Palestinians, Israelis, Ukrainians, Russians and Iranians – from wars, not Pride.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I was proudly there, and simply because of the love I have for my wife. I was there when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian and non-Hungarian citizens took to the streets to demonstrate that love is love and knows no distinction of sex, race or age. Only Orbán and his right-wing friends think that by preventing demonstrations like Pride, citizens stop loving whoever they want. I was in Budapest, but there was no Europe when laws were passed that discriminate, censor and target rainbow families. There was no Europe with sanctions, with a law against hatred, with a response worthy of its values. So I ask you today here: Protect children – Palestinians, Israelis, Ukrainians, Russians and Iranians – from wars, not Pride.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I will be there on 28 June. I will be in Budapest, alongside the Hungarian LGBTQI+ community, and I will not be alone, but I will be with dozens of MEPs and national parliamentarians. We will walk alongside those who resist, those who struggle to claim rights or simply to say: I exist. Prohibiting Pride is the latest act of Orban's repressive strategy against fundamental rights. A shameful attack on freedom of assembly, equality and dignity of people. A challenge open to the values on which the European Union is founded. Today here we have to send a clear and strong message: It is unacceptable that the rights guaranteed by our Treaties should be abolished in a Member State. The European Commission can no longer limit itself to empty words of circumstance, but we need sanctions, blocking of funds, infringement procedure now. The right to love and to be loved is a right of all and not a right of a few-if you are loved, that is always admitted.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the road map Women's rights ignore sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion, and this is unacceptable. The far right is imposing its agenda on our institutions, putting fundamental gains at risk. Abortion is a difficult, and often painful, choice: But to deny it is to condemn women to suffering and danger. The road map It addresses crucial issues, such as gender-based violence and economic inequalities. But without concrete commitments it remains only paper and paper alone does not protect any woman, does not guarantee rights and does not change reality. Europe cannot afford to step back. While women's rights are eroded in the United States, we must be a bulwark. We need actions and not symbols, because freedom, dignity and rights are never negotiated.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in too many parts of the world women cannot study, walk freely or choose their own destiny; are subjected to forced marriages; They are propelled into prostitution when they are not brutally murdered by their husbands and boyfriends. But there is another shame that concerns the world of women, a terrible shame, less visible because it is kept hidden and that persists in the heart of Europe: forced sterilisation of women with disabilities. You got it right: Forced sterilization. This brutal practice is defined by international law as a crime against humanity, but it is still allowed in 14 countries of the European Union. I ask this House not to remain silent. We must criminalise this barbarity in every Member State and ensure access to justice and compensation for victims. Only in this way can we claim to defend the human rights and equality of all, not to forget the victims of Operation T4 consumed by the Nazi regime.

Simple, because my current wife has a 13-year-old daughter normal, had with another woman. It's 2024. I know it's very hard for you to understand: But when you love each other, filiation is normal.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately we have to acknowledge that there are two Europes today: a Europe where gay couples can marry, have a family and live in peace and harmony in society, essentially free to love and be loved; and a Europe in which discrimination and inequality prevail, which is that of Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy, which attack the LGBTQI community, whose only fault is to exist. The Meloni government has issued a circular in which it declares illegitimate a birth certificate with two mothers while the Italian Parliament has approved a law that sends to jail the fathers of children born through gestation for others, even when it is legal in other countries, however, without specifying what will happen to these children. Let us remember that Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union clearly speaks of an inclusive Europe based on human rights, equality and respect for minorities.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, about 50 million European women, that is, almost one in three women, as has already been said, have suffered physical, psychological or sexual violence. These dramatic numbers testify to the need for a strong reaction from all of us. To those who deny this emergency or underestimate these facts I remember the sacrifice of Giulia Cecchettin and Giulia Tramontano, two of the many women killed by white, European and wealthy men. We don't just need stricter laws: We need to invest in prevention, in a culture of respect. We must oppose and not deny patriarchy. We must set a good example because we have no excuse. We react because reacting is a duty and not an option. To my former colleague, on the other hand, I would remind you that in 85% of cases of violence suffered by men, the perpetrators are still men.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Pact for the Future is an attractive and ambitious project. However, we fear that this initiative will turn into a marketing operation, a way to bring down the too many problems that threaten our humanity. Then I wondered what the only possible protagonist would think of this pact, namely a child. The first thing he would ask for is love, while today this bond is too often not recognized, if not even broken, by the parents of rainbow families, in too many parts of the world. This child would ask for food, while the data says that as many as 149 million children suffer from malnutrition. This child would then ask to play with his friends, but the answer would be "no, you can not, it is too dangerous", given that there are currently 55 armed conflicts between states in the world, a historical record. So, before we think about the future, let us commit ourselves to a better present, a present in which peace is not constantly betrayed or in which the right to housing, food and education are not denied. The "Pact for the Future" should answer the naive but direct questions of children. The future is theirs, let's listen to them and give them a better world than the one we live in now.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the law entitled 'Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice', which affects women's rights, entered into force in Afghanistan on 21 August. By itself, that a man should decide what is virtuous and vicious for a woman makes one shudder. The Taliban are tapping into the darkest era of our humanity. This is not the Middle Ages: It's worse, much worse. To all the Afghan women who were here yesterday in the European Parliament and to all those who, in one way or another, will be able to watch this debate, perhaps in secret, thanks to a stolen connection, I want to say: Do not lose hope, do not lose confidence in a different world, in a world where you are free to be what you want, a world where you can look at who and what you want, eat what you want, dress as you want, listen to music. In Europe, too, we have experienced dark times. Even here in Europe, today under different forms, there are those who are attacking our freedom and want to undermine it by putting it at the service of ideology or at the power of men. But we women are stronger, we are united, we are determined and we will not succumb. President, there is a fierce war going on in Afghanistan against women and their rights. That is why we call for urgent action at the diplomatic level to put their rights at the heart of our future policies.