Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, this is not the first time in recent months that this House has debated and spoken out about the brutality of the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua. The constitutional reform, approved a few days ago, formalizes the diarchy between husband and wife at the top of the regime and puts an end, even formally, to the separation of powers, already violated by years of ruthless oppression and systematic violation of the rule of law. The only freedom guaranteed in Nicaragua is that of the communist terrorist Alessio Casimirri, whose immediate extradition to Italy we are once again strongly calling for. We stand by the political prisoners, the democratic opposition, the Catholic Church, the last garrison of freedom. Strong European political action is needed, coordinated with the United States and other countries in the region, the activation of the democratic clause of the Association Agreement, the blocking of cooperation funds if human rights are not restored and the tightening of individual sanctions against the top leadership of the regime.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Minister, Commissioner, today, a left that has become desperate and totally detached from the common sense of the peoples tries to tell us that the threat to Europe's competitiveness would be represented by collaboration between the conservatives and the extreme right, where obviously, with the usual distortion of words and reality, the Christian Democrats become conservatives and everything that moves to their right automatically becomes the extreme right. It is the usual game of putting labels on political opponents to disqualify tens of millions of Europeans from the democratic game and keep Christian-Democratic friends under perpetual blackmail: accept the left's agenda so as not to be demonized by the media mainstream. It is a pity that the people are rebelling against this plan. It is also a pity that they understand perfectly well that the real threat to European competitiveness is represented precisely by those who have made the European Union the most regulated and bureaucratized space in the world, by those who persist in carrying out ideological recipes. green, They lead us to productive desertification and China's dependence on those who want uncontrolled immigration and consequently low wages. They are the same ones who, after having benefited for years from the censorship of the big technological platforms, today cry out to the danger of the technoright, because some former democratic sympathizers in Silicon Valley are beginning to dismantle the unbearable cloak of political correctness. Faced with this left, in recent years the path to follow in Europe has not been traced by Donald Trump or Elon Musk, but by Giorgia Meloni, who has been able to build a credible right, the pivot of a wide and plural center-right. A national-conservative right, fiercely European, firmly Western, in love with freedom, an enemy of autocracies and without subjection to anyone. Definitely overcome the geopolitical ambiguities and the velleitarisms, on the one hand, and break down the fences and cut the undemocratic cordons, on the other: This is the only way to prevent the left, which is the real enemy of European competitiveness, from continuing to do damage.

Under Rule 215, we will propose a committee of inquiry to shed full light on this shameful scandal involving the European institutions. We want the truth about this shame and we want to know how much money was spent irregularly, to whom it was given, why, who they tried to condition, with what outcome and if it was also made on other important matters of our legislation.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking on a point of order pursuant to Rule 215 and Annex I to our Code of Conduct. Yesterday we had news in the press, relaunched by my EPP colleague, Mr Gotink, whom I thank, is a disturbing confirmation from Commissioner Serafin: during the last mandate, the European Commission would have allocated more than EUR 700 000 to environmental associations, in order to convince Members of this Parliament to support with their vote the green follies wanted by former Commissioner Vice-President Timmermans. We would be in front of a real greengatethe use of public resources to influence the vote of this Parliament...

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a few weeks ago, thanks also to our initiative, this House celebrated the awarding of the Sakharov Prize to an extraordinary woman like María Corina Machado and to President-elect Edmundo Gonzáles Urrutia. A few days later, the tyrant Maduro concluded - for now - his work of usurping power, based on the fraudulent result of last July's elections, with a ceremony of sham proclamation against the Constitution, before a national assembly that has no legitimacy. There has been a response from the European Union, including from the United States, but more can be done. We must not and will not give up until constitutional legality, the will of the people and the rule of law are restored and Edmundo Gonzáles is installed as the sole and legitimate president of Venezuela. We do not want to surrender until all political prisoners are released and the rule of law is restored. We do not want to give up until democracy is restored and dignity and freedom are restored to the Venezuelan people. Glory to the good pueblo y viva Venezuela libre!

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, since 5 November last year, we have heard boring litany from the left about the sad fate that Europe would face and open calls for global resistance. It was a very strong slap and they haven't recovered yet. Obviously, as conservatives, we can only appreciate Trump who wants to fight crime, drug cartels and irregular immigration, the one that puts an end to hegemony. wokeIt demolishes gender theories and restores freedom of expression on social media. We expect a lot on the Middle East, where it is necessary to start from the spirit of the Abrahamic agreements, and on Ukraine, where we must build a just peace, first and foremost for the attacked. On NATO, Trump reminds us of our responsibilities, after decades in which we have contracted, at low cost, the defense of our security. On Greenland and Panama he raises issues that also concern our security: Russian-Chinese activism in the Arctic and Beijing's control over strategic infrastructure. Therefore, the Trump presidency offers us above all the great opportunity to realign our industrial choices towards the Atlantic, instead of handing over our hands and feet to China with the ideological follies that have polluted the Green Deal, with good peace of the much-declaimed strategic autonomy. It offers us a great opportunity to relaunch a strong transatlantic partnership, rather than trembling while waiting for new tariffs. One thing is certain, colleagues: Yesterday a new America was born, now it is time for a new Europe to be born.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are on the eve of a Council focused on foreign policy issues: Western Balkans, Ukraine and the Middle East above all. And it is precisely from the Syrian crisis that we must start: In order to facilitate the repatriation of Syrian refugees, we are once again paying European citizens' money to Turkey. We will ensure that they are properly spent and do not become a new weapon of Erdoğan's blackmail against Europe. In the meantime, we must move forward, vigorously, in the direction outlined by Giorgia Meloni and taken from President von der Leyen's letter: implement agreements with third countries along the lines of the agreement with Tunisia, which has reduced irregular arrivals by more than 80% in the last year, and set up return centres in third countries, as provided for in the Italy-Albania Protocol. Not only: there is an urgent need to clarify the regulatory framework in order to stop initiatives by a certain politicised judiciary that aims to demolish the very concept of a safe third country. If this line were to pass, no Member State would be able to repatriate the irregulars and the signal we would give to tens of millions of desperate people, including many malicious ones, would be that anyone can enter Europe without risking anything. It would be the surrender to the migratory chaos, the surrender to the mafias of human traffickers. What is more, it would be the end of Schengen and, what is more, it would be the end of Europe as we have known it. We can't afford it.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, many years ago I was rapporteur for the first European tourism strategy and I was also the first coordinator of the TRAN Committee's Tourism Task Force. Today I have to acknowledge something that is certainly positive, namely that tourism finally officially plays a part in a Commissioner’s portfolio, after too many years of under-regard and failed promises – many of which we also had during the terrible COVID phase, which severely penalised our tourism businesses. Here, we hope that this choice will also be followed by a change of pace in terms of priorities, financial instruments and policies to support the competitiveness of the tourism sector while respecting national competences. Tourism is an economic pillar for Europe: generates 10% of European GDP and millions of jobs, enhances territories and our cultural heritage. Europe is still the top tourist destination in the world, but we have a duty to do better not to lose this record. That is why we must continue to invest in digital innovation, support small and medium-sized enterprises and value Europe in its extraordinary cultural and historical diversity. And we need to invest more in tourism for all: Accessibility must be ensured in transport, hospitality and services not only because it is ethically fair, but because it generates economic added value. Here, this is important and we also hope – in conclusion – that there will be strong action by the Commission to help Member States tackle abusive behaviour and unfair competition.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not know whether this will really be the most right-wing Commission in history, as we hear from a nervous left, from the very nervous greens. I hope so, frankly, but we will see it, we will see it to the test; We will see if he is able to bring pragmatism back into the world. Green Deal, despite Mrs Ribera, will she be able to support our businesses, control our borders and increase returns? On these issues we will also see what majorities will be created in this House, beyond the communiqués and the form - what will be voted here and who will vote for it - and we will see beautiful ones, I am convinced. What is certain is that the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni has offered this European Commission a capable and competent person, allow me, the most capable and competent to manage a very important portfolio such as that of cohesion: Raffaele Fitto, who is a conservative. And it did so thanks to a democratic mandate given by Italian citizens with millions of votes to the government led by Giorgia Meloni and the center-right. This is democracy, whether you like it or not.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, for 50 years Cyprus has been experiencing a painful division caused by the Turkish invasion of 1974, with the unilateral and illegal secession of the occupied areas, the disappearance of many people and the attack on Orthodox churches destroyed or vandalised or transformed into mosques or military structures. This division is not a local issue: It represents a serious violation of international law, a threat to regional stability, a challenge to Europe's ability to address the instrumentalisation of migration flows. Furthermore, Turkey’s provocative actions and military threats in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone are a serious attack on the sovereign rights of a Member State and undermine the energy security of the entire Eastern Mediterranean. For all these reasons, the European Union cannot look the other way, even when dealing with Turkey and its alleged European aspirations. The European Union must firmly support the Republic of Cyprus until the end of illegality and the full restoration of its sovereignty over the occupied territories.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, despite the wishes of the Left, the mainstream Globalist, the star system Donald Trump has achieved a triumph beyond all expectations. It was the victory of common sense, of that deep America that demands less taxes, less inflation, more security, more control of irregular immigration, more national pride. It is called democracy and must be accepted even when the left does not like it, for which Trump was a monster because he was undemocratic before, and now he is a monster because he will put more tariffs on it. The simplest truth is that while Trump will serve the interests of Americans, the European Union is not serving the interests of European citizens. There is no doubt that we should assert ourselves, but there is only one recipe for doing so: making our businesses more competitive; lowering the cost of energy; supporting our farmers; Relaunching our automotive,our steel, our manufacture, our quality products; Abandoning the Ideology of Transition green All electricity, which gives us the opportunity to detach from our transatlantic alliance and to depend on China, to choose instead technological neutrality, biofuels, the new generation nuclear and all the technologies useful for this purpose. Europe, dear widows of Biden and Kamala Harris – including you, Mr. High Representative – has no time to lose in regrets and moral condemnations: Europe needs to run again.

Madam Commissioner, you have spoken of a harmonised framework from the point of view of health and that is certainly the case from the point of view of standards. In fact, very often we are faced with an unharmonized situation with regard to surveillance, which in some Member States appears to be neither adequate nor harmonized, often causing late warnings that then end up weighing on the pockets of our farmers and, not only, on the whole chain and, ultimately, on consumers. Do you also intend to try to harmonise the second phase, namely the application of surveillance measures?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam Commissioner, I naturally agree with what my fellow Members have said, the need to intervene in order to give maximum support, including financial support, to the farmers who are, unfortunately, increasingly affected by these animal epidemics. I think that more needs to be done also in anticipation of the next CAP, by creating a specific fund to compensate for the losses suffered by farmers: losses that are both direct – of course I am referring to those linked to the number of animals that are lost on these occasions – but are also indirect, such as those linked to the value chain and possible market disturbances due to the blockages of international trade. You referred just now to the possibility of intervening with the market measures provided for in the CMOs. But I wanted to ask you whether you do not believe that, in this direction, it is essential to make efforts to ensure that third countries actually recognize the principle of regionalization, thus avoiding generating unjustified alarmism among consumers in those countries and thus also avoiding unfair competition on agri-food exports, as is unfortunately happening in many cases.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, Giorgia Meloni was the first European leader to travel to Lebanon these days. It did so after the unacceptable Israeli attacks on our military, to strongly reiterate that we all demand respect for UNIFIL troops, their safety and security and the mandate of UN Resolution 1701. If necessary, we are ready to strengthen UNIFIL and to think about new rules of engagement to help disarm Hezbollah in that strip of land. Politically, even more so after the death of the "butcher" Sinwar, it is time for a ceasefire – both in Gaza and in Lebanon – and for the simultaneous release of the Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas. Finally, the European Union must take on the dramatic situation not only of internally displaced persons in Lebanon, but also of Syrian refugees, to whom we must ensure a prompt and safe return to Syria in order to avert a new wave of immigration that we would not be able, under the current rules, to manage.

Madam President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I have listened to your Presidency's programme carefully and with the respect due to you and to the Hungarian people, who have entrusted you with the government of their nation for years. This respect has been lacking in this House in many quarters, but on the other hand we have had lessons in patriotism and Christian values from the left. We even had lessons on the rule of law from a colleague accused in Hungary of very serious incidents of violence against defenceless citizens, who did not even have the courage to listen to a question from a colleague. We have many points on which we agree in your Presidency's programme. We don't hide from you those we disagreed with as friends over the past few months. I am referring, of course, to the Russian-Ukrainian question. Not because we consider you, like someone in this House, a dangerous agent in Putin's pay - it would be enough to know your personal history to know that this is not possible - but because if every war is to end with a peace, we must together seek a truly just peace for Ukraine. I was here in 2011, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, and I remember your first historic presidency. Back then, in the midst of the financial crisis and the Arab springs, you had chosen two simple but not trivial words as your motto: Strong Europe. Thirteen years have passed, between bad choices and external shocks, and today Europe is undoubtedly not stronger but weaker. Then we hope that this last phase of the Hungarian Presidency will really lead to concrete steps towards a stronger Europe. Strong because it is more pragmatic in supporting its economy, strong because it is more determined in defending its borders, strong because it is more proud of its identity and its history.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Vice-President, I would like to read to you the words of the Italian Stellantis dealers, which are at least as merciless as the market data: “As distributors, we are in daily contact with end customers who often reject electric vehicles due to concerns about price, range and accessibility. This puts us in a position contrary to that of the manufacturer we represent, who remains optimistic about compliance with these strict EU regulations. However, from our point of view, it is clear that the sector is not yet ready to reach the necessary volume of sales of electric vehicles. This growing divergence between regulatory targets, market readiness and manufacturer expectations is a cause for concern for us. It was therefore no surprise when most European manufacturers called for a postponement of these targets, a proposal we fully support. Well, a sacrosanct proposal that the Italian government first put on the table. Yet it is not enough to postpone the sanctions for a few months, but we must have the courage to completely question the dogma of the "all electric now", defend the endothermic engine and with it hundreds of thousands of workers, defend technological neutrality, alternative fuels, all, including biofuels, investment in technologies and supply chains of which we have control, instead of handing us over to China. We are perhaps still in time to save ourselves, provided that we immediately and forever archive the season of self-destructive ideologies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Vice-President, Minister, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is about to enter its third winter, and in the meantime we are witnessing the dramatic escalation that has been taking place in the Middle East since 7 October. As we ask ourselves about Europe's role in the world, we are called to give an answer to the great question of our time: Is there an alternative to Europe's cultural, geostrategic and competitive decline? It is precisely on competitiveness that the next Council will be called upon to give important answers. For the past five years, we European conservatives have been trying to wake up to a crazy ideological drift that is dooming us to deindustrialization, loss of competitiveness vis-à-vis China and the United States, and new strategic dependencies. We have been accused of climate denialism by the same people who today applaud Draghi without perhaps even understanding him. Today it is necessary to correct those errors, but to succeed we must put aside the ideology of happy degrowth and rediscover a healthy pragmatism. Pragmatism will also be needed to tackle immigration more decisively. We are at a crossroads: we can continue to pursue ineffective policies that lead more and more governments to close internal borders or no longer want to apply the rules of the Union, or we can choose the path traced by Giorgia Meloni, now studied by international leaders of all political colors. Fighting human traffickers without quarter, increasing returns of irregulars, new cooperation agreements with third countries, asylum procedures in sites outside Europe. The results show that the latter is certainly the right path and we hope that it will be pursued decisively.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, on 28 July, the Venezuelan people rebelled against the narco-communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and elected Edmundo González Urrutia as its legitimate president, after the leader of the democratic opposition, María Corina Machado, was shamefully expelled from the electoral competition. An election stolen by the regime, which had not accepted international observers and never published the minutes of the seats, which would have confirmed González's clear victory. Since the next day, violent repression has taken place, leading to the death of more than 25 protesters and the arrest or enforced disappearance of 2,500 political opponents. González was forced into exile in Spain a few days ago. All this happened in the complicit silence of the political and media left, which still fails to condemn this brutal dictatorship, not understanding that every additional day granted to Maduro is a favor to those who want to turn all of Latin America into the fifth column of Russia, China and Iran. It is our duty to do everything possible to support the struggle for freedom and democracy of the Venezuelan people, overcoming the shyness that High Representative Borrell has shown so far, effectively espousing the position of Lula, Petro and Obrador, who still gave the regime breath. We have a duty to act now, because from today to 10 January we must carry out the constitutional process for the proclamation of the new president. We have a duty to raise the pressure, impose sanctions against Maduro and the other leaders of the regime, and recognize the election of the only legitimate president, Edmundo González. And we must do so as the European Union, because unilateral initiatives would be less effective and perhaps even riskier. We must do this with symbolic initiatives and that is also why our group will propose to award the Sakharov Prize to Edmundo González, and with him to María Corina Machado and to all democratic Venezuela. But we must do so above all from Thursday, from the vote we will have in this House. Those who do not take sides are accomplices.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the strategic dialogue should serve to outline the future of European agriculture after a parliamentary term of violent ideological attacks, which have only partially appeased in recent months. But if, on the one hand, the final document puts the right attention to the need to protect farmers' incomes through fair remuneration and a fairer distribution of value, on the other it is as if there was still a sort of ultra-ecological autopilot inserted, as if farmers had not strongly expressed their malaise, as if European citizens had not voted last June to stop this ideological drift. To this we owe the substantial continuity with the "farm to fork" strategy, a sort of secular Bible of health green, the obsessive call for plant proteins to the detriment of animal proteins, the proposal to strengthen the law on nature restoration that the Council approved as the first act after the European elections, blatantly denying the commitment to no longer enact rules penalising the competitiveness of the sector. Now it's time to defuse that technobureaucratic autopilot green, to base any future decision on serious impact assessments, to strengthen crisis management tools, to ensure reciprocity with third countries. It is time to concretely support our farmers, who are – and I want to remind you of this – the first guardians of our territories.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the left does not lose the habit of using history as a political weapon. It does so with the aim of disqualifying opponents, because they know that they cannot beat them on the ground of programs and political proposal. It has always done so, using all the means at its disposal, occupying schools, universities, information, culture and entertainment. Our Parliament, too, is transformed every month into a people's court in which the supposedly good ones pass sentences against the supposedly bad ones, attribute licenses of legitimacy by shouting at the return of some imaginary dictatorship, but normally remain silent in front of the real dictatorships, often daughters of their own ideological strain. They stick to non-existent censures to target the Meloni government, but remain silent if a left-wing mayor sends the police to ban a Conservative conference, as happened in Brussels. In this Europe of ours, that the left liberal red and green condemned to decadence, there is only one dictatorship, that of the single thought, politically correct, ultra greenImmigration and gender fluid. And it is against this unbearable hood of conformity that more and more European citizens are demanding freedom. On June 8th and 9th they will have a great chance to conquer it.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank the promoters of this surreal debate, because with this initiative they have made it clear, once again, who in these five years has worked to desertify agricultural Europe, industrial Europe, manufacturing Europe, and who has fought to defend businesses and citizens from the mad green ideology. In recent years you have consistently violated the principle of technological neutrality, condemning us to a new dramatic strategic dependence on China, without improving the conditions of the environment around us. You did it because you were blinded by ideology, the one that prevented you from listening to the cry of pain of citizens and businesses who are accused, like us, of climate denialism. And you did it because for a long time you have been more attentive to the reasons of big speculative finance than to those of companies, which lose competitiveness because of your green bureaucracy, and to those of workers who risk their jobs. But on June 8th and 9th the Europeans will finally say that this season is over.

Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, from Ukraine to the Middle East, the European Union is struggling to carve out its own role. The launch of Operation Aspides, under the tactical command of Italy, is a signal in the right direction to restore the safety of navigation in the Red Sea. Instead of attacking Trump, who calls us to realism, we need a real European industrial policy for defence, to build that European pillar of NATO that is necessary for our security. On the ground of combating irregular immigration, while someone in this House is still trying to sabotage the agreement with Tunisia, fortunately the European Union is beginning to move along the line drawn by Giorgia Meloni, as the upcoming mission to Egypt shows. Finally, in the next Council, at the request of Italy and other countries, we will finally talk about agriculture! We need to put an end to crazy politics. green against the sector, simplify the CAP, recognise the right price and prevent the sacrosanct support to Ukraine from causing further damage to our producers. There's no more time to waste.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, short-term rented accommodation accounts for about a quarter of all tourist accommodation in the European Union. It is a phenomenon that in recent years has been characterized by a great expansion. But in many cases this expansion has been without rules and without controls, generating critical issues such as consumer exposure to security risks, undeclared work, tax evasion, unfair competition, the transformation of the economic and social fabric of our cities. The well-functioning European tourism ecosystem will now be able to benefit significantly from this new regulation, thanks to a single and simple set of information rules for platforms and simplified registration procedures for hosts. Increased transparency will strengthen the confidence of travellers and help national and local authorities to develop better policies in the tourism sector in order to ensure its social and environmental sustainability.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the scourge of white deaths does not deserve to be exploited. Political speculation disrespects the victims, as does the inertia of politics. In Italy, with the Meloni government, 800 new labour inspectors have been hired to supervise factories and construction sites. Occupational safety will be included as a subject of study from primary schools. After the tragedy in Florence, new rules have already been introduced: the credit licence, which will punish companies that do not train and do not guarantee safety in the workplace; a new competition for inspectors to further increase checks by at least 40%; new measures to prevent and combat irregular work; extending the verification of labour cost adequacy to include private procurement; strengthening the system of penalties for subcontracting. Important steps in the right direction, that of a social commitment that will always see us at the forefront.