Debate contributions by Silvia SARDONE

Thank you for your question. Look, what do I do? I certainly do too little but at the moment too little is risking my life. I am under guard, I live under guard because I dared to say in this plenary, among other things, that the Islamic veil is not a symbol of freedom but of submission. But I am not afraid and therefore, precisely because I believe in this battle, I will continue to say what I think, with good peace of those like you, to whom this speech annoys, because you lose votes.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, every day the news is filled with heartbreaking stories. But there is an even more painful truth: When the victims are Islamic girls beaten, abused or even killed, a shameful silence falls. So I wonder, why do you close your eyes? Why do you ignore the broken lives of young women forced into violence just because they want to take off their headscarves, want to live freely, wear make-up or love whoever they want? I find this absolutely intolerable. These girls cry freedom but only find indifference. And the response of the left, feminists and even this institution, what is it? Silence, censorship. I say, instead, shame! It's time to stop hiding these atrocities so as not to disturb your comfortable tale of positive integration. One cannot turn a blind eye to the problem of Islamic patriarchy just so as not to displease certain communities. And do you know why you do it? For electoral reasons: You're trampling on women's rights to get votes, and that's unworthy, indecent behavior! We are at a crucial crossroads: What kind of Europe do we want to build? I do not want a Europe where women are submissive, where sharia law finds space, where the Islamic veil becomes the symbol of our future! I want a free Europe, where women can live without being oppressed, without being reduced to objects! No more silence! No more compromises on women's skin: It's time to raise your voice and fight for your freedom.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, while the world is moving in a completely different direction, as evidenced by Trump's victory, you continue, even at COP29, to pursue eco-fundamentalism and mind-blowing strategies of economic degrowth. When you realize that your policies green Does it only lead to job losses? When will you understand that imposing ever higher climate targets makes no sense, considering that Europe contributes only 7-8 % of global emissions? When will you understand that if 75% of emissions come from Asia and developing countries, that's where we need to act? When will you admit that fueling terror with phrases like "climate catastrophe" or "planet on fire" makes you, as it were, unbelievable? When will you reverse policies that lead to the demolition of our industry, effectively handing us over to China? Wake up before it's too late.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Trump did not win, he won! With good peace to all those on the left who have been gnawing for several days now; You should know that in pharmacies in Italy practically finished the Maalox, because all the communists went there with stomach pain. Your arrogance is also over, so much so that today we are here to discuss relations between Europe and the United States of America. Too bad we do this while we have hearings going on, where someone like Ribera, who is running to be Vice President of the Commission, said beautiful words about Trump, of the type that "he is illiterate". In short, there are all the foundations for solid relationships and healthy communication between the different institutions! You have lost, you have lost Kamala, you have lost the Democrats, but they have lost your policies, your policies on immigration and the environment, your proximity to China, your language. woke. Yet here you continue to perch on the same identical positions. Stop: Trump’s victory is not a defeat – even if you see it as a nightmare – it is actually a great, great, opportunity.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European institutions have decided to entrust Enrico Letta with the task of writing a report on the future of Europe. Eh, nothing, it already makes you laugh like that. Letta is the former leader of the Democratic Party, former premier of the left in Italy, the leading face of European socialists: represents virtually all those responsible for the disaster of the European Union in recent years, among other things soundly defeated in Italy. For Letta, the green transition is indispensable and we need to accompany farmers, businesses, the car industry: This is exactly what the majority did not do. Indeed, thanks to you, these sectors are in crisis. Letta reminds us that Europe must not give in to its leading role in manufacturing: But it is precisely because of the constraints, taxes and bureaucracy that Europe wants that we find ourselves in this situation. Enrico Letta: one who has a strange concept of democracy and wanted us to say that the cordon sanitaires are fundamental to stopping the right. He, precisely he, who reiterated that more regular migrants are needed for development, going against several countries, including socialists, who finally say that immigration must be stopped. In short, do we really want to be taught by Letta, the one who says that the former Minister Fornero was an excellent minister when instead he only destroyed our country?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is fighting Islamic extremism in words and then supporting it in practice. We have long denounced the incredible series of funding to realities close to Islamic radicalism. For example, the Commission recently announced the renewal of the Erasmus+ programme with the Islamic University of Science and Technology in Gaziantep, Turkey, a university that paid homage, speaking of martyrdom, to the Hamas leader killed at the end of July, a university that had rectors who spread radical Islamist ideas. In addition, 1.7 million euros were granted between 2014 and 2022 to the Islamic University of Gaza with the cooperation program, a university founded by the ideologue who built Hamas. Over the years we have also seen money to Turkish NGOs close to the Muslim Brotherhood and anti-Semitic compositions. Why does the money of European citizens end up in radical Islamist realities? Why do we finance those who cannot stand our values and our freedom? You are handing us over to Islamic extremists!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Iraq wants to impose an Islamic law to legalize paedophilia. They want to amend a 1959 law by legalizing child marriage, lowering the age of women to marry from 18 to 9 years. That sucks! Already today, 30% of women in Iraq are married under the age of 18. We're talking about legalizing the rape of girls. Five days ago the news of a woman kidnapped by ISIS in Iraq at the age of eleven, in 2014, moved to the Gaza Strip and forced to marry a man as a child. She was fortunately rescued by the Israeli army. But there is someone who really thinks that a dialogue with this mob is possible. Shame on you! Just shame! Long live freedom! Long live the freedom of women!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the obligation since 2035 to sell only electric cars is utter madness. It is a short-sightedness of the European Union that leads the car industry to a very serious crisis. In 2023, the companies in the sector that closed were 13% more than in the previous year: closed factories, layoffs, unsold cars and corporate crises. Once the left was concerned with the poor and the working people: Well, the poor can't afford an electric car. As far as workers are concerned, there are 13 million workers in the sector: 750,000 jobs are at risk, all sacrificed on the altar of peace. green. The only ones to laugh and celebrate are the Chinese, with whom someone thought they could compete and that to produce our green There are more coal-fired power plants. Well, really compliments: A huge masterpiece! It's phenomenal!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, migrants are no longer resources and no one is talking about open doors in Europe anymore. It is the total failure of leftist policies, open doors, immigration and so on. Everyone, but everyone, in Europe, closes the doors to foreigners. There are those in France who want to pass laws to make arrivals more complicated. There are those who, like Germany, wake up and claim the right to send immigrants back home. Sweden has recently launched a package for the "re-immigration" of non-EU citizens. And the Netherlands also wants to suspend the right to asylum. Not even on the left they talk more about wanting to encourage immigration. The only nation to put a minister on trial for defending its borders and armoring its own country is Italy, with Matteo Salvini facing years in prison for doing what everyone in Europe wants to do today, namely defending borders. Here the danger is not the reintroduction of border control, but a Europe unable to take note of what is obvious to all: Immigration must be curbed seriously and drastically. Enough goodness, enough welcome at all costs, enough illegal immigrants.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my thoughts and solidarity go out to the people of Emilia Romagna, in Italy, who have been hit by bad weather at this time. Debating the consequences of drought, floods and extreme phenomena is important and it is the duty of Europe and the States to take care of the affected territories, but pointing the finger exclusively on man and climate change also takes away responsibility for those who, certain works, just do not want them. When it comes to drought, we have to go in the opposite direction to the ecologists' belief. To combat these phenomena we need more people, we need more jobs and more investments, we need more structures built on the territories, we need water basins, which environmentalists often oppose, while against floods we need containment tanks, mobile barriers and cleaning of the banks. And here, too, the left is often opposed. As for farmers, in recent years Europe has outrageously blamed them, pointing to them as enemies of the climate, when instead they are very important for the territories. Especially in these difficult times, they must be supported, because they are the ones who work the land, who take care of it – the real guardians of the territories. Ideology is enough: Seriousness and more responsibility are needed, including from the European institutions, to help the affected populations.

I would like to ask you a question that I would like to ask all the members of the left: Is there a reason why you, in all your speeches, have never mentioned the Islamic religion, especially radical Islam? Why not understand the connection between these prohibitions, between the apartheid that women suffer there and radical Islam is not to see the problem, and sincerely makes a lot of sadness.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I wonder where feminists have gone. When it comes to women's rights in Islamic countries, they lose their voice, they shut up. I listened to the speeches of the left-wing MPs: Not a single one mentioned the Islamic term. What is happening in Afghanistan makes me shudder. I say this as a woman, first of all, as a free woman who has always fought for women's rights denied in Muslim-majority countries. The crimes, persecution, torture and arbitrary detention of Afghan women and girls by the Taliban regime is the lowest point of recent times. Have you read the new laws against women? They cannot move on their own, they cannot dress as they wish, they cannot attend high school, they cannot work outside the home, they cannot hold political positions, they must cover any part of their body and they cannot look directly at men not belonging to their family. They can't even make their voices heard in public, singing or acting. They are guilty of just one thing: to be women. All this takes place in the deafening silence of the European and Italian left, always ready to speak out of turn of patriarchy, but silent – absolutely silent – when radical Islam is involved. Silence also from feminist associations, more committed to crippling the endings of words than to dealing with gender violence and abuse. Too tiring or too uncomfortable to take to heart the complicated affairs of the women of Kabul – the Taliban, the burqa, sharia, beatings, submission. No indignation, no street demonstrations, no sermon on rights and equality violated. Shut up. Europe's failure to take a strong stance on Afghanistan suggests a tolerance towards a type of culture that does not belong to us and that is not compatible with our principles of democracy and freedom. You also demonstrate this by promoting the Islamic headscarf in the official communications of the European Commission. All this with the obvious consequence that the suburbs of the big cities are filling up with veiled women, even with the burqa. Even in schools, girls with headscarves are increasing. For us this oppression for religious reasons is unacceptable and we will continue to denounce it, even at the cost of taking threats, even of death. We're not afraid. I'm not afraid. We are ready to do our part. Europe cannot and must not look the other way.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the car is in agony all over Europe. We need to change course on the electric to prevent disaster. Sales of battery-powered vehicles are languishing: They cost too much, they are uncomfortable, they do not convince consumers. European brands are in crisis and are also falling on the stock market: Volkswagen wants to close three plants, with 15,000 jobs at risk, Audi closes a factory in Belgium and Stellantis stops production in Turin due to lack of demand for the electric model of the 500. It is the failure of a European industrial policy. It is a real suicide for companies that have represented the great industry of our continent. You are destroying the car industry, do you want to understand it or not? Either you change the line, removing the ban on diesel and gasoline engines from 2035, or at least revising the dates, or you will only create unemployment and poverty.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, indiscriminate reception undermines society. Blocking it is neither racism nor Islamophobia: That's common sense. With unrestrained immigration, you have also opened Europe's door to terrorists. There is not only one obvious problem of asylum seekers planning to kill or slit the throats of those who welcomed them: There is a bigger issue called citizen safety. Now Chancellor Schulz says: Islamists threaten peaceful coexistence among all of us. And you're just noticing now? Well, "well woke up," let's say. And yet the signs have been everywhere for a long time: attacks, violent demonstrations, ghetto neighborhoods where the state does not exist, more and more extremists, including among young people, and more and more Islamic veils even in our cities, symbols of oppression of women for religious reasons. How long will Europe continue to submit to those who hate us?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, you have criminalised farmers for years and now you absolutely must change course. The farmers are not against the environment, but rather are decisive for the protection and development of the territories. Those who work the land cannot stand bureaucratic impositions and ecological follies that put their very survival at risk. In these years we should decide which agri-food strategy the European Union should pursue: a model made of links with tradition or a future of homologated and synthetic products? Europe has also fuelled unfair competition. The rules imposed on European producers must also apply to those who want to sell within the Union. We need reciprocity in imports from third countries and transparency on the label. We need to increase the budget for agriculture, not reduce it. We must defend our traditions, our food culture, starting with the Mediterranean diet, which, incredibly, is under attack.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam President von der Leyen, I did not vote for you five years ago and today, listening to you, I repeat that I will not vote for you and I say so with conviction and pride! I was chosen by citizens to bring about change in Europe, not to support those who have been the protagonist of five years of disasters. He made a speech using only verbs to the future: We'll do, we'll do. I would like to inform you that you have already been President of the Commission for five years and the citizens have already judged you in the elections. The same citizens who are calling for a less ideological Europe that is closer to their needs. In his speech he proposes the same identical policies of the last five years: disastrous policies, starting with New Green Deal, with choices that put entire production chains in crisis. European citizens have asked for a change and how do you respond? With the same faces and the same policies. A logic of the perch, of the bunkers, embodied by its re-application. You failed. You, Ursula von der Leyen, failed. You are not the answer to Europe's problems, you are the cause.