Debate contributions by Markus BUCHHEIT

Madam President, Commissioner! Don't worry, it's getting easier now. I think I'm making funny logical conclusions here, but that's a bit wild. China is strangulating our entire industry with export bans on gallium, germanium and rare earths. And often we do so, here in Brussels, as if it were pure coincidence. So now we are at the mercy of the Chinese, soon another de facto monopolist in another field. Nevertheless, we should also look for the blame a bit on ourselves. The Green Deal – and you know that too, Mr Bloss – has, of course, given many, many reasons why we are now where we are. Not only on the demand side, but also on the environmental grounds that have banned mining for so long, for example in Sweden, Portugal, Germany, which have been completely abandoned everywhere. In that respect, Commissioner, yes, you say we should go up a gear. I'm saying we should find the way forward at all, get out of the green swamp that's been beating us for so long. We have our own industry, that you also know exactly, with CO2-Taxes, electricity prices and bureaucracy are brought to their knees, while China has happily built new coal-fired power plants and been able to produce and export at incredible prices and dumping prices. We deliberately handed over 80-90% of rare earths processing capacity to Beijing, which was supposedly more climate-friendly. In this respect, we can only conclude one thing: We must demand the immediate lifting of the ideological bans on mining in Europe. Yes, that's right, there we are with them, massively state-invested in the extraction of their own mines and resources in the refinery sector, also in Germany. But we also have to go here in the future... We have been watching for far too long – and this is what moving forward is all about – for far too long as our competitors in global markets have occupied markets and production facilities. And we came up with huge trade agreements that we couldn't implement in the end and that weren't attractive. Insofar as forward gear in, we're in.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 2019, as the Green Deal Just in the starting blocks and when Greta Thunberg was still walking through the corridors here, we already had studies that said that in the next few years alone in Germany we would lose 200,000 to 400,000 jobs in the automotive industry if the combustion engine ban came. Now we are here again today, and the question is asked: Man, the industry is doing so badly, we don't know why it's doing so badly. Mr Wölken from the SPD: The industry is in a bad mood because people like you want to represent an activating industrial policy, and that means nothing else – viewers may watch the video from Mr Wölken beforehand – like a planned economy. They want to intervene right up to the production management of individual companies, and that's probably not the case. If here is the example of iPhones and the enforcement against Nokia, of the horse-drawn carriage and the shortening against the automobile, then all of them can only be said: These projects, these technologies have prevailed – planned by free companies, demanded by free citizens. What we need is freedom, not more planned economy, not more wolves in this House. We need freedom again for our businesses and for our citizens. In this sense: Away with this ban, but also away with the fleet fines!

Madam President, Yes, when we talk about strategy here in the house, it's always a warning signal. Most of the time, it's tactical or operational at best what comes out of here. I do not wish to disagree with Mr Tertsch, I would never presume to do so. But we should be glad that we are talking about how we want to define our position on Latin America in more detail. The big problem is here: We talk about democracy and then we want to sell our values. What's that? It is the Green DealThe one that's just being brought over here in disguise. It is again socialism and planned economy that are spilling over from Europe, this time to South America. And I would rarely agree with my previous communist speakers here, but yes, that has neocolonial features. But you talk about security and then you criticize El Salvador. They talk about economic freedom and do not mention Argentina, the gigantic journey Milei has made here. What we are trying to convey here is a concept that we see enough here in Brussels. You saw it again today – when we talk about democracy, about the rule of law – what happens to people who hammer at others. That's being transferred. We want our values, our so-called values, which have no future at all and have brought us to where we currently stand – namely in economic and industrial ruin – and we want to transfer them there – with a completely failed energy transition. We are by no means committed to making civil society better off, by no means to making the weak better off, but we are transferring concepts that have not already proven themselves here, ladies and gentlemen!

Mr President! The EU regulation on the circular economy in the automotive industry threatens our global competitiveness. Requirements for recycled plastics, extended producer liability with high costs and new type approval procedures that deviate from global standards place a one-sided burden on our manufacturers. In the USA, there are no comparable binding quota or disposal rules, but flexible subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act For example. China relies on battery recycling, but with less stringent regulations and massive subsidies that strengthen its manufacturers. While bureaucracy is hampering us in Europe, US and Chinese companies are producing more cost-effectively and conquering markets worldwide. Since the beginning of Green Deal We have already lost over 200,000 jobs in the automotive sector in Germany – a dramatic blow to our industry and society. This regulation now threatens to further weaken our automotive industry by exacerbating costs and regulation while allowing global competitors to operate more freely. We have one thing left: We are pleased with the amendments that have been tabled and can say that the worst is likely to be mitigated. But the best thing would have been for our industry if we had no increasing bureaucracy now and could do without this whole proposal as a whole.

Madam President, Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about Pride today, we are talking about pride. Where's the pride you're so proud of today? I was in Budapest recently, about four weeks ago, and I was happy about how child-friendly a city can be: That my daughter was really looked at from the street sweeper to the parliamentary staff, that you were proud of the families there and that you were looking forward to what you built. And you seem proud of what you call democracy, what you call love, but then at the end are dragqueen readings and some dubious poledance performances in kindergartens. This is love, which shows itself in the end when you consolidate with gangs of hammers and support terrorists in the parliament room - that is what you call democracy. This is not democracy, ladies and gentlemen. I believe that the Hungarians, and I believe that we too, can be proud of the fact that there is still a country that still has a government that cares about its families, about its children, and that cares for the family and children is paramount. Therefore, be proud of what you have created in Hungary. And ladies and gentlemen, your time is over in the left corner. Stop supporting terrorist gangs, stop chasing the false prophet. Europe is at a turning point and Hungary is doing it.

Madam President, Well, since a lot of people today have gone back to six years ago, I would also like to do that briefly – it was very exciting, especially here in Strasbourg. The EPP has been struggling to take a photo with various pillar saints such as Anna Greta Thunberg here. I don't know if these photos are still hanging, but the spirit of that time still beats through to this day. And when I look at what is happening to our heavy industry – Thyssen is just one example among many – what is happening to our suppliers, that the CCI, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is also sounding the alarm and saying: We expect another 1.2 million jobs to be on the brink, and we expect further additional costs by 2030 only as a result of the current climate targets of up to €15 billion. Then I wonder what? Isn't it time to cancel this ghost of Greta Thunberg, the climate glues of yesteryear, who perhaps even made it to the parliamentary benches today, and say: We really want competitiveness. Today's title is also missing. Because it should not be about reform, it should be about the abolition of these climate goals, just as it is practiced in the USA. Keyword: competitiveness.

Reading, of course. I've also seen what happened in Spain before. I believe that if we had a solid base load capacity in the coal-fired power plant sector, in the gas-fired power plant sector, and also in the nuclear power sector, we would have been spared what happened in Spain. And you also know very well that it was the overcapacity, the overvoltage in the solar power plants that led to this problem.

Mr President! Of course, when my Green colleagues speak of a good proposal, the alarm bells go off among industry and citizens, because they say that it is the next big heart project here in the European Union, the next big project of centralisation, the next big shrinkage for our citizens and businesses. Where are we now? €500 billion by 2030, over €2000 billion by 2050 – the next major project is coming up. Now, however, the final major project of great unification in the EU. Haven't we learned anything from Spain? Don't we know how important baseload capacity is? Don't we know how important a really big energy mix is? Thank you very much for your approval, Mrs. Paul! That's what matters. We cannot demonize individual energy sources. We cannot now cement the wrong decisions of the entire Green Deal and the flutter current that has been making us hell here for years, especially our industries and citizens. We have to choose a large, open energy mix. We have to opt for cheap energy prices, and this way, this proposal is exactly the wrong one.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. It becomes absurd and bizarre, almost paradoxical, when the Left and Greens, who have fought for years and decades personally and with their parties against industry, against capitalism and against the free economy, now want to think about concepts and recipes – Mr Executive Vice-President, you should not nod now – how they want to save this economy and industry. Ladies and gentlemen, we would not be in this situation, we would not be in this situation if we did not have the Green Deal, if we did not have these hubris of world salvation. Then we wouldn't need a CBAM, then we wouldn't need big templates for decarbonization, and that should be clear to everyone. We are talking about low energy prices, but we have CO2Taxes and allowances. We talk about freedom of industry and constantly make new templates for it. Ladies and gentlemen, the economy, industry, including our heavy industry, live and thrive only in freedom. One thing is clear: The real problem may also be dumping prices and dumping products from China and elsewhere, but it is primarily the hustle and bustle of the Green Deal. The Green Deal must end, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, The diversification of our raw material connections is right and necessary and would have been necessary much earlier. Alone, now in this discussion, the question arises as to who is sitting here opposite each other: On the one hand, those pragmatic politicians who also want to think of a post-war order, and on the other hand, it seems, at least, ideologues. Ladies and gentlemen, those who want to take action, those who want to change, who see that my partners of today may not be my partners of tomorrow, that my enemies of today may not be my enemies of tomorrow: We must keep the bridges and the doors of trade open. We cannot decide on more embargoes now, at a time when ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine are within reach. Russia also needs open doors. We once had the phrase "change through trade" here in this House, and I do not want to see that buried now. We don't want to open more trenches, we want to close trenches. We need to look to tomorrow and see that there will also be a time after this conflict.

Madam President, Yes, ladies and gentlemen, one would almost like to say Better late than never. Unfortunately, it was already clear in 2019 – one or the other of us was perhaps already in front of the factory gates of various car manufacturers – that fleet fines, a lack of technology neutrality, the end of the combustion engine and other measures, such as the increase in the price of precursors such as steel through the Green Deal, would ultimately cost us 200,000 to 400,000 jobs in the vehicle sector in the Federal Republic of Germany alone. Well, back then it was the Green Deal – we are slowly waking up in the European Commission. But what do you say again? Now it is the international market environment that is suddenly very difficult. Yes, that's correct. But if this market environment is so difficult, why deprive companies of the niche they have developed over decades into the market leader, namely the combustion engine, and deprive them of the entrepreneurial freedom that ultimately leads them to success? We need to get back to pragmatism. We need to go back to economic, entrepreneurial freedom – that is the point. And I told my previous speaker: If the Greens are committed to the future, they would also be committed to the freedom of the entrepreneur. It's not subsidies, it's not bans that drive us forward. It is economic freedom, it is the corporate will of the companies at the end that brings us forward – thank you, Mr Bloss, for your agreement. And that's why: If the EPP, if the Commission wants this change to pragmatism, away from the controlled economy, towards entrepreneurial freedom, then this is only possible with us, and then this is only possible against the green louse, which the EPP is now shaking out of its furs.

Mr President! Yes, you can almost say what a false discussion, what a false title here again. It's about competition problems in Europe, you said. You know exactly where these competition problems lie – in your failed Green Deal, in a commission riddled with left-wing and green ideology and in corresponding political guidelines that bring our economy to its knees. It's about something completely different, ladies and gentlemen at home will not have noticed it now. It is about finally pulling up this famous firewall, which is crumbling in Germany, also in Brussels. A firewall, ladies and gentlemen. This is a disgrace to all masons; This is a teaching profession. For the most part, these gentlemen have learned nothing over there on the green side. Nevertheless, this firewall is to be raised. So you should continue to hide behind words, do nothing out there, not address the problems, continue to prevent pragmatism. Ladies and gentlemen, you can also see the lie in the word: A firewall protects life; She's supposed to save lives. Your firewall, ladies and gentlemen, it destroys the industry, it kills, and in the end it also kills children, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr President! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, one almost feels reminded of biblical quotations in these discussions today, because a great howling and rattling of teeth goes through the room, as certainly through the European Commission. Howling and clattering your teeth? Yes, because the time of Justin Trudeau, of Olaf Scholz and certainly also of Ursula von der Leyen is coming to an end. The time of social experimentation is coming to an abrupt end, and we also see that wokism, gender theories, climate craze and other stories have no future and the sun of freedom rises from Argentina to the USA to Austria, to us here one day. Many here are not able to understand this intellectually, and so new narratives are already being diligently fomented: Milei is a madman, Donald Trump is really building on his oligarchy in the US, on the rule of millionaires. Ladies and gentlemen, this must end here in the house! Open yourself to realism, to political realism, and say yes to the fact that there was the great change of the pendulum, that there is now the great turn towards true democracy, towards freedom. And let the sun of freedom shine with us at last. Open up, ladies and gentlemen!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! By 2100, our global electricity demand will rise to seven times that of the current one, albeit in the event that the Greens do not suddenly embark on their worldwide triumphal march of deindustrialization, which is fortunately not what it currently looks like. In the Federal Republic of Germany alone, we expect demand for electricity to double or triple by 2050. Fusion reactors seem to be a proven hope and a way out for clean, safe and cheap energy. The Union faction even spoke in the Bundestag of a future game changer. However, ladies and gentlemen, as you may be aware, the principle of hope does not allow serious politics to be pursued. Even today, flattering electricity and the useless and unplanned destruction of our electricity infrastructure, which has been built up over decades, including a misalignment with German nuclear and coal power plants from the Green Ministry of Economics under the author of the children's book Robert Habeck, lead to exploding electricity prices with collateral damage as far as Sweden and a justified fear of impending blackouts, which did not even exist at the time of the oil price crisis in the 70s. With the Hydrogen Directive, you have already revealed your misguided planned economic access to energy policy. Trying to solve real problems of the present with possible technologies of the future is insane. Therefore: Please let us invest in research on fusion reactors. Let's be happy if the technology actually bears fruit in 30 or 40 or 50 years. But don't give the people out there false hopes today. Their problems – the crushing electricity prices on bills, the loss of our industrial competitiveness – can only be solved today by modern nuclear power plants as a guarantor of our base load capacity. So the gamechangers the Union dreams of already exist. All that is needed is the political will to use them for the benefit of our peoples, as is already happening in so many Member States of the European Union today.

Mr President! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we were promised prosperity, growth and employment, we got deindustrialization, impoverishment and wealth outflow. In this respect, the question is, of course, funny that you are now dealing with a Impact assessment It is part of a €1,800 billion programme. We need this Assessment Don't buy it for expensive money, we can do it here today. Because the citizens feel the rising prices for electricity, heating and gasoline in their own wallets. The unemployment figures continue to rise despite all the whitewashing from the corresponding institutes. The consumer climate index is collapsing and German economic output, for example, is expected to decline for the second consecutive year. Gasoline and diesel rise due to increase in CO2-Pricing in the coming year again by 3 cents per litre and have been artificially increased by a total of 13 and 14 cents respectively since 2021. And on the part of BASF's CEO, one hears that one can no longer find a place in Europe where one can earn money, and that European companies would hang on the umbilical cord of foreign markets. But under the banner of the Green Deal, the apocalyptic riders of the Commission continue to compete, our economy and society with supply chain laws, CO2-Border-balancing mechanisms, redistribution and directing continue to be harassed. The Green Deal is really nothing more than the planned and deliberate sabotage of formerly functioning economies, away from the hollow phrases from the Parliament building. Who's wondering? For whoever entrenches himself in the ivory tower, far from reality, with commissioners and multi-year plans, is of course already semantically closer to socialist conducting than to freedom. Anyone who has so far closed his eyes and ears to the reality of the ever-increasing loss of competition in the European economies and the outcry of the citizens is also confronted with a Impact assessment Not to help anymore. Therefore: Save us the money, save time, talk to employees, employees, entrepreneurs and farmers. And in short: Do what you once promised – start working for the people, not against the people, and kick the Green Deal into the bin, ladies and gentlemen!

Mr Colleague, it would be nice if it were so. I think you're calling us right-wing extremists over here. If I may say: It would be very, very good for our parties if the power companies were a little bit on our side. In fact, we are committed to cheap electricity. But I'm with you. They were before with the merit order principle. I also see this as a big problem. You're absolutely right. But it remains the same: Fluttering energy, green electricity is no cheaper than conventional energy, which we have previously produced conventionally, at least in Germany – this shows the empiricism of the past, yes, not only weeks and days, but also of the past years. We have known this since Habeck's time when he promised us a scoop of ice cream or the price of a scoop of ice cream. It didn't come true.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes you wonder where you landed. It's actually also a pathological degree of denial of reality when you hear in here right now: Green DealGreen energy is cheap energy. Ladies and gentlemen, one or the other may not have noticed that we had five days of darkness in Germany last week and that it is then not as favorable as is claimed here in the Saale. And you say: That's shit. It's just like that; It is a lie to say that green energy is cheap energy. Green energy is fluttering wind, and that's fluttering electricity. And the entire EU is currently suffering from the German special route, which alone will cost 1 240 billion euros by 2035. With this in mind, I would like to ask the question: Is green energy really the future? It cannot be, ladies and gentlemen. We need low prices – you may not have recognised this, my colleague – for our industry. ZF, Thyssen, Continental alone are cutting over 40,000 jobs, and that's your fault. This is the fault of the Greens. In this sense, I can only address my words to the Commission: Let reason finally come to Germany and urge the Germans that we find our way back to nuclear power and to the abandonment of nuclear power. Green Deal.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. Complaining and wailing from the executive floors and from the car companies – it's just as if you've only just come to your senses. The Green Deal is not a growth strategy at all, but a strategy of de-industrialization. But here the question is allowed: Who has been associated with this green prosperity destruction policy for years? It was precisely the executive floors, including at VW, that allowed a Green - car-hater by the way - to be included on the supervisory board, which applauded the diesel driving bans in inner cities, which said that the fines in relation to the CO2Goals we're going to achieve somehow. That's why my appeal goes outside today to the executive floors, to the car manufacturers. Machen Sie sich wieder stark für Ihre wirtschaftliche Freiheit. Make yourself strong again to produce what you are strong at. Stop woker social policy and stop supporting this course that leads you to destruction.