Speeches

Mr President, thank you very much. Commissioner, I'm sorry. It has been 14 months since Lukashenko rigged the elections. Another debate is passing here in the European Parliament, and we will have another resolution calling on the European Commission and the European Council to take real action. Commissioner, I'm sorry. Even today, there is no High Representative in this debate. This shows the stage to which we have reached in the fight against the Lukashenka regime. There are no real sanctions, no donor conferences. Today, there is no European Union strategy for Belarus, for which we have been fighting for months, and political prisoners in Lukashenko's prisons are arriving every day. And this is really a picture full of the drama that we have both in Belarus and when it comes to the weakness of the European Union vis-à-vis the Lukashenka regime. And Lukashenko is also winning this war against us – as today's debate shows – when it comes to destabilising our eastern border of the European Union. Today, Lukashenko is pleased that the Polish government has become a useful idiot – and this must be said clearly and unambiguously – of Lukashenko. People are dying on the Polish border, on the Polish border these poor immigrants have fallen into the trap of the Lukashenka regime, they are being pushed both ways. That is why, Commissioner, you have just said that your officials are going to Poland next week, in the coming days. Take lawyers, non-governmental organizations, the media to have full transparency of what is happening on the Polish border. We don't have that today. I ask you, on behalf of millions of Polish women and Poles who respect human rights and democracy, that we learn the whole truth about what is happening on the Polish-Belarusian border, because unfortunately we are not able to find out from the lips of the Polish government.

Madam President, by the way, I think it’s super cool that two women are leading this debate today. Thank you very much. Keep fingers crossed! Pani Przewodnicząca! Schuman powiedział, że Europa potrzebuje duszy. Pani Przewodnicząca dodaje dzisiaj, że duszą jest praworządność. Jeżeli tak jest, Pani Przewodnicząca, to zapraszam do działania. To, co zrobiła Komisja do tej pory w sprawie praworządności, jest daleko niewystarczające. Mija połowa Pani kadencji, a w Polsce w tym czasie tylko pogorszył się stan wymiaru sprawiedliwości. W 30% naszego kraju wprowadzono strefy wolne od LGBT. Polki mają dzisiaj w Polsce mniej praw, niż kiedy Polska wchodziła do Unii Europejskiej. Coraz więcej mediów ma przez polski autorytarny rząd nałożony kaganiec ograniczający ich funkcjonowanie. Potrzebujemy dzisiaj zdecydowanych działań. I jeżeli to jest za mało, to być może dzisiaj jest pora, żeby Komisja Europejska zaproponowała specjalny pakiet dotyczący silniejszej ochrony praworządności w poszczególnych krajach Unii Europejskiej. Zachęcam do tego.

Mr President, thank you very much. I'm a Pole. I'm gay. My country is run by a president who thinks that people like me are not people, it's ideology. This year it's been 20 years since I've been with my partner. In my country, such compounds are called rainbow plague. Every day when my partner leaves home, I am afraid that he will be met with violence, violence that meets my friends, acquaintances, loved ones. I live in a country where 70% of young people, LGBT people, think about suicide. I live in Poland, in my homeland, where 30% of the country is an LGBT-free zone. How is my life different from yours? What am I worse at? We can't be indifferent. We cannot be indifferent, because from hate speech, from such declarations to hate crimes, there is a very short way. Mr Brudziński mentioned concentration camps. Concentration camps were created because someone did not react in time. Commissioner, please: so it's not too late, start acting. The clock is ticking.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Mr. Secretary of State! You will leave Brussels today for Ljubljana with a clear signal from the majority of this Parliament – the unanimity rule is ineffective. The principle that was supposed to give rights, as it was said, to the lesser, puts us in danger. Unfortunately, one country is able to block decisions that serve the security of most European Union countries. I stand here before the Lord as a representative of a people already experienced by such a principle of unanimity. The so-called liberum veto was in force in Poland in the 17th century. At that time, we were forming a community with Lithuania, and also in matters of security, decisions could be blocked. Unanimity was needed. What did it lead to? It led to chaos, anarchy, and finally, despite being in force for only a year and a half, it led to the partition of our country, the domination of other powers and the complete collapse of our statehood. Let this be a lesson and an example that you will be able to use in the Council for the future in order to abolish this principle of unanimity, which is completely unnecessary.

Madam President, I'm sorry. Let's be honest, we are in a very bizarre situation where the author of her own report contests it, contests it only because she tried through the back door to introduce a report written under the dictates of the Vatican. A report in which a woman is reduced to the role of an object, to an incubator that is only supposed to give birth to children. A report in which seniors, the elderly, people with disabilities are treated in a paternalistic way. She did not succeed and fortunately, because it was a terrifying dystopia, which she tried to inoculate from the land of Pisów to the European one. Fortunately, we resisted it. Why is that? Because this is not our vision of Europe. These are not our values, our values are freedom, equality, social justice and caring for everyone, regardless of exclusion. I am therefore pleased that this report looks quite different today than when it was proposed in a fatal and unacceptable version.