Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the energy crisis and inflation, further aggravated by the prolongation of the war in Ukraine and the related sanctions imposed on Russia, are disrupting the lives of millions of European citizens. This is a human drama that transcends cold statistics: In the last year, more than 41 million people have faced winter without adequate heating in their homes, a sign of a real social emergency. Even more shocking is the increase in the number of deaths from the cold, a tragedy that highlights the gravity of the situation. This scenario is the direct consequence of an inadequate European energy policy which, by linking electricity prices to gas prices, has generated unacceptable speculative conditions. These dynamics have hit hard not only businesses, but also households, especially those most vulnerable and living in rural areas. The European Union, however, seems not to have been up to the task of managing this crisis. Not only did it play a role in creating the problem, but it also did not take effective action to counter and sanction speculation. In addition, environmental policies, while essential for a sustainable future, have often intensified the economic difficulties of households and businesses. Tripled bills and rising inflation have forced many families to give up everything that is not essential for survival, including access to medical care and the purchase of non-essential goods. This has created a cascading effect, paralyzing entire business sectors. The crisis has made clear the urgent need for a reform of the energy market that protects the social and economic rights of citizens, ensuring fair access to energy. It is therefore urgent to focus on practical and immediate solutions that can ensure that everyone, especially the most disadvantaged sections of the population, can face the winter safely. The reality is that many people are paying an excessively high price because of these policies, and we cannot afford to ignore their voices in such a fundamental debate for the future of Europe.

Dear colleague, dear colleagues, as you can see, we too have been here for many years discussing the ratification of this convention, we have never backed down. I, personally, have never backed down and you can see this with the recordings of the European Parliament. That said, you can't tell someone, a little girl who's been raped or someone who's being killed, you can't say you have to do a color diversification, because that happens. In Italy a girl was brutally killed because she did not want to marry and on this we can not do radical chic. Politics is not radical chic, politics is about protecting citizens, protecting women and protecting the defenseless. That's why we're here, and I don't do radical chic politics. (The speaker rejects a "blue card" question by Alice Kuhnke)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, since my entry into the European Parliament in 2014, I have always fought for the Istanbul Convention to be first signed and then ratified. I thought that the troubled path had passed with the signature, but the ratification becomes a bit like the epic journey of Ulysses, a real Odyssey. Never before is the convention even more necessary. The events that are upsetting the world have increased immigration to Europe, we are well aware of the situation in port countries such as Italy, left alone to manage an ever-increasing phenomenon. In a multicultural context like the one in which we live today it is important to have homogeneous legislation, which establishes minimum standards for governments in the prevention and condemnation of violence against women, since for some cultures, even today, women do not have rights, they can be beaten, they can be raped, they can be infibulated and given in marriage as a child. I think of the Pakistani girl killed in Italy for refusing an arranged marriage or the girl raped at the station a few days ago by a Moroccan in Milan, or the policewoman raped in Naples at the end of her shift by a Bengali, or a fifteen-year-old raped by African immigrants, second generation, at the party of the Democratic Party. The rapists fled, untraceable, and the left was marked by a deafening silence. The ratification of the Convention sends a clear message to all these people: In Europe women have rights, in Europe women are protected, in Europe you will not go unpunished. We have been fighting for our rights for decades and we have no intention of retreating. (The speaker agreed to answer a "blue card" question)

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are in 2023, but we are still a long way from achieving gender equality. I share the view that the gender gap in some areas is predominant and that we need to act with strength and foresight. Access to education and digital skills must be the priority. They are, in fact, indispensable tools for women to also achieve economic independence or create their own entrepreneurial activity. There is no freedom without economic independence. The digital divide often also translates into a lower awareness of the dangers that can be encountered online. It must be a priority to combat the violence and abuse that is consumed online and the weapons we have at our disposal are often too few. However, in the field of education and training we must not only focus on policies that improve access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but we must also invest in the fields of art and creativity. Only the synergy between the various fields of knowledge allows a satisfying development of the person. Beyond the body and mind, the soul must also be nourished.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, some of us have been crying out for years to ratify the Istanbul Convention. After the green light of the Court of Justice, there is no longer any excuse not to proceed with immediate ratification by the Council. The criticism of this Convention is ridiculous, as is the Polish Prime Minister's request for an examination of constitutionality. The Convention simply sets minimum standards for governments in the prevention, protection and condemnation of violence against women and domestic violence. All things that I think are more than normal. The non-ratification by some countries is a slap in the face to all mistreated women, to this European Union and to the values we represent. Not intervening means being complicit. Gender-based violence is a scourge that, if left untreated, will continue to gangrene our societies. As a European Union, we have two choices today: to ratify the Istanbul Convention and have all the tools to fight violence against women, saving thousands of lives, or to turn the other way, hiding behind a bit of bureaucracy. I can't turn around.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are rewriting the priorities of the European cultural agenda. As you can imagine, the topics are many and different. COVID has left thousands of people and artists out of work. This is why we wanted to protect entrepreneurs in the sector, almost always the owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, asking for easy access to credit to be guaranteed; workers, who often have atypical and fragmented contracts; and European cultural initiatives, which need to be adequately supported by funds and projects. Given that opportunities for growth, learning and development arise from the artistic and cultural sector, I believe that it is our duty to have an eye also for female entrepreneurship in this field. It is therefore our task to ensure that culture increasingly becomes a transversal sector that enters our daily lives. It is our task to protect it and with it to protect our European artistic heritage. To this end, I hope that this House will vote tomorrow on our amendment for the protection of artistic and cultural heritage, which provides, where necessary, for exemptions for the cultural sector from prohibitions on the use of certain materials. It may seem like a legislative quibble, but it depends not only on the integrity of our historic cathedrals, our colored Murano glass, our hand-painted ceramic bells and that are renowned all over the world, but also on the families of artisans and restorers, who are increasingly and indifferently prohibited from using the tools of their work. In this period of wars and disasters, we cannot afford to put at risk our European cultural heritage, part of our identity and which, once lost, will be lost forever.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there is no sign of a decrease in cases of violence against women. In my city in recent days one woman was stabbed to death by her husband and another was seriously injured because her husband always set her on fire. This news is on the agenda in all the countries of the European Union, because hatred and violence know no borders, they have no age difference, they have no difference in social background, they only have victims. Now, for the first time in the history of the Italian Republic, we have a female Prime Minister. And what happened? That after a few days that she had been nominated she had to fly to the G20 and was very attacked. Why was she attacked? For his political ideas? For the words you said? No, simply because he had brought his six-year-old daughter with him. A trivial gesture, but that evidently in my country is still revolutionary. What I regret is that I would have expected from the other colleagues of the other parties some hints of solidarity, messages of solidarity, and instead this did not happen. Now, Mr President, all I want to say is that we must be united. If we don't begin to be united, nothing will change.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as the great Eduardo De Filippo said, the exams never end. But then why should we stop learning, acquiring new skills or qualifications? Lifelong learning must be encouraged at all levels and micro-credentials have the function of creating learning pathways that can be used by all, in particular by disadvantaged citizens and by people who have left the labour market and are unable to re-enter it. However, it is important to ensure that this does not also turn into a new type of unpaid work. In any case, before innovating the system with these new introductions, it is necessary to strengthen the foundations of the training system, otherwise Europe will be inexorably surpassed in the next global challenges. Important investments are needed in our universities, in research, in the safety of students engaged in mixed courses of school-work alternation and for scholarships. This new arms race, for example, and the continuing emergencies are already affecting European programs and countries' financial maneuvers, and the risk is that everything will take a back seat, including the formation of the next ruling class, which will lead Europe in the future.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as I said in this House a long time ago, in Europe fundamental rights are for many but not for all. We often talk about freedom, justice, gender equality, but we can't even guarantee them here at home. Unfortunately, not all EU Member States have ratified the Istanbul Convention to this day. Even today, before our eyes, thousands of women and children are victims of human trafficking, are sold as slaves, killed or forced into prostitution. Prostitution is still legalised in some Member States and seen as a simple job. Even today there are women out there who cannot even report their tormentors, as happened to the young Anna Borsa, who unfortunately, after countless attacks, was killed a few days ago in Italy by her ex-boyfriend with a gun illegally detained. His only fault was to have interrupted a relationship with a person who was evidently ill. Because sometimes you live in small towns, where everyone knows each other and it becomes difficult psychologically, because society still blames you. Unfortunately, many women are still not aware of their rights, their value and their strength. Our task is to take them by the hand, offering them the moral and material help they need, to give them back hope, to push them to fight and not give up. Only a joint action promoted at every political level and in concert with civil society can really set in motion that change on paper that has very often already happened but that is difficult to see the light in everyday life.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, many of the initiatives that we carry out every day seek to set in motion a virtuous process that aims not only to increase the mere presence of women in prominent positions, but indirectly aims to create the training, support and working conditions, essential in modern society, to encourage the presence of women at every level of the pyramid. What must be avoided, however, is to fall into politically correct texts, sometimes completely sterile and useless. To focus so much attention and energy on neutral language, on minor issues, such as the number of male MEPs in the AGRI Committee rather than on Fisheries, or on baskets for menstrual cups in bathrooms, I find it genuinely distant from the reality around us. You could tell me that the institutions must set a good example. It's true. But we must also avoid forgetting what the world is like out there, we must not fall into the Marie Antoinette syndrome in Versailles. Because there are real problems out there. Outside this European bubble there are women who earn 30% less than men for the same job. It is as if a female MEP earns 30% less than a male colleague. Unfortunately, the road to gender equality is still long and our task as legislators is to continue to work managing the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary", but without ever losing sight of the real needs of European citizens.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, peace, law and respect for every human being. When we are young we think that they are obvious words, that we all have these positive principles within us. When you are an adult, you realize that there is good and there is evil. Today I want to use very simple and understandable words for all those who are listening to us. The Istanbul Convention is "the first legally binding international instrument that creates a comprehensive legal framework to protect women from any form of violence." So the Istanbul Convention is a treaty, and treaties must first be signed and then ratified by states, so that states are bound to comply with these treaties. In this Convention we are talking about very simple concepts. It is said that states should include in their criminal codes a number of crimes perpetrated against women: psychological violence, sexual violence, stalking, physical violence, rape, forced marriage, genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilization, sexual harassment. Aberrant crimes, yet there are countries in the European Union who believe that it is not an act of civilization to ratify the agreement. European citizens, women, fathers, today you must ask your governments and politicians who represent you: Why? Why is it difficult to face sexual violence or genital mutilation? Why is it hard to face a forced marriage or rape? The task of politicians is to make decisions and represent democracy. And then I want to know why there are countries in the European Union that have come to terms with this treaty and whether these countries really represent the values of the European Union.