Speeches

Dear President, Commissioner, I'm sorry. European, close your eyes. Imagine that your children and you have to watch your wife and their mother being raped by Russian soldats. Imagine how you have to watch these villagers rape your children. And then the others come and take the kids. And you'll never see them again. You spend months locked in a basement, tortured and starved. You envy the neighbors from the apartment next door, who died right away in their own bed when the Russian bombs fell on your house. Russia is not at war. Russia exterminates civilians and razes Ukraine to the ground. It's not a war, it's an apocalypse. To nuance and use the case of aid to Ukraine for dirty politics is to stand in line with Russian criminals. Here in this House, I recall Einstein's words: The world is not threatened by evil people, but by those who allow evil to act. Therefore, we must not allow the Russian evil to continue.

"The truth is not in the middle. The truth lies where it lies.” These are the words of the late Władysław Bartoszewski. And where the truth lies, they discover and show us free media and independent journalists. And when independent journalists like Jan Kuciak are killed by a mafia business arrangement and corrupt power, then our right to the truth is lost. Radicals and autocrats love the freedom to lie and hate so much, and they hate the right to truth so much, and they are so afraid of independent journalists that they can even kill them. But today I'm going to ask all of us one new question. Maybe we don't need journalists anymore, since we are all editors-in-chief, publishers and journalists in one person on online platforms. Each of us can produce any information and release it into the world. A lot of good comes from this internet freedom. Citizen journalism was created, but there is also a lot of bad. On platforms, a lie beats the truth because it sells much better. And here is the hidden paradox of today's world, of which, please, let us realize. This great freedom on the internet even reinforces the need to develop free and professional media, to support and protect independent journalists, not to annihilate them. Because the more freedom in creating and disseminating fake news, the greater the need for reliable journalists looking for where the truth really lies.

Madam President, I'm sorry. The Internet was supposed to be an oasis of freedom of speech and access to information without a hidden agenda, but platform owners figured out how powerful tools they had in their hands, and began using them to increase their power and wealth. Today, the flow of information and emotions of almost all humanity is decided by three people: owners of X, Meta and TikTok. With one move they can introduce censorship on their platforms and with one move they can promote the most pathological content. These three media oligarchs decide by means of hidden algorithms, which goes to the heads of billions of people. Timothy Snyder wrote that for oligarchs, the rule of law is an obstacle to the ruthless use of ordinary people to make even more money. It is not about promoting any content, but about chaos, because in chaos the oligarchy is doing the best. That is why oligarchs with the rule of law will try to fight, and democracy must bring their egos to the ground with all its might. The world is to be ruled by democratically elected people, not by global oligarchs above the law.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mr. Commissioner, I would like to thank you. Disinformation is a weapon of mass destruction, and that's how we need to start treating it. Lying, sowing hatred and conspiracy theories, inciting one social group against another and inflaming extremism is a great evil. Hundreds of millions of European Union citizens are under constant attack, with fatalities. We must understand that disinformation is an extremely effective and deadly weapon in the hybrid war waged against us, free and democratic nations, by the authoritarian regimes of Moscow, Beijing and Tehran. Now that we know this, we must finally decisively develop an EU mechanism to identify disinformation, especially from hostile, despotic tyrants and especially during election periods. We need systemic education, both in terms of technical skills and critical thinking. Having these skills will work like a vaccine against disinformation and then it will be much easier to fight it. We cannot allow our democracy to be given up without a fight. We must not give up defending our democracy.

Mr President, thank you very much. Travelling by train will not be the first choice for Europeans if we do not strengthen rail passengers' rights. First of all, clear rules are needed. Passengers must be aware of their rights regarding refunds and compensation for delays. We must advocate for a strong policy that protects these rights, ensuring that no traveller is left behind in case of difficulties. Communication is also crucial. Railway operators should provide relevant timetable updates and disruptions, using technology to inform passengers and minimise inconvenience. Availability is another key area. Each station and train should be equipped to enable persons with disabilities to travel. This will make rail travel accessible to everyone. In conclusion, promoting rail passenger rights is not just about improving services. It is about ensuring the integrity and dignity of every traveler. Let's work together to make rail travel a positive experience for everyone across Europe. This is an important challenge for the new European Commission.

Madam President, thank you very much. Our enemies are laughing in our eyes. They're killing on our territory, attacking on our borders. They are flooding us with disinformation that is destroying the democratic order. They incite hatred, they incite riots. They can lead an EU country out of our Commonwealth. Change the results of elections and referendums. We know very well who, we know very well how, we know why and for how much destroys our democracy. And what? And nothing. The Russian, Chinese and Iranian services are roaring with impunity throughout the European Union, and the word ‘hybrid’ has made the word ‘war’ into something completely harmless, because bombs do not fall on us. Meanwhile, the hybrid war has already caused a lot of deaths at the borders, on the streets of our cities, in schools, in homes, because many hate crimes and suicides are also the result of deliberate hate speech. Finally, let us acknowledge that this war against us already has its victims among our citizens. So when are we going to start defending ourselves?

We Polish women want to have the same rights as other European women. We want to decide for ourselves about our bodies and our health. Polish women do not want to practice abortion tourism and do not want to go underground. MEPs, MPs from PiS and the Confederacy, who unfortunately are no longer here in the room, lied. Public opinion polls in Poland show that 57% of the population wants legal abortion by the 12th week, 35% of the population wants to return to the abortion compromise, and only 9% wants to ban or leave the current state.

Madam President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Friends and colleagues! Today, there is no greater threat to us than disinformation. As long as the world's autocrats are still afraid to send rockets and bombs on us, it is disinformation that is the most destructive weapon that they are using more and more courageously against us. Disinformation robs us of our right to free choice, because even honestly counted votes will never be a fully democratic choice if we vote on the basis of lies and disinformation campaigns. When we take a break in defending democracy, the enemies of democracy work very hard. When we spend nothing to defend democracy, the enemies of democracy spend billions of dollars on disinformation. Therefore, if we are to defend democracy in our Euro-Atlantic world, we must join forces as soon as possible. No one alone, here in Europe or overseas, in the United States, will stop the tsunami of lies financed by hostile regimes. Commissioner, we need legislation, we need funds to have the tools to fight disinformation.

Mr President, thank you very much. Dear Commissioner, The Freedom of the Media Act is an act of citizen power against power. It is an act of simple truth that we, the people, have the right to know and have the right to decide who governs us. And no power has ever and anywhere the right to take away or limit the truth from us. The media freedom act is so that no power can ever again poison our heads with propaganda, manipulation and disinformation. So the media freedom act is really an act of freedom for all of us. Because none of us can be free in a world where the media is blackmailed with advertising profits or government contracts. They replace the truth with a politically useful narrative, i.e. a party lie. Truth is one, truth is not in the middle. The truth does not depend on money. The truth doesn't bow to anyone. No one can have power over the truth. Truth gives us freedom. Therefore, defending the truth against lies is like defending our borders against a barbaric invader: If we don't, we'll fall. I will wholeheartedly support the Media Freedom Act and vote for it tomorrow.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Who among us would like to live in a town in the Wild West, intimidated by bandits, without any law, ruled by an untouchable rich man who does what he wants? No one. Then why do we all agree that the virtual world, in which we already spend a third of our lives, is such a Wild West? Why do we want our children to grow up in this world? In a world where platform owners earn fortunes from the promotion of violence, the most disgusting pathos, pornography without age restrictions, lies, hate, and conspiracy theories. And we let them earn money to promote this pure evil, because they promised to help the victims of this evil. It's like letting a dealer sell drugs in real life because he promises to help addicts. This is pure absurdity. This online Wild West has managed to destroy hundreds of thousands of people, including children, and has also threatened democracy, becoming an ideal tool for anti-democrats. It is time that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Because even though this great lawlessness is virtual, its victims are very real.

Oh, Mr. What! Can you look me in the eye? Can you look my daughters in the eye? How much hatred and how much evil have you poured on my husband? The knife was just a tool. Words came from your television and from the public media. Are you able to answer anything at all?

Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Madam President, I'm sorry. Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. The Holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers. The genocides did not fall from the sky, they did not start with machetes and shots in the back of the head. Children's suicides don't start with bridges, ropes, or sleeping pills. The murder of my husband, the mayor of Gdańsk, did not start with a knife. Evil begins with a word. The tragedies of individuals, but also the greatest crimes against humanity, begin with dehumanization, with a rat, with incitement to hatred. When will we finally understand that words, those words that kill, are not freedom of speech? That there can be no freedom of speech what kills? When will we finally understand that hate speech also kills democracy, that hate is the favorite tool of anti-democrats within each of our countries, that it is also the tool of those who want to destroy our democracy from the outside? After all, this is why Russia has built a great rat machine for European values. Putin is destroying our European home with rockets and bombs. Why is that? Because Ukraine is part of this house. But we have long allowed our European home to be demolished by sowing hatred. Now we have to spend gigantic money to defend ourselves against Putin's missiles, but we still cannot defend ourselves against his troll farms. These words, which sow hatred, call for crime, are instruments of crime, and it is high time that we treated them as instruments of crime. I therefore strongly urge the Member States to unblock negotiations in the Council to include hate crime and hate speech in the list of offences governed by the Treaties on the Functioning of the European Union as soon as possible.

Commissioner, I'm sorry. Mr President, thank you very much. Democracy, the rule of law and justice will be on the side of those who defend the truth and against whom SLAPPs are brought. Access to reliable information, access to the truth is our fundamental right, and it is our duty to protect those who reach the truth. When we do not defend those who fight for the truth, we allow the truth to be replaced by lies. When we do not defend access to the truth, we allow ourselves to be taken away from freedom. We allow authoritarianism to replace democracy. Our values must be protected by our law. This is what the directive against SLAPPs is intended to do, which is a key first step in opposing those who gag the mouths of those who uphold the truth and the public interest. Our goals are clear. We want strong remedies for victims and severe dissuasive penalties for SLAPPs. Because our overarching goal is for victims to have full state support and assistance, and for perpetrators to feel the absolute inevitability of punishment. We want to dismiss unfounded lawsuits as soon as possible, because when justice comes too late, it's hard to talk about any kind of justice. We want the truth never to be gagged in the name of the right to a court of law. For me, freedom from hate speech should be a human right. But I will always repeat with full force that protection against hate speech cannot be an argument for silencing criticism. And only an independent court can be a place where a dispute over the truth and the limits of freedom of speech is settled. Finally, we want the right to truth not to be only for the elect. Not only SLAPPs with a clear cross-border dimension are a threat to our community. All SLAPPs are a denial of the foundations of the Union. Therefore, as in the case of breaches of the rule of law, there must also be a clear principle here: silencing democracy in one Member State is silencing democracy across the Union.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. A healthy democracy can only exist if citizens have access to fair and objective information. When independent journalists are attacked and intimidated, the right of citizens to access information and fair elections is attacked. The attack, and in particular the attack by the authorities on independent journalism, is an attack on the foundations of the rule of law. I repeat: Protecting journalists who make up free and independent media is protecting the fuses of democracy. The fight against the politicisation of the media and attacks on independent journalists is not only a matter of protecting human rights and freedom of expression. These are often violent and bloody attacks, closing the mouth forever. When hate speech is spilled from public media speakers and screens, death can be the consequence. The media, when they become a tool of political manipulation, can become a knife at the heart of our democracy. EU action cannot be limited to monitoring. The Commission's reports on this issue are alarming. These must be followed by tangible tools – control of media ownership, protection of transparency and independence of funding, in particular public service media, protection and independence of journalists.

Dear President, Commissioner, I'm sorry. Neither the enactment nor the existence of a law, but its enforcement determines its effectiveness. Travellers in the European Union appear to enjoy the highest standard of air passenger protection rights in the world. But are the highest standards really being felt by EU citizens? No, no, no, no, no In practice, it is very difficult for many travellers to enforce these rights, including seeking compensation. It is true that EU rules offer us, among others, the right to reimbursement, the right to re-routing, as well as the right to care in certain circumstances, the right to maintain financial compensation. I repeat, however, that EU rules on the protection of air passenger rights can only fulfil their role if, first, passengers are fully aware and aware of their rights. Once these rules are fully complied with by the airlines themselves. When they are properly enforced. Therefore, the revision of Regulation 261/4 must focus on strengthening consumer rights, passenger rights and not on their possible reduction. Unfortunately, such proposals also appear.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Commissioner, I'm sorry. The violence experienced by women is a violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms. According to the World Health Organization, 30% of women worldwide experience physical and sexual violence. These are not isolated cases. This is a pandemic of violence. One, two, three, one, two, three... That's every third of us, just because she's a woman. That's not what I say, that's what the WHO says. Let us remember the groups of vulnerable and vulnerable women: women with disabilities, who are more vulnerable than women without disabilities, women refugees from Ukraine, women on the Polish-Belarusian border and women from other countries, young women, girls. We do not deal with violence against women either systematically or mentally. The consequences of violence go beyond pain and suffering. They often have an economic dimension. They lead to loss of income. It's a good thing we're talking about violence against women. It is good that we are responding to it more and more clearly. Let us share our experiences to end silence and impunity against violence. Don't wait until it's too late to react. Let's create a legal framework that protects us, women, girls.

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Hate killed again. Homophobic hate speech kills. Literally, not figuratively. We cannot allow hate speech to come out of politicians' mouths as part of testing new ideas for a disgraceful election campaign. We cannot allow ourselves to be called upon to seek and fight a common enemy like in the most shameful pages of our history. We cannot allow the sometimes silent, and other times mocking acceptance of the crowd for hatred of another person. Hatred breeds hatred! Acceptance of hate speech breeds crime against specific people. I therefore call on the Council: Finally, decide to add hate speech and hate crime to the list of EU crimes! Hate speech and hate crime destroy the fundamental rights and values on which the Union is founded.

Mr President, thank you very much. Mother, save the Earth, my 11-year-old daughter Teresa asks me. What have we done to get the children to beg us to save the Earth? My daughter does not know that I will not save Earth, but today she will know that her voice will be heard by the European Parliament. Today I speak to you with the voice of an 11-year-old child. Enough of deception, enough of pseudo-ecological bullshit, enough of mocking and pretending, enough of postponing decisions, enough of selling our children's lives for petro- and carbon-dollars. A climate catastrophe is a deadly, rapidly progressing disease that we suffer from at our own request. We are dying, even though we have the cure to stop this disease. So who are we if we don't take the medicine, and we still don't believe the doctors who tell us that we don't have much life left without treatment? Who are we? You idiots? The cynics? Suicides? No, we are not killing ourselves, we are killing our children, and today they are begging us to give them their lives. Let's listen to them, please.

Mr President, thank you very much. Authoritarianism can easily replace democracy when we allow lies to replace truth. If you have the power and use it to suppress the truth, you become an autocrat. If you have power and use it to persecute people because they are telling the truth, you are a dictator. If you have power and do not guarantee access to the truth and do not protect people who are trying to reach the truth, then you are growing authoritarianism. We have power, democratic power coming from the citizens of the Union. Therefore, we must no longer be stuck in idleness, because we are cultivating authoritarianism. That is why, as Parliament, in a cross-party agreement, we call on the Commission to put forward a directive to stop the destruction of our European democracy caused by SLAPPs. Today, tough legislative measures are a necessity, because for too long we have been blind to the practice of gagging journalists and social activists. We call for the establishment of a special support fund for the victims of SLAPPs, because such lawsuits destroy financially and psychologically the defenders of the truth in order to silence them. Finally, we call for SLAPPs to be recognised as a tool to systematically destroy media freedom and stifle civic participation. Our freedom is at stake because there is no freedom without truth.

Dear Mr President, Commissioner, I'm sorry. Mr. Prime Minister, I'm sorry. Mr. Morawiecki, let me quote a Polish writer: “Your lies are like rabbits, because they give birth to new lies indefinitely.” It is not true that the Constitutional Court has confirmed that the Constitution stands above EU law, because it is obvious. It is not true that EU law is unconstitutional. It is not true that the CJEU interferes with the judiciary in Poland. The only thing that EU law requires is that judgments in Poland should not be handed down in your party headquarters of the Law and Justice party. It is not true that the Constitutional Tribunal can choose which judgments of the CJEU to enforce and which to throw in the trash. It is a lie, a cynical lie, that the constitutional courts of other countries have ruled similarly to the Polish ‘PiSowski’ Tribunal. Oh, Mr. Morawiecki! That is what the 26 retired judges of the Constitutional Court are saying to you - real judges, not your party colleagues, whom your party first dressed up in togas, and then you sent them your absurd question. The Constitutional Court, which was supposed to defend the sovereign from power, you have manned the people of power to protect power. You have the right to rule because you won the elections, although according to the OSCE the elections in Poland are no longer democratic. But please, by God please, let's at least agree on a minimum of decency: the conformity of your laws with the Polish Constitution and... (The President took the floor)

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Commissioner, I'm sorry. "Discord must be made between the citizens of the country under attack," wrote an ancient Chinese strategist, and this is what Putin does. It funds a troll farm, but also organizations and political parties that challenge democracy and human rights. But how are we supposed to fight Putin’s ‘democracy’ when we allow EU governments to be misinformed? We allow anti-democracy to maintain power through state lies and hate speech. We forget that democracy is not just the absence of fraud at the ballot box, that systemic brainwashing will never be a democracy. It is thanks to disinformation that autocrats do not have to falsify elections, because they falsify the image of the world before elections. And let me be clear: Putin will be able to save a few kopecks on his trolls as long as we allow the power of any EU country to rob its citizens of their right to information and give itself the right to sow state hatred.

Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to thank you very much. Today, the tourism industry is like a battlefield. It is the place of the economy where the consequences of the great battle that humanity has fought and continues to fight with COVID-19 are most visible. Our role is not only to estimate the damage and compensate for the loss as much as we can. Our job is to learn a lesson from what happened. Too many local communities are almost 100% dependent on tourism. We treat the health security of mass tourism too recklessly. We react too slowly to threats. We treat post-pandemic wounds too chaotically. It's a lesson from what's behind us. But we also have big challenges ahead of us. We have to save the climate. Tourism also needs to change. We need to better coordinate public health management and tourism must be involved. And we must respect the hosts of the places and places we visit as tourists. As in the pandemic, there is one answer to these challenges: common challenges require common action. Let the vision of future pandemics not paralyze us with fear. On the contrary, let it fill us with the courage to cooperate better.

Mr President, thank you very much. The enemy of Poles is the one who deprives his compatriots of freedom, and the friend of Poles is the one who demands the rights of Poles. The enemy of Poles is the one who pits Poles and deprives compatriots of the right to marry, and the friend of Poles is the one who fights for respect, freedom and equality for all Poles. The enemy of Poles is the one who pursues Putin's goal in Poland, and Putin's goal is polexit. A friend of Poles is one who defends European standards in Poland. The enemy of Poles is the one who is arguing Poland with allies and forming a new alliance with Putin's supporters, and the friend of Poles is the one who wants a strong Poland in a united Europe. Poland is Poles, and 80% of Poles want to be in the European Union and feel at home here. The enemy of Poles is the one who calls our community an occupier and the Soviet Union, because it offends the memory of millions of Poles who died at the hands of real occupiers. The enemy of Poles is the one who wants to decide what Poles can know. Finally, the enemy of the Poles is the one who says that the Poles are a dark people who will buy everything that the authorities say. And the friends of the Poles are free media, independent of any power. Who is who, we know.

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Community – that is what we call ourselves. It is time to reiterate the meaning of the word, especially to those who are consciously striving for the disintegration of the Union. The community is voluntary, and if you don't want to be in it, don't destroy it, just leave it. The Community is when all its members seek to abide by the Union's established and obvious principles. Don't be like a drunk driver who doesn't think his rules are valid on the road, because you pose a threat not only to yourself, but to everyone else. The community needs to grow. There is no return to the time when the Union was only a free trade zone, which calls for a new anti-EU alliance of nationalist parties. Do you really not want subsidies for farmers, aid for poorer regions? Do you really want to deal with the next pandemics, climate catastrophe, Putin and China on your own? That is why we agreed to common rules and to the fact that their observance is ensured by European, that is, our common institutions and courts. Our European strength is the rights of every human being, and the times when they were not respected are a great disgrace. Our strength is principles and cooperation, because the lack of it is the dissolution of our family. This is Putin's agenda and a denial of our common interests and values. Nazism and its effects did not fall from the sky, but they stalked in small steps. Commissioner Rado, it's time to act!