Speeches

Madam President, The EU understands nothing: Geopolitically irrelevant, economically increasingly weak, demographically catastrophic. But still confident enough to teach the whole world. Want more money for NGOs? Why? To destabilise countries you do not like: Regime change included. Abortion is a human right. Birth rates are falling. They are deploring the global decline of democracy. But in Europe, elections are annulled, politicians are excluded from them, and party bans are mused about. They want to impose gender ideology on the whole world. Zero respect for national sovereignty. Zero respect for other cultures. As a patriot, I respect other cultures. I just don't want them to replace mine. That's what makes diversity. They don't want diversity. You're just talking about it. They want simplicity. You want the whole world to dance to your pipe. This is value imperialism. This is neocolonialism. That's unsympathetic. That's arrogant. This is one reason why Europe is becoming increasingly irrelevant internationally. It's a pity! We do not need an action plan for human rights and democracy. We need an action plan for realpolitik, for remigration and for reindustrialisation.

Mr President! Iran is in crisis. The economy is in free fall. The people are protesting legitimately. Religiosity is also diminishing. People are getting poorer, their faith weaker. This is a problem for an Islamic theocracy. A problem that Tehran has to face, because the protest – initially organic – was later fuelled from the outside. Terror and violence followed. Many dead, like many, we don't know, but too many. Iran deserves better times. But sustainable change must also come from within. Regime changeOperations are not suitable for this purpose. Especially in Iran, we know that. No Islamic revolution ’79 without a coup against Mossadegh ’53. Those who are fascinated by democracy and human rights often only want power and oil. This is how authentic protest is discredited. That's why we should stay out of it. Even Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are warning of an escalation. No friends of Iran, but they know the region better than we do. We should listen to them. Chaos in Iran only leads to civil war and waves of refugees. And they always reach us in the end.

Madam President, Dear Commissioner! Around 400 million Christians worldwide are persecuted. Christians are the most persecuted religious community in the world. This persecution is particularly brutal in Nigeria. Nowhere in the world are more Christians murdered than there, murdered for one reason – because they are Christians. One of them, Pastor Lawan Andimi, was beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam. Or the student Deborah Samuel, first beaten to death, then burned. Churches are systematically destroyed, looted or closed – on average more than three churches a day since the Boko Haram Uprising in 2009. That makes a total of nearly 20,000 churches. The U.S. envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, is clear. He says this is not accidental violence, this is a genocide, a genocide of Christians. All these facts have been known for a long time. Why are we only discussing this now? Why has there been no outcry so far? Why was it kept silent for so long? Perhaps because Christians are often only second-class victims and perhaps because people are reluctant to talk about the perpetrators out of misunderstood cultural sensitivity. Let's be honest, for many it is the wrong victims and the wrong perpetrators. But we should call the perpetrators by name: Boko Haram, the West African offshoot of ‘Islamic State’, Fulani militias, in short Islamist terrorists. They murder, kidnap, rape, torture. We can no longer accept this. We can no longer look away there. We have to put pressure. Nigeria must protect its Christians. Nigeria must fight Islamist terror. To do this, Nigeria needs to strengthen its institutions – police, judiciary, security apparatus. If not, we can't send a penny to Nigeria.

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, you're making Europe a laughing stock. They stand for corruption, censorship, green deindustrialisation and geopolitical insignificance. They are outraged by Trump's peace plan. Where has your peace plan been all these years? Orbán's peace efforts have torpedoed you, now negotiate a little. Why not earlier? Ukraine would have been spared a lot and we too – about three years of recession. What for? For golden oligarch cloisters, for billions to a corrupt leadership in Kyiv fleeing from its own people. And for 19 packages of sanctions that hurt us more than Russia. This is not a peace plan, this is stupidity. Their whole approach is geopolitical kindergarten. Poor relations with the US, bad relations with China, bad relations with Russia, dwindling influence around the world – it is not possible to pursue foreign policy. Yes, we need strategic autonomy, our own strength, our own sovereignty, realism instead of moralism, smart diplomacy and real politicians instead of infantile feminists in pants. You, Mrs von der Leyen, are making Europe weak. They make Europe a geopolitical ghost-driver. Make Europe great again – I like it, but only without you. Please resign!

Madam President, Commissioner! A brutal civil war is raging in Sudan. The SAF, supported by Tehran, is fighting the RSF militias, supported by Abu Dhabi – it is about power and access to gold, weapons and trade routes. The consequences are devastating. Over 150,000 dead, 14 million displaced, 25 million hungry, mass rape and systematic persecution of Christians, the most persecuted group in the country. Sudan is like hell on earth. This is the largest humanitarian catastrophe in the world, but it has been reported very little. This catastrophe also affects us. Many are unaware of how close Sudan is to Europe. The northern border of Sudan is only 1,200 kilometers from Crete. This is roughly the route from Brussels to Vienna. And between Sudan and the EU lies only Libya – Libya, after the NATO bombings and the regime change In 2011 a Failed state: a Failed state as a gateway for mass migration to Europe. Many Sudanese are already on their way to us. We need to understand: Peace in Sudan also ensures stability on our continent. This is in our interest and it is also in the interest of the Sudanese. What can we do? Controlled humanitarian aid: help, but our money must not be in the hands of the warlords land. In addition: No arms exports, no war financing! Instead, we should offer ourselves as a mediator. The Sudanese would thank us.

Madam President, The time change not only annoys many people like me, it is also a health risk. Short-term sleep deprivation leads to more suicides and more heart attacks, especially in the first three days. Further consequences are circulatory problems, inflammatory immune diseases, depression and concentration and attention problems. Numerous studies prove this. Experts talk about social jet lag. In addition, there are economic costs in the billions. No wonder, then, that 84 percent of Europeans reject the time change. It's time to finally get rid of them. The European Parliament has already voted in 2019 for the end of the time change until 2021. We are now in 2025. The time change still exists. It can't be. Yes, there are some technical problems with the elimination of the time change. A patchwork of different time zones in Europe must be prevented. But that must be possible. It would be in the interest of our health. It would be in the interest of our economy. It would be in people's interest.

Madam President, Again and again it goes against Hungary. Why? Because Orbán defends what you fight: Christian values, family, national sovereignty and peace. His peace efforts have torpedoed you because you prefer war. They exclude Hungarian students from the Erasmus programme, but open it to students from Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. They cover Ilaria Salis and the left-wing terrorists of the ‘Hammerbande’, only to wipe out Orbán one. And you want to explain something about the rule of law? About morality? This is ridiculous – just as ridiculous as this debate here today. Hungary had a spy network in Brussels until 2017. This is standard – many states have. EU counterintelligence officials said: We do not consider the case serious – no security threat. Eight years ago, this espionage network flew open, and we are talking about it today – after eight years? Yes, for one reason: There will be elections in Hungary in six months. Elections in which you interfere again, only to prevent Orbán. But I guarantee you won't succeed. Hungary's current head of government is Viktor Orbán and the next one is Viktor Orbán.

Madam President, What do you want from Serbia? Do you want to make Serbia a second Ukraine? Do you want one Regime change? You have to have the impression by now. Legitimate student protests against corruption are being misused for geopolitical purposes. They instigate thugs who beat Serbian policemen. They are destabilizing a country that has had very, very bad experiences with Western intervention policies. Why all this? Because Serbia has pragmatic relations with China and Russia. This is Serbia’s right, because Serbia is a sovereign state and the Serbs are a proud people – a proud people who do not want your arrogant teachings. And if you have any doubts about your own unpopularity, just take a look at the latest figures from Eurobarometer: Only one in three Serbs is still in favour of EU accession – a record low. At the same time, 60 percent of Serbs are in favor of joining the BRICS. They drive Serbia out of Europe. They are driving Serbia into the arms of Asia. A fatal mistake, because we need Serbia as a strategic partner, for example in the fight against illegal migration, but in Europe only Fico and Orbán understand this. Stay away from Serbia!

Madam President, Escalating gang violence, economic collapse due to corruption, millions of expulsions, over 5 million hungry Haitians and, moreover, a completely misguided US and UN intervention policy over decades. Haiti is an Failed stateIn which criminal gangs are in charge. Our room for manoeuvre to change that is very limited, because we are a non-space power there. The almost 20 million euros in budget support that we only transferred to Haiti in February are unfortunately kicked out tax money that only strengthens corrupt structures on the ground. We can only do one thing: Encourage actors and states in the region to work more closely together to choke off resources for criminal gangs, for example by combating drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings. But as a moral authority, this Parliament is certainly not good here. Because those who cover left-wing terror of the ‘hammer gang’ have no right to get upset about gang crime in Haiti. Whoever makes himself an accomplice of left-wing terrorists does not need to tell the rest of the world about human rights. The left half of this House, and unfortunately also parts of Christian democracy, finally reached their moral low yesterday.

Mr President! The situation of women in Afghanistan is dire, no doubt about it. And strengthening women's rights there is certainly a noble thought. However, extreme caution is always required in such projects in order not to be perceived as neo-colonial. According to an analysis of the renowned Conférence Sciences Po This interventionism, especially in Afghanistan, only leads to further radicalisation. One wants to improve something, but only aggravates it – ethically comprehensible, often devastatingly ethically. So the question is: What do we want to achieve and how do we want to achieve it? The approach of the last decades has failed. Between 2001 and 2020, the EU transferred around €4 billion in development aid to Afghanistan. A significant part of this was earmarked for strengthening women's rights. But has the situation of women in Afghanistan improved since then? Hardly. So we need to completely rethink our development aid and our Afghanistan policy. And this also implies that we enter into dialogue with the ruling forces on the ground, whether we like them or not.

Mr President! Gaza is hell on earth. Tens of thousands of civilians dead, children starving, the city flat-bombed, the humanitarian situation catastrophic. This is Israel's brutal response to Hamas' terror, which is absolutely inexcusable. More than 1,000 people have been massacred, hostages continue to suffer unimaginable torture, pure terror – perpetrators and terror on both sides. Trump's plan could bring peace: A ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the disempowerment of Hamas, not the expulsion of the Palestinians, but the prospect of a two-state solution. That's right! For us Europeans, one thing counts above all else: stability in the Middle East. Because we are the ones who have to drown out the consequences of foreign wars over and over again – flight, mass migration, terror. We don't want that. Palestinians should not be expelled. We demand a right to a homeland for our people. In this sense, we also stand for the right to a homeland for the Palestinians, in Palestine, not in Europe. This also calls for Trump's peace plan. Make sure it is realized. Unfortunately, a geopolitically impotent Europe cannot do more.

Madam President, Antifa is called terror, and it is shameful that large parts of this house cover this terror. Left and Greens stand in solidarity with Maja von der "Hammerbande", the Committee on Legal Affairs votes against the waiver of the immunity of Ilaria Salis, Christian Democrats still cover this. And after the murder of Charlie Kirk, there was only grim laughter from the left – Kirk was supposedly a fascist. Leftists claim that anti-fascism is simply an opposition to fascism. Everyone has to be antifa if they don't want to be fascists. These are cheap semantic tricks, because the left defines itself as fascism: All that is normal is fascism. Family? The nucleus of fascism! Nation and home? Fascism! Only two genders? Fascism! This makes every normal person a potential fascist to be tapped or shot – see Charlie Kirk. Stop it! Stop the leftist terror! Stop the trivialization of Antifa! Trump has banned them, Orbán has banned them. We should finally do it!

Mr President! The arrest of Victoire Ingabire is a cause for concern. Ingabire is in opposition to President Kagame; The fact that her arrest is politically motivated can hardly be doubted. We should work within our means to ensure that state institutions in Rwanda are not misused for political show trials – we cannot support such a thing. At the same time, we must – and this is what Phil Clark, Professor of International Politics at the University of London – rethink our access to Rwanda if we want to improve the situation on the ground. We often lack an understanding of the social dynamics in Rwanda after the brutal genocide in the 1990s. It is difficult to measure Rwanda by our standards. Of course, Rwanda is not a democracy, nor is it in Kagame's focus. The focus is on economic development and a certain stability inside. And, as stated in the Commission’s report, Rwanda has been very successful. Good governanceEspecially when compared to other African countries. We should take this into account in the resolution, despite all the legitimate criticism of Rwanda that I share here, because we still share common interests, for example in raw materials or in the area of migration.

Madam President, Serbia threatens to become a second Ukraine. It started with student protests against corruption; The majority of Serbians supported the cause. Now foreign forces from outside are interfering, the protests are being misused for geopolitical purposes. Why? Serbia maintains pragmatic relations with Russia and China. This is Serbia’s right, as Serbia is a sovereign state, but this does not suit some here – hence the escalation. It's about destabilization, Serbia's western ties, the fall of Vučić and chaos. Chaos that you are fueling, you and masked thugs who are beating Serbian policemen. Don't do that! Stop this pseudo-imperialism! They only achieve the opposite, because the Serbs are allergic to foreign interference. The West has a miserable reputation there anyway. NATO bombed the country in the 1990s. The wounds remain deep to this day. Only one in ten Serbs today wants a pro-Western orientation; Only one in five feel emotionally connected to the EU, and even the majority of Serbs are now refusing to join the EU. You have no right to interfere in Serbian affairs.

Mr President! Fifty-five thousand Afghans now live in Germany, half of whom collect citizens' money. In the case of rape, they are over-represented by a factor of ten – as perpetrators, not as victims. Chancellor Merz doesn't seem to care. We continue to pay 150 million euros for an admissions program that brings even more Afghans to us. Merz continues where Merkel left off. Our welfare state is being plundered, our women are becoming wild game. Stop it! We finally need order; Order through deportations, deportations of Afghans. Of course, this also requires pragmatic relations with the Taliban, not arrogant teachings. We don't have to like the Taliban. I don't, in any case. But they are now the new old rulers in the country, and they have agreed to take back their compatriots. Come on, we shouldn't turn this offer down. It's time for realpolitik! Let's talk to the Taliban, let's reactivate the migration agreement with Kabul to make Europe safer again.

Commissioner, Mr President! I know people who suffer from endometriosis – in their family and friends. And the first time I dealt with this disease more intensively, I was quite shocked. Up to 15% of women in Europe suffer from it, i.e. one in seven women. And yes, it is real suffering: severe pain in the pelvic area, intestinal discomfort and a massively increased risk of infertility. Many women want to become mothers, but they can't because of endometriosis. Is there anything better in the world than having children? As a proud father of a little daughter, I can assure you: No, definitely not. Many women’s unfulfilled desire to have children often turns into psychological pain – I really do not wish for a woman to do so. In addition to individual suffering, endometriosis causes enormous economic damage. A loss of about 30 billion euros is caused by sickness throughout the EU. It is all the more astonishing that so little has been invested in endometriosis research for decades. In Germany, for example, it was just 500,000 euros for decades until 2022. €500,000 over decades – that's nothing, really nothing. After that it became a little more, but still far too little. Especially when you consider what nonsense the German government spends its money on otherwise. Brussels, by the way, does not do much better either. Only 0.02% of funded projects concern endometriosis – far too little. This is simply wrong prioritisation – wrong prioritisation at the expense of real problems for women, at the expense of health, at the expense of democracy and at the expense of the economy. So here a rethinking must take place, and indeed across all political divides. That is why I also tabled a resolution here in the European Parliament in June, which was supported by MEPs from different political groups. I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks. And probably this pressure was also necessary for Parliament to finally put this debate on the agenda. That's right! Endometriosis research is chronically underfunded. We need stronger financial support, more research, more awareness, more education. It is in the interest of all of us, and especially the women concerned deserve it.

Mr President! In Syria, minorities are systematically slaughtered – Christians, Alawites, Shiites. Churches are being bombed, the new jihadist rulers are cementing their claim to power with terror, and what is the EU doing? She's sending more money to Damascus. It condemns those who do not bow to bloody terror. It takes the side of the Islamist terror regime and ennobles the new ruler al-Dschaulani. Yesterday still Al Qaeda fighters, today already presentable Westminster model Democrat. What a moral declaration of bankruptcy! Yes, we have to deal with the new realities in Syria, but not in the way that is happening right now. Syria has been gagged with the toughest sanctions for 15 years, regardless of the population. Now that Assad is gone, the EU lifts all sanctions. Even if the new rulers go to genocide. Are only Christians, Alawites and Shiites who die there – just shabby! We need to put pressure on Damascus to demand two things: Firstly, the protection of religious minorities, secondly, the millions of withdrawals of Sunni Syrians from Europe.

Thank you for allowing the Blue Card. I have a question. Have you ever considered that there are also many homosexuals who actually do not want the whole thing to be celebrated so publicly, because this is also met with rejection by many people, even people who actually have no problem with it? How do you explain that if European rights are supposedly so homophobic, the AfD is the strongest force among homosexuals in Germany at 28%?

Mr President! Hungary is a sovereign state, Hungary defends traditional values, and Hungary has every right to ban the Pride, because it is right to protect children from sexual exhibitionism. They are organising a tribunal against Orbán to distract from their own problems. Because it is not in Budapest that women are raped in groups, it is not in Budapest that terrorist bombs explode, it is not in Budapest that the caliphate is proclaimed, but it is in our cities, in Berlin, in Brussels, in Paris. Keep your mouth shut. But if Orbán does something that doesn't suit you, you go crazy. You do not respect Hungary, you expect obedience. Those who do not obey will be sanctioned. It's like a social credit system at the supranational level. In countries that were under Soviet knuckle, that brings back bad memories, but you don't get that. You do not understand how humiliating and arrogant your words must be in Hungary because you lack any cultural sensitivity. Their diversity is simple. Their tolerance applies only to like-minded people. They behave like value-imperialist colonial masters, and you don't even realize it. Leave the fingers of Hungary!

Mr President! The everyday life of white farmers in South Africa is the bare horror: They have been persecuted for years, they can hardly tear them out, violence against them is tolerated, laws discriminate against them. Some of them have now fled to the United States. The South African government then insulted them as cowards who evaded racial justice. What exactly does that mean? Trump showed South Africa's President Ramaphosa in the White House what this means, namely genocide: Countless dead – murdered for their European ancestry, again and again. All over the world, the EU sees human rights violations, but it is silent on the persecution of the Boers. And why? Because the Boers are of European descent, because they are white. In addition to the US, it should be the EU that offers them a safe haven. But instead, Brussels is swinging the postcolonial moral club to justify genocide of diaspora Europeans. That's incomprehensible, that's a shame!

Madam President, Germany has been paying around 160 million euros for good governance in Tanzania for four years. The EU put 107 million euros on it over the same period – a lot of money. When Socialist President Samia Suluhu Hassan took over government in 2021, we became more generous. Too generous, because too naive. Opposition figures in Tanzania are kidnapped, arrested, tortured and murdered – with the help of our taxpayers’ money. In September, the body of opposition politician Mohamed Ali Kibao was found. She was burned by acid, he himself was kidnapped before. Now the leading opposition politician Tundu Lissu is also in prison. He even faces the death penalty. Does it look like good governance? Is this good governance? Stabilising the situation on the ground is also in our interest. Otherwise, there is a risk of greater poverty, unrest and waves of refugees. That doesn't stop in front of us either. Therefore, we should push for talks between the government and the opposition and also for the release of Tundu Lissu. Our means of pressure is the cancellation of completely misguided development aid. We must not pay for the murder of opposition activists in Tanzania.