Speeches

Madam President, NATO will decide on a gigantic rearmament. US President Trump wants to double military spending to 5% of gross domestic product – that's €3 trillion. This has nothing to do with defence, and certainly not with an independent European foreign and security policy. The tax money that the EU pumps into NATO serves only the US's global hegemony policy. While Europe is to continue the US proxy war against Russia alone, the US is now waging a war of aggression in the Middle East with Israel and wants to challenge China in the Indo-Pacific. For Europe, rearmament means social war against its own people. In the future, Germany alone will spend half its budget – 225 billion euros – on armaments, more than Russia currently spends overall. This madness only benefits the armaments companies. Every euro for armaments will be lacking in education, pensions and health. The further social and economic decline of Europe is thus pre-programmed.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Let's keep this in mind: Israel is waging a war of aggression against Iran in violation of international law. Israel has nuclear weapons, has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not allow international inspections. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, allows international inspections and has negotiated its nuclear program with the US. And what is the EU doing, which is already circulating in the Gaza war? Mrs Kallas, who you usually like to talk about international law, you do not even manage to condemn Israel's war of aggression against Iran. Where is your protest if Israel tramples on international law with attacks on nuclear facilities and Iranian journalists? When US President Trump tweets about killing Iran's leader? Why are arms still being delivered from the EU to Israel and why is the Association Agreement not yet suspended? How can it be that you continue to reward the aggression policy of the far-right Netanyahu government? The double standard is debunking and frightening.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! 80 years ago today, Germany was liberated from fascism. Today is the day to thank the liberators from the Soviet Union, the US, Britain and France, as well as the partisans who fought for our freedom. It was the Soviet Union that bore the brunt of the fight against Hitler fascism. More than 27 million Soviet citizens, most of them civilians, died in the Nazi campaign to enslave and destroy the Slavic peoples – more than a million in the blockade of Leningrad alone. But the German government refuses to recognize this crime as genocide. The memory of history is in danger. Unfortunately, there are attempts – also here in the House – to reduce the Soviet Union’s share of the victory over Nazi Germany. But it was the Red Army that liberated the Auschwitz extermination camp and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. It is a shame that representatives of Russia, the largest successor state of the Soviet Union, are excluded from commemoration on the 80th anniversary of liberation. We must not allow history to be distorted. We owe this to the millions of victims of German fascism.

Madam President, "Europe swears by the Leyen for a possible Great War" just headlined a large web portal. With 800 billion, the EU is to be made war-ready. But why, if even US intelligence say Russia isn't planning an attack on NATO states? If it is not defence, then it can only be about preparing for a war against Russia, which the coalition of the EU's war-willing people obviously wants. This madness must be stopped! The New York Times is currently writing about how the US is waging its proxy war in Ukraine from Germany. This is tantamount to a direct entry into war. We should therefore be glad that there are negotiations to end the war. But the EU now wants to continue the war without the US. That's insane! The attacks on democracy in Europe also act as part of a mobilization for war. Prospective candidates are excluded from elections, the Russian minority in Estonia is deprived of the right to vote, and in Germany, despite a mega-scarce election outcome, is not counted. But he who abolishes the democracy which he claims to defend is no different from the democracy which he declares to be enemies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! The EU, which likes to call itself a peace project, wants to become European NATO – 800 billion euros are to be spent on rearmament. And just like NATO, the EU is neither a community of defence nor a community of values. Where are the European values when it comes to Gaza? Where are they when the EU cheers for electoral fraud in Romania? And why has there never been an EU initiative for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine? Now you want to continue the proxy war in Ukraine without the US. You see peace as a betrayal, which is reminiscent of George Orwell. They say defense and my attack. They are preparing a war against Russia. Some even dream of French nuclear weapons for the EU, even if the range of French bombers only reaches Hanover. The time of illusions is over, Mrs. von der Leyen said today. However, this should apply above all to the unrestrained self-overestimation of the EU, in which one feels reminded of the German Empire. The EU degenerates into the Europe of armaments companies, for whose profits you go over corpses. War credits must be stopped, we need a policy of détente.

Mr President! Ladies and Gentlemen! The situation in Gaza continues to escalate. In the spirit of the far-right government of Israel, US President Trump wants to expel the Palestinians from Gaza and relocate them to neighboring states, as it is euphemistically said. Instead of a Palestinian state, a luxury Riviera is to be created. These plans are inhumane and belong in the rubbish piles of history. With Trump's ultimatum, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the delivery of aid and the fate of the hostages are now completely in question. But what can we hear from the EU in this dramatic situation? Not much. Because those who otherwise like to act as a moral authority remain silent when it comes to the Palestinians. Thus, the last remnant of credibility is lost. Instead, it is accepted that, like the US, Germany continues to supply weapons to Israel. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, is calling for an end to arms deliveries. Instead of weapons, it needs use for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr President! The good news is: There is finally a ceasefire in Gaza, and the first Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are released. However, the cruel truth is that, according to negotiators, there was already the possibility of concluding a ceasefire on practically the same terms in December 2023. But this has been evaded by the US, Germany and the EU Commission. German Foreign Minister Baerbock even said literally that it is not the job of politics that the weapons must remain silent. What a shame! It takes diplomacy and not this deviant warmongering. The Gaza war has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians. The West is clearly co-responsible for this, as the weapons for the war of Netanyahu’s partly far-right government come mainly from the US and Germany – and this must end. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, is therefore calling for a ceasefire for Israel. And last but not least: It finally needs a political solution with an independent Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr President! The reports from Syria are alarming. Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS has taken power with other Islamist terrorist groups. Minorities are already being harassed and Sharia law is threatening. But Brussels is sympathetic to the redistribution of the Middle East, which is also to be enforced with the help of Islamists. This is unbearable and revealing at the same time. Finally, we are constantly hearing from the High Representative about the importance of international law. But this never applies to NATO countries or allies of the West. At the same time, the right-wing extremist government of Israel is bombing Syria and occupying Syrian areas along the border with Lebanon and Jordan. And NATO member Turkey is attacking the Kurds with Islamist SNA militias, without any consequences for Turkey's EU accession status. The EU, which constantly speaks of the European community of values, is simply untrustworthy. The EU's foreign policy thus degenerates into a bloody farce.

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, 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.