Speeches

Madam President, $20 billion a year will be spent on biodiversity protection next year. Only 2% of this amount was collected at the UN summit. The question of funding is unresolved. The EU also complains of alleged lack of money and rejects new binding funds. Instead, a fund was created for companies that profit from plant diversity. But how do you get enough money from voluntary payments? When it comes to war, EU and NATO countries are more spendable. Last year, NATO countries spent $1.3 trillion on armaments. Ukraine’s support has the motto ‘For as long as necessary’. So far, this alone has cost Germany more than 40 billion euros. Wouldn't it make more sense to rely on diplomacy so that the weapons are finally silent? The billions squandered for death and destruction would be better invested in protecting our livelihoods, rather than risking a world war with the use of far-reaching weapons against the nuclear power Russia.

Madam President, More than 50 years after the adoption of UN Resolution 2758, the previous one-China policy is to be called into question. That's insane! After Russia, do we still want a conflict with China, one of the EU's most important trading partners? The following questions were just asked by a journalist to former NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, who, incidentally, could not answer them. Which countries has China invaded in the last 40 years? I'll tell you: none; And how many military bases does China operate worldwide? Exactly one; The U.S. has more than 700. What is the Chinese threat? The tensions with China must be stopped immediately. There is a China, Taiwan is not a member of the UN – this is a reality that needs to be accepted. War-offensiveness is not a concept of international politics. The EU should promote diplomacy and disarmament.

Madam President, One of the goals of the UN Future Pact is to strengthen international diplomacy. This is urgently needed. A negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East is finally needed. The United Nations can and should play a central role in this. It cannot therefore be that the right-wing extremist government of Israel prohibits the UN Secretary-General from entering the country and torpedoes all attempts to reach a ceasefire. But it is also people in Europe, such as Ursula von der Leyen or Mrs Strack-Zimmermann from the Liberals, who lend their voices to the arms lobby, who, alongside the US and NATO, are trying to undermine diplomatic solutions and who defame anyone who speaks out in favour of peace negotiations. That's a disgrace. It is good that tens of thousands of people are now taking to the streets against warmongering. With more and more weapons for Ukraine and Israel, the risk of escalation to the point of world war is increasing. A secure future is only possible with diplomacy and negotiations for an immediate ceasefire.

Madam President, More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed so far by the Israeli army in Gaza, half of them women and children. But the EU Ursula von der Leyens continues to support the right-wing extremist government of Israel alongside the US and Germany. The war is justified by the fact that, after the terrible attack by Hamas, it is a fight against Islamist terror. But terror cannot be combated by bombs or by overriding international humanitarian law. What the war in Gaza has achieved and is apparently intended to achieve is to make peace efforts in the region permanently impossible. But a regulation is needed that both secures Israel's right to exist and finally implements the formation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, calls for an end to arms supplies to Israel, an immediate ceasefire and negotiations. The killing in Gaza must come to an end.