Speeches

Mr President, sexual and reproductive rights are fundamental human rights. In this sense, any rule that entails a setback in these rights must be considered as an attack on human rights. I would like to recall that the association agreements of the European Union include human rights clauses that allow the suspension of such a relationship in case of violation of these clauses. But, unfortunately, these beautiful words are wet paper, as we have systematically seen in this legislature that is now ending. Because, beyond the beautiful words, we need concrete actions: more effective public policies. From the European left we have proposed that this resolution include the mention of the necessary reinforcement of public health services as a measure to also combat female genital mutilation, but the rest of the groups have decided to discard this mention. Instead, the necessary dialogue with religious leaders has been discussed. I think that is a good summary of the priorities of the majority in this House. And, Mr President, I wanted to end my last speech in the European Parliament by thanking the workers. Without the workers, the world does not work and without the invisible workers of this Parliament, this Parliament would not work either.

Mr President, we are witnessing a genuine genocide in the 21st century. A televised genocide in which Israel not only kills with bombs, but also with hunger. Hunger as a real weapon of war. The attack on the humanitarian convoy by Israel – which cost more than 100 deaths and 800 wounded – was not a mistake, but a deliberate strategy to prevent the distribution of humanitarian aid, to end the possibility of life in Gaza. Ladies and gentlemen, since the International Court of Justice warned of the possibility that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, not only has the European Union done nothing to prevent it, but the situation has worsened. History will judge the guilty, but also the accomplices who by action or omission allow this genocide. Ladies and gentlemen, decide which side of history you want to be on. I'm clear about that.

Madam President, the truth is that the pandemic taught us many important lessons. One of them is that when there is political will, many things can be done that, theoretically, they told us could not be done, such as suspending the neoliberal corset of the Stability and Growth Pact. Putting human rights above the interests of corporate power is also something that can be done as long as there is political will. Pretty words do not guarantee rights or attack the impunity of multinational companies. We need strong, effective, binding controls that limit abuses of corporate power. Unilateral obligations and voluntary controls do not work. But even this is not what some European governments want to accept. That is why it is essential to fight for a framework law with a binding treaty in which due diligence is framed. The rest, ladies and gentlemen, is washing the face of corporate power.

Madam President, in our view it is inconceivable that a report on the global human rights situation should ignore the genocide in Gaza. It is hypocritical that the report makes general condemnations against authoritarian countries attacking the United Nations system and does not once mention Israel, responsible for the murder of at least 158 UNRWA officials and the constant violation of international humanitarian law. If this were to happen in any other country in the world, we already know what this House would be saying. Israel feels totally unpunished because some allow it, ladies and gentlemen. Commissioner, stop asking Israel and take action, because you can take action to stop this genocide. And that's not asking: is to make an arms embargo, immediately suspend the Trade Partnership Agreement, which can be done, and break diplomatic relations with a state that is committing genocide. Because not to act against genocide, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, is to be complicit in genocide.

Madam President, genocide, occupation, ethnic cleansing. Israel is carrying out a new Nakba with the complicity of European governments. Last night I returned from the Rafah border crossing. Just a few metres away, more than one million people were crowded and, according to international organisations, need to receive 600 trucks of humanitarian aid a day. How many does Israel let through? Five, ladies and gentlemen, five a day. Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war. Enough of the complicity. We demand decisive action to put an end to this barbarism. Commissioner, you know that in order to put an end to it, we must declare an arms embargo and suspend the Association Agreement with Israel. What are we waiting for? To the consummation of this genocide? And I wanted to ask you, Commissioner: What will the Commission do about funding UNRWA? Will you disburse what is due? Or will it contribute to their criminalization as Israel wants? The deadline is running out and history is watching us.

Mr. President, the truth is that we have said it many times: Nigeria is a magnificent example of a country that should be rich, but where more than half of its population lives in poverty. All this is, of course, the responsibility of his Government, but not only of him. It is also true of neocolonial policies and multinational companies that plunder the territory. The historical conflict in the Plateau region is not a religious conflict, as some pretend to disguise it, but a direct consequence of this poverty. For decades, disputes between peasants and nomadic pastoralists have been about access to land and water sources, both of which are increasingly scarce due to the effects of the climate crisis. Of course, we demand that the Nigerian government protect the civilian population in Plateau. But we have to go further. We must assume our responsibilities and analyse precisely the impact of policies on climate change in a country like Nigeria.

Madam President, the genocide being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, with the complicity of the European Union and the United States, cannot under any circumstances be used as a pretext for hate speech to stir up anti-Semitism again. Any anti-Semitic discourse must be combated, wherever it occurs and practiced by those who practice it. But it is also essential not to fall into the trap of assimilating Judaism with a colonial and supremacist ideology such as Zionism. And this is something that thousands of Jews around the world have been denouncing for months, taking to the streets and saying "not in our name" and declaring themselves anti-Zionists. That is why we must not tire of repeating that the criminal actions of the Zionist regime do not represent the Jewish community of the world. However, we must demand the same intransigence in combating any hate speech as in combating Islamophobia; an Islamophobia that is flourishing dangerously throughout Europe. And here too we must flee dangerous automatisms, because a handful of religious fanatics who attack in Madrid or Paris will never represent the majority of the Muslim community. Respect for one's religious beliefs must be tantamount to revulsion against those who use religion to justify attacks or ethnic cleansing. All forms of hatred and exclusion will find us in front shouting "not in our name" and declaring us anti-racist.

Mr Bütikofer, I hope that next time, instead of talking to my colleague Helmut Scholz, I will be able to hear my speech. The truth is that green colonialism is a real problem, because we often talk about the energy transition. But for electric cars to exist in Brussels and Berlin, uranium mines are needed in Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia. That's what we're talking about with extractivism and green colonialism. Most NGOs are denouncing how Europe's green transition is fostering extractivism globally. At least, from the Greens/EFA Group, the evidence is assumed.

Mr. President, two years of Global Gateway. Two years of opacity and secrecy. Two years raising multimillion-dollar investments of public money again for private multinationals. Two years reinforcing impunity and abuses of neo-extractivist corporate power painted green. Two years of announcing and creating projects to control migration flows in Africa, to secure the supply of raw materials in the Global South or to unleash trade negotiations in Latin America. Finally, two years of green colonialism to defend a supposed European strategic autonomy that maintains the garden of which Mr Borrell spoke to us. Stop disguising things for what they are not and call them, at least, by name. The Global Gateway is the European response to the new Chinese Silk Road, an extractive strategy to dispute scarce resources in a geopolitical moment of global confrontation. That's it. At least let's call him by his name. (The speaker agreed to answer a question under the "blue card" procedure)

– Madam President, the truth is that there are wars that are not of the first division and victims that do not appear on television. Unfortunately, this is the case in Sudan. The figures speak for themselves: 7.5 million people forcibly displaced in what is the world's largest displacement crisis and 18 million people at risk of famine. This horror has been met with irresponsible diplomacy, ineffective statements and an anemic response to humanitarian appeals. In fact, only a third of the UN's request has been funded. There is an urgent need for a ceasefire and unconditional access to humanitarian aid; to comply with an arms embargo – as called for by the United Nations – and extend it to the whole country, and for Europe to open up legal and safe avenues to ensure that Sudanese who wish to do so can seek international protection in Europe. The Sudanese people deserve much more than to be a forgotten conflict or a humanitarian crisis. The Sudanese people deserve to live in freedom and peace.

Mr. President, we all know that the problem of violence and drug trafficking is not new in Ecuador. Ecuadorian elites have long been enriching themselves with a mafia economy. Now Noboa has declared war on drugs, a war reference whose disastrous consequences on the continent we all know. If not, tell your neighbor Colombia. We want to take advantage of this crisis to instill fear with a kind of doctrine of shock to legitimize a punitive Bukele-style state, while his government unleashes large-scale mining with faith of tax favors to the rich and pushes for free trade agreements. Neoliberalism reduces the state for the benefit of the rich, but enlarges the repressive apparatus against the impoverished and racialized classes, which are the ones that fill the prisons of Ecuador. We must reject the rhetoric of war. We must not allow this crisis to be used as a repressive excuse against the popular classes and social organizations. It is urgent to implement alternative models to punitive populism, practicing social and community security.

Madam President, the Tanzanian authorities have been trying for years to evict the Maasai communities from their ancestral lands. They justify it, supposedly, by the defense of the conservation of the area near the Serengeti, ignoring that these communities have been living together in total harmony with nature for hundreds of years. What is really behind these displacements is the construction of a luxury hunting reserve to boost elite tourism, that in which the great fortunes and European monarchies are going to hunt elephants. This is their real model of nature conservation. The right to free, prior and informed consultation cannot be infringed. The interests of the great fortunes can never replace the rights of the Maasai people. There is no economic, social and sustainable development without respecting the right of peoples to the enjoyment of their lands and natural resources. I did not want to end this speech without remembering, precisely, comrade Michèle Rivasi, who fought so hard, among other things, precisely for the rights of the Maasai people.

Mr President, a year after one of the biggest cases of corruption in the European institutions broke out, we know that it was allegedly Morocco that created this mafia plot to buy Members with the idea of conditioning the decisions of this Parliament and the European institutions. Did the Moroccan regime interfere when we voted on a trade agreement that our own courts have declared illegal for having occupied Saharawi territory? Did the Moroccan regime interfere so that for more than twenty years we did not have a single human rights emergency related to the violation of human rights in Morocco? Did Morocco intervene so that human rights defender Sultana Jaya was not in the final of the Sakharov Prize? Did Morocco interfere with the European institutions and the Government of Spain to ensure the illegal occupation of the Sahara? These are questions that still remain unanswered today and the problem is that the Moroccan regime continues to enjoy intolerable impunity in the European institutions and also in this Parliament.

Madam President, Mr President, I am writing to you as rotating President of the Council: enough of hypocrisy. The European Union and our governments are complicit in the massacre being committed by Israel against Palestine. Pretty words are useless as we continue to buy and sell weapons to Israel. To stop this authentic ethnic cleansing, actions are necessary that force the State of Israel to a cease-fire and to end an occupation and the apartheid of the Palestinian people. Actions that involve suspending the preferential economic agreement and applying an arms embargo to Israel. Also, by the way, for ceasing the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine in Europe. I did not want to end without reminding you, Mr Sánchez, not to forget the rights of Pablo González, a journalist imprisoned in Poland.

Mr President, three months ago we warned in this House of the real danger of a coup d'état in Guatemala. The pact of the corrupt does not want their privileges to be questioned. For this reason, the Prosecutor's Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office criminalize the student movement and journalists like Mr. Zamora, who investigate their corruptions, corruptions of institutions totally co-opted at the service of a few. But the popular will is stronger. The Guatemalan people are defending in the street what was expressed at the polls in August, and before this our position must be clear: to demand the suspension of the provisional application of the trade pillar of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America with Guatemala, since Guatemalan institutions have long failed to respect the rule of law, democracy and human rights in the country. From here, all my support to the Guatemalan peoples. We will not be silent in the face of this attempted coup d'état. We will not be silent in the face of this attempt to turn off the popular voice.

Mr President, the truth is that we are witnessing a global race for control of resources in a context of ecological emergency. The material foundations of the green transition are in dispute, which generates a real world extractivist fever. The European Union fills its mouth with its Green Deal, but for there to be electric cars in Europe it is necessary to increase mining pressure in the global south and also here in Europe. Raw materials that are not only for a green transition, but also to feed the European arms race. A real green capitalism stained with blood because extractivist pressure not only plunders resources and contaminates territories, but also represses and expels those who inhabit and defend them. Although there are more and more examples of resistance facing this extractivist fever, such as the Anti-Mining Front of Ecuador, which we salute from here. The solution is not a new extractivist and neocolonial wave, but to consume less and distribute better. Green capitalism is sterile in the face of the climate and ecological urgency we live in.

Madam President, it is just one year since one of the biggest scandals that have dotted the European institutions came to light, which although it began under the name of Qatargate, we have subsequently known, from the information that has come out in the press, that it would be fair to call it Moroccogate: Morocco allegedly organised a purchasing network of Members of the European Parliament to influence the decisions of this Parliament – decisions to prevent demonstrations of cases of human rights violations in Morocco, demonstrations against the illegal occupation of the Sahara or any issue that would upset the regime of Mohamed VI – a network that would then allegedly be used by Qatar to clean up its football World Cup. These weeks we have again known new cases and new revelations in the press. We believe that it is extremely important to have such a debate in this Parliament a year later. To not have it would be to send an equivocal message to the citizenry.

Madam President, in recent years in Africa we are witnessing the growth of a deep anti-colonial European sentiment, especially anti-French. This situation is being used in some countries such as Niger as an alibi to justify coups d'état in the region. We cannot ignore the role that some multinationals and European powers are playing in the Sahel region, both in the plundering of their raw materials and in the control of migratory flows. Niger is the world's fourth largest producer of uranium and is a key player in Europe's attempt to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. But this, of course, has no impact on the benefit of the Nigerien people. In fact, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. If Europe is truly concerned about human rights and democracy in Africa and in countries like Niger, it has to put an end to its colonial political hypocrisy of plundering resources, a policy that only generates misery and dependence. And it must inaugurate a new stage of relations with the countries of the Sahel. This stage has to go through not treating these countries as if they were chess pieces in their game against Russia and China. Moreover, it must replace relations of domination at the military, economic and political levels with relations between equals, based on respect for free social and economic development and the sovereignty of peoples.

Madam President, the situation in Guatemala is by no means new. It is the result of institutional co-option of the state by a corrupt extreme right that has long hijacked democracy in the country. Last night, the Public Prosecutor's Office has shown that it has no limits, requisitioning ballot boxes with votes from the first round, even against the Guatemalan Electoral Law itself. It cannot be forgotten that the Guatemalan population has spoken at the polls and has spoken clearly. She said she's tired of impunity. status quo and the pact between the corrupt. In the face of any attempt at an institutional coup d'état, our position must be clear and forceful, using all means at our disposal of diplomatic pressure, including the suspension of the provisional application of the trade pillar of the European Union Association Agreement with Guatemala. I take advantage of this intervention to stand in solidarity with journalists, defenders and communities criminalized for fighting for their rights. And to show from here, from the European Parliament, our solidarity with Codeca, an indigenous peasant organization that has paid for the defense of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala with the lives of twenty-eight militants of that organization murdered. All my support to the Guatemalan people and, from here, tell them that they are not alone.

Mr President, the Commission's green transition is a beautiful alibi to justify a new extractivist and neocolonial agenda in the midst of a dispute over scarce resources. A real transition goes through a fair model not only in the north, but also in the south, by changing the production model, by closing the door to any type of underwater mining, by defending sensitive environmental areas such as the Natura 2000 Network, by ensuring that farms have the approval of the communities that inhabit the territory, and here false consultations are not worth it. I want to end by welcoming the courageous decision of the Ecuadorian people to defend Yasuní and Chocó Andino, and I take the opportunity to demand from the European Union a support precisely for this popular decision. That the Ecuadorian popular will to defend the territory, the environment, from extractivist interests be fulfilled. Because here what we have to do is choose between ecosocialism or barbarism.

Mr President, ethnic and religious minorities in India are systematically discriminated against, stigmatised and persecuted by Modi's far right. The same goes for those who criticize the government: There are dozens of human rights defenders in prison, even if this Parliament does not mention them. What happens in Manipur is also the result of the xenophobic policies of the Indian Government, the same Government that is dedicated to sending veiled threats so that debates like this do not take place in Parliament. It's all right with silent diplomacy: It is time to condemn loud and clear the systematic abuses committed by the Indian Government, demand the freedom of all political prisoners and condition commercial and political relations on respect for human rights. In short, it is time to send a loud and clear message of support to the Indian people.

Madam President, in 2019 the Sudanese people overthrew the dictator and demanded democracy, but their mobilizations and dreams were betrayed. Today, again, we are witnessing a war that, unfortunately, can lead to a humanitarian catastrophe on the African continent and, meanwhile, the European Union remains impassive, as if the situation were not with it, as if our border necropolitics had nothing to do with what is happening. I remind you that the European Union was accused of directly or indirectly financing the Rapid Support Forces, the main paramilitary group in Sudan, to act as border guards. They financed them and washed their image. At the very least, they should be ashamed. The European Union must demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in order to promote a democratic transition to civilian rule in Sudan, but let us not forget the consequences of our policies of paying warlords to protect our borders from those fleeing war. If we change that policy, perhaps the Sudanese people will have a chance to change their destiny.

Madam President, the climate emergency exists now and its consequences are already being experienced today, especially in the Global South, but not only. The year 2030 is too late because today we are too late. The acceleration of the agenda for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals proposed in this report is welcome, but climate change is not solved, ladies and gentlemen, with beautiful words. We need decisive actions at the height of the emergency we are experiencing and actions consistent with the challenge we face. It is not enough to paint capitalism green. It is not enough to add a sustainable label to development models based on infinite growth. The supposed energy transition in the north is increasing predatory extractivism in the south. Because, for there to be electric cars in Brussels, Paris or Berlin, mines are needed that destroy the territory in Peru, Bolivia or Chile. Green capitalism is unfeasible. The climate crisis can only be faced from the ecosocialist planning of the economy, because our lives are worth much more than the handful of profits of a few companies.

Mr. President, Nicaragua continues the repression, persecution and detention of people, activists and even historic Sandinista militants, such as the recent case of Oscar René Vargas. We know that the extreme right uses the situation in Nicaragua to attack the Latin American left as a whole. We have had a good example with what VOX MP Hermann Tertsch has done. Let's not make it easy for him. It is essential that there are more and more left-wing voices in Europe and Latin America that we denounce the Ortega and Murillo regime and call for an end to the repression and persecution of activists and organizations, the freedom of all political prisoners, and the opening of a democratic process without interference. Only the Nicaraguan people and, let us not forget, in freedom can decide their future.

Mr President, the truth is that since 2019, when the Hirak protests broke out, we have seen a progressive deterioration of press freedom in Algeria. Since then, at least twelve journalists have been arrested and several media outlets have been shut down. Attacks on the press and freedom of expression are not a problem unique to Algeria, but are part of a regional reality, as we have pointed out in the last plenary sessions, with debates on Morocco and Tunisia. Coincidentally, all these countries are with which the European Union has migration and energy agreements, which, once again, seem to be more important than respect for human rights. We call for the release of Ihsane El Kadi and all journalists detained in Algeria, but we also call again for a new framework for relations between the European Union and the Maghreb countries. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Algerian people for their unconditional support for the Saharawi people and their right to self-determination.