Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today President von der Leyen said that disinformation is dividing our societies, eroding democracy, and then we can say that an effective democratic shield must be based on two pillars. The first is freedom of the press: Independent information and protection of sources is the only antidote to disinformation. Journalists are being spied on with spyware, and it is illegal!, and if the media is not independent of politics, democracy becomes fragile. The second pillar of the shield is the defence of the vote against foreign interference and large digital platforms; We cannot allow the Elon Musks on duty to manipulate our democratic processes. It is not possible that almost two years have passed since the opening of the investigation into X and we still do not know anything. Freedom of the press and digital transparency are the backbone of democracy.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I thank the Commissioner for her speech and for her words. I would like to develop a small, as it were, paragraph of his speech, which is fundamental in my opinion because where there is no freedom of the press there is no democracy, and therefore we must ask ourselves the question of Serbia's accession to Europe. In Serbia, being a journalist means being exposed to threats and daily violence. Second Reporters Without Borders, there have been 65 physical attacks since the beginning of the year, while the European Federation of Journalists reports more than 180 cases of threats, violence and political pressure in the first eight months of 2025: Journalists beaten, kneeled and immobilized by the police, criminalized by the government and even called terrorists. The situation is also worsening from the point of view of pluralism: Independent channels suffer restrictions in distribution, Al Jazeera has closed, Radio Free Europe risks the same fate. Serbia now ranks 96th in the world's Press Freedom Index, penultimate among EU candidate countries.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Mr Verheyen, for your words of truth. In a month, on August 8, the Media Freedom Act. There are many countries that have not yet "registered" their regulations. In Cyprus, for example, the draft law makes it easier to spy on journalists; It is better not to talk about Slovakia. in Malta it is not even known which ministry deals with it; in Orbán’s Hungary there is no political will; and in Italy the heads of the RAI are appointed by the government, in contrast to the Media Freedom Act. Politics, once again, elected the board of directors of the public service, but not the president, because it split. No governance reform on the horizon: Control is in the hands of the majority. RAI executives have publicly claimed membership of Prime Minister Meloni's party. And, finally, four Italian journalists are illegally spied on with a spyware, Graphite, sold only to the States by Paragon, an Israeli company with American funds. No more alibis. Governments know what they need to do: to comply with the Media Freedom Act. Brussels has a duty to demand it.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, talking about the Spanish Government today seems more like an instrumental move by the People's Party than a real concern for the rule of law in Spain. The People's Party has tried in every way to delegitimize the socialist government: fake news and disinformation. So, I take this opportunity to thank President Pedro Sánchez. In the face of serious news, he did not hesitate and in the meantime apologized to the citizens and obtained the resignation of the number three of the PSOE. This is political courage. This courage is lacking in the Spanish people, who are trying these days to divert attention from a serious fraud scandal involving the comrade of the President of the Community of Madrid, led, coincidentally, by the Spanish People's Party. The issue of corruption affects everyone, some more and some less: right, center, left, no one excluded. We must be the ones, before the magistracy, to ring the alarm bells. Do we want to talk about the government of Giorgia Meloni, which abolishes the abuse of office, a spy crime for corruption? The Libyan torturer Almasri, wanted by the International Criminal Court, arrested in Italy and returned to Tripoli on a state flight? Half the government is being investigated for this. And what about Carlo Fidanza, head of the delegation of Fratelli d'Italia to the European Parliament? He pleaded a one-year, four-month sentence for corruption. Or the Minister of Tourism, Santanchè, on trial for forgery, bankruptcy and fraud? Undersecretary Delmastro, Undersecretary Sgarbi? The list is incomplete. I have to stop for time. Let us therefore stop using the parliamentary chambers as weapons against the political adversary. We face the rule of law crisis in Europe, where we are dangerously retreating. How do we select the ruling classes? We have to answer that question.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about PEGA. After two years, the Commission has not yet proposed binding legislation against the abuse of spyware, nor published the promised communication. Do it now, because there is a new case that shakes Europe: the Lo Paragon Graphite Spyware. According to Meta, 17 European countries involved, 61 users infected, of which 7 Italian. Apple is talking about 150 countries around the world. I appeal to those who have been illegally spied on: Come out, help us! We must protect journalists, opponents and activists from illegal espionage, spied on by Israeli software funded by American funds. Citizen Lab Confirms that at least two Italian and one European journalists have been spied on. The Commission responded to my question by saying that the illegal use of spyware This is unacceptable, but concrete action is needed. On May 30, with the S&D and Verdi groups, we were in Rome and talked to the victims. This case is not only Italian, it is European. I am sorry for my colleague Cavedagna, but he is not up to date on the facts. There is no democracy without freedom of the press.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there was on average one explosion a day in Sweden last month. But it is not an isolated case, it is a wake-up call for the whole of Europe. I think that the State must intervene first, removing our boys from the handiwork of crime, from civil death. Then there are social networks, multipliers of discomfort. Let's think about the murder of Salwan Momika, famous for burning a copy of the Koran in public and killing in January during a live broadcast on TikTok. The state must be there first, Europe must be there before violence, and we must be there before it is too late. We need investments in our economic, social and cultural peripheries.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, precisely because we love freedom of expression, we think that Mr Musk is a danger to democracy, because he represents something new: Technopopulism. The richest man in the world, political, monopolist, who questions liberal democracies and the rule of law. And we know how important it is to fight against private monopolies to strengthen our democracies. It is not acceptable that, through Platform X, Mr Musk interferes in the internal affairs of the Member States of Europe, spreads hatred and disinformation. Social media giants have sided with their platforms for the American right, while Meta recently cleared fake news: Therefore, we need to know as soon as possible whether Platform X violated the Digital Services Act. We must fight for European digital sovereignty. Only then can we defend our democracies. President von der Leyen, Europe can no longer stammer.

Mr President, Commissioner, TikTok is under the magnifying glass of the European Commission for potential breaches of the Digital Services Act. The cancellation of elections in Romania due to TikTok interference demonstrates the seriousness of the situation: The Commission has successfully initiated formal proceedings against TikTok for suspected infringement of the Digital Services Act. But platform X should also be put under observation, because its owner, Elon Musk, is no longer a simple American entrepreneur, leader in space, electric cars and social media: It is also, by now, a political subject because it has a role in the Trump administration. The European Union must take note of this. Musk has turned a powerful communication tool into a weapon to undermine democratic institutions, manipulate public discourse and delegitimize European regulations. Together, Mr Musk and Donald Trump promote a worldview in which representative democracy – our values – is seen as obsolete. Under Musk's management, X abandoned any claim to neutrality, manipulating algorithms to amplify political narratives favorable to him and his ideological allies. This platform, once a symbol of pluralism, is now the vehicle of divisive narratives, hatred and ideological manipulations. Attacks on the Italian judiciary, criticism of the division of powers in the European Union and insults to Breton are no coincidence. By calling the former European Commissioner for the Internal Market "promoter of undemocratic policies" and publishing offensive memes, Musk has deliberately ignored the provisions of the Digital Services Act. These attacks therefore pose a direct challenge to the regulatory sovereignty of the European Union and to our ability to protect European citizens. The European Union must demonstrate that transparency, security and citizens' rights come before the interests of an individual. This is an appeal to Europe: Let's get rid of Mr. Musk's power! His platform is now opaque, with huge conflicts of interest on the part of the American tycoon.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, children's rights, denied rights: Let's think immediately of Gaza, of Ukraine, let's think of Afghanistan, where there are war zones, war zones, children are the ones who pay the most. But they pay the price here too, in our Europe. We heard colleagues say: 25% live at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Poverty and marginalization mean: high rate of school evasion, cultural poverty, illiteracy of return, that is, nothing for the future of these generations. Then we need to do more as Europe: We must take concrete action in children's lives and pass on healthy rules and values to them, as sport, for example, can do. There's no time to waste. The children of our peripheries have the right to dream and change their future and the European Union must support them and put their rights at the centre of any political action.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, yes, the wound is still open. In my country, which lives in times of peace like all other European countries, eleven journalists have been killed: Nine from the Mafia and two from terrorism. I am a member of the Democratic Party and we have a big problem, for example, in our country, which are the municipal councils – politics – which have relations with the mafia and corruption: think that in my region, Naples and Campania, there are 21 municipal councils dissolved for mafia infiltration: Ten of the centre-left and four were mayors of the Democratic Party. Then, I saw the clash between the People's Party and the Socialist colleagues in Malta; Here we have to say simple, clear things: We are all against the mafia, corruption and organised crime. There is a point for Daphne Caruana Galizia: He needs the truth, to know the whole truth. And until he knows the whole truth that part of Malta, there will be no pacification and to have pacification we must make peace.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there is one element that unites all the criminal organisations in the world: Making money illegally. In Italy, the mafias have a long history and their specificity is that they intertwine with part of the political, economic and financial power. The question we must ask ourselves, however, concerns Europe: Are we doing enough to fight organized crime? I have a feeling we're lagging behind them: We make a law and they already know how to get around it. Illicit money has no borders, it is transferred and laundered in tax havens within the Union, in countries such as Malta, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Here, tax tolerance has created a fertile ground where legal and illegal activities coexist undisturbed, facilitating money laundering and corruption. If their purpose is to make money illegally, we must act accordingly to take this wealth away from them. Giovanni Falcone taught us that following money is the key to finding the mafia. They are not afraid of prison, they are afraid of losing money, and by recovering that money we can really fight organized crime. To do this, however, we need to equip ourselves with the right tools. Strong cooperation between Financial Intelligence Units, tax authorities and investigation agencies is needed, with the support of Europol, Eurojust and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, the time has come for the European Parliament to set up a special committee against organised crime, capable of dealing with rapid developments in criminal methods. We can't afford to be left behind. The security of citizens and the economic viability of the Union depend on this common commitment.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in 60 seconds I will tell you that it is time to act and take decisions. The first one: We must ensure that Israel lives in security, and to do so we must immediately recognise the Palestinian state, as Spain, Ireland and Norway have already done. Only in this way will we put the Hamas terrorists out of the game, because we will give hope and a perspective of the future to the Palestinian people. We must stop the death spiral and support Israeli civil society and political opposition, demanding the resignation of Netanyahu, responsible for crimes against humanity, an irresponsible extremist. The barbarism of 7 October, the terrorist attack by Hamas, which we strongly condemn, does not justify a collective revenge that condemns the Palestinian civilian population to live in what Amnesty International declared in 2020 the most uninhabitable country on earth. Peace now, shalom, salaamPeace, now.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is with emotion that I take the floor to remember the massacre in Via D'Amelio. It is a wound that is still open, because we do not yet know the whole truth. We know that the massacre was the biggest state misdirection in Republican history. We know that the mafia is strong because it relates to part of politics, economics and finance. The years '92 and '93 were terrible for Italy; President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi even feared a coup d'état. That murderous mafia has been defeated by the State, but we have not yet won the battle. Today the Mafia has gone beyond national borders, it is a problem that concerns Europe. Dear colleagues, we cannot afford to be indifferent; We owe it to our children and to the children of our children, we owe it to our heroes of civil society and politics, to those who lost their lives to fight the mafia. Today we are all Paolo Borsellino, Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina, Claudio Traina.