Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, five years ago a petrol-powered car cost EUR 15 000, today the electricity equivalent costs EUR 40 000. Among the many Eurofollies voted by this left majority, surely the stop to endothermic engines in 2035 is the most unjust unpopular and unjust. It is an elitist measure that only a privileged few who live in the LTZs so dear to left-wing administrations will be able to afford. But the reality, ladies and gentlemen, is quite different outside this House. The majority of citizens, in fact, use the car as a necessary and primary asset, without which they cannot go to work. Well, colleagues, unfortunately it is not the air that is polluted here because of car emissions, but only the ideological attitude that is leading to the dismantling of our entire manufacture and with it thousands of jobs in favor of foreign countries such as China, which thanks to these short-sighted policies will invade us with electric cars and even endothermic engines produced without... (the President took the floor from the speaker)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this House is increasingly being used to place those who guarantee our security in the dock: Criticizing the work of law enforcement has now become a habit for a left that has run out of proposals. It's time to say enough! It is enough to attack those who protect us every day and then play the good guys with criminals and potential terrorists. Learn to respect those who guard our territories with sacrifice, often putting their lives at risk. It is too convenient to turn to the police when a thief enters your house, only to denigrate them in public to please four of Dad's children. I am using this House today to take a clear and clear position, which many in Italy have not yet had the courage to take. I'm with law enforcement!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this morning, as I was preparing my speech on this very subject, I took a look at the weather. Well I found that in the different areas of our Europe, in Palermo we have the beauty of 17 degrees, blessed them!, while in Rovaniemi, in Finland, alas, the temperature is less than a degree. It is an incontrovertible fact, dear colleagues of the Left and the Greens, who call you so much friends of the climate, that our continent has extremely different climatic areas within it. It does not take a meteorologist to understand it, just common sense... With this directive, on the other hand, you originally wanted to oblige all European citizens to renovate their homes out of their own pockets, otherwise the property would lose its value. These are concerns which I have already raised in my 100 amendments, which you have rejected, although I am pleased to note that many of my proposals have been taken up in the final text, but that is not enough! Too many uncertainties still loom over the home of the Italians and this is yet another demonstration of the abyss to which the new religion has come greenHowever, it will leave nothing green except the pockets of the Italians if this left-wing majority does not change soon.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe wants more rights and equality for all women, but it does not realise that today the real battle is to defend the achievements of women that we can no longer take for granted in the face of the progressive Islamisation of our cities. A few days ago, in Italy, a 13-year-old girl was abused by a herd of young Egyptians. A chilling episode, but not isolated, as confirmed by incontrovertible and chilling data, which to a certain political part it is convenient not to see, which tell us that in Italy 40% of sexual crimes are committed by foreigners. Crimes matured in a cultural context that considers the woman inferior and submissive to the man, condemned to suffer the imposition of the veil, early marriages, female genital mutilation, phenomena in worrying increase right here in Europe. Dear leftists, don't be fooled. To defend parity, it is not enough to change the name of the Chamber of Deputies by adding the word deputate. It is not enough to be a feminist only against Italian rapists, but to look the other way when it comes to raping immigrants. It is much more useful to fight together the radical Islamist ideology that threatens the security and freedom of our women. As Lega we have tabled a motion to prevent any European funding to associations promoting the use of the veil in Europe. Sinistre, you will support us or, once again, in the name of myopic goodness, you will continue to forage for those who are truly enemies of women's rights and dignity.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we strongly and unambiguously condemn all forms of extremism, but we do not accept the sinister attempt of the left to assimilate all the voters of the centre-right to a small group of nostalgics of the twenty years. On one thing, however, you are right: The danger of fascism is real, and it is in our midst. I find, in fact, fascist trying to prevent an internationally renowned conductor from taking the stage of a theater, and then insulting her from the audience only because she is not politically aligned to the left; I find fascist the unique thought of those who, behind the shield of political correctness, condemn and repress anyone who expresses themselves in dissent, labeling it from time to time with dangerous stereotypes such as "homophobic", "sexist", "masculinist", "Nazi", and sometimes exposing it to media gourmand, disdainful of the potential consequences. Finally, I find it fascist to force families who do not arrive at the end of the month to buy a new electric car, or to make very expensive building renovations that they cannot afford. The danger of fascism exists but you represent it in the most subtle way, with your coercive policies masquerading as noble objectives. Once the color of fascism was black, today it is black. green The left-wing eco-Taliban.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, our cars are in danger well before 2035 and the forced conversion to electricity, which is so popular here in Europe. With the new proposal for a regulation of the European Commission on the end of life of vehicles, in fact, you continue to want to complicate the lives of ordinary people who, unlike you, can not afford to change a car per season to boast of being greener. According to Article 26 of this Regulation, the owner of a vehicle is obliged to scrap it if its repair proves to be uneconomical, as is written in black and white in Annex 1, Article 2, under penalty of penalties. According to your short-sighted mindset it is therefore more economically sustainable, and also environmentally, to buy a new car, perhaps electric, rather than repairing the old one. So, before turning off the engines of our cars, put a hand on your conscience and ask yourself at what price you are selling our future to Chinese electric.

Mr President, Mr High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, China is a danger to Europe, and we must make this clear. As COVID-19 has shown us, this country is not a reliable and transparent partner but, on the contrary, an enemy willing to cause a global disaster in order to protect its interests. Now history repeats itself with the green transition: China holds us in its hands with batteries, microchips and rare earths and at the same time invades our market with cheaply produced electric cars, also thanks to state aid from the communist dictatorship. Italy has just abandoned the Silk Road memorandum, distancing itself from the Chinese regime, and it is time for Europe to strike a blow if it does not want to succumb. In recent days, after its first and only mission to Beijing, the European Commission denounced the serious imbalances in trade between Europe and China and even announced an investigation into Chinese dumping. All right! If we had known that President von der Leyen needed a trip to Beijing to see what the League has been saying loudly in this Parliament for five years, we would have gladly paid for this trip, but a long time ago!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 2023 is not yet over, but we already have 105 women killed in Italy alone. The last in order of time is Giulia Cecchettin, brutally murdered the day before her graduation by the ex-boyfriend. Our condolences go out to his family and to all the families of the victims. But that they are not empty words, but a concrete commitment so that this no longer happens, a commitment that in Italy we are carrying out at all institutional levels. It is in fact in these hours the approval of the strengthened Red Code, which strengthens the prevention tools, while in the Lombardy Region the legislative process for the introduction of the crime of double murder against those who kill a woman in an advanced state of pregnancy has been initiated. Good practices, which we call for the European Parliament to promote in all Member States, even if we are aware that a law cannot save lives if we do not intervene first in schools, educating young people to respect. Exactly as our government plans to do. Finally, yes, we need to break down patriarchal society. Dear Leftists, you heard me right: For once, we agree with you. Let's break down the patriarchy: But the real one, that of fundamentalist Islam which, thanks also to your complicit goodness, instead of wanting free and emancipated women, often wants them submissive, veiled and, sometimes, child brides.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, our companies are ahead of the European institutions, which should stimulate their growth and competitiveness, instead of curbing it with rules and constraints, as is now all too often the case, every day with measures linked to the green turnaround. Our companies are ahead because they already know for themselves that attention to the environment is a factor of competitiveness and that we need to invest in the transition green to stay in the market. Our companies are ahead because they are asking to be able to do so with adequate incentives and timing, not with absurd diktats that impoverish our productive fabric and that risk transforming Europe from an aspiring world power to serve the most polluting economies in the world. To the entrepreneurs who fight every day to defend the primacy and quality of our productions, I say that they are not alone and that in this Chamber there are still those who fight to free their energies for a better future.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, left-wing associations and parties in Belgium are pushing for a law that prohibits criticism of Islam, a law that would erase freedom of expression, handing us over directly to those who want to turn Europe into a branch in Tehran. In the ghetto neighborhoods of our cities, in the shadow of mosques funded by fundamentalists, more than a generation of immigrants is growing up who, at best, do not want to integrate and, at worst, kill us at the cry of " Allahu akbar". The left, which accuses us of being Nazis and racists because we denounce the risks of indiscriminate reception, today must apologize to Italian and European citizens, deprived of the right to live in peace and safety in their own home. And so, dear progressive colleagues who call Hamas terrorists "partisans", avoid at least inappropriately talking about Islamophobia just as the nightmare of anti-Semitism is resurfacing in Europe, but the real one.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to address the lefts in this House, but they are obviously less and less present among ordinary people and in the governments of the European nations. After you have impoverished families, doubling mortgages, after you have decided to force them to buy an expensive electric car, perhaps produced in China, and after you have forced them into debt to renovate their home, under penalty of its own devaluation, you only have these ideological crusades, in the name of the LGBT lobby, against democratically elected governments that oppose your politically correct. Fortunately, this Parliament remains one of your last forts. Election after election, all over Europe citizens are resoundingly rejecting the political agenda based on asterisks and the criminalization of the family, as demonstrated by the surreal discussion carried out in Italy on a harmless television commercial. Minority rights are an important and sensitive issue that cannot and must not be exploited politically to pretextually attack opponents, as you are doing today, in a desperate attempt to divert the attention of European citizens from your increasingly obvious political failures.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is not under the illusion that: With the new Critical Matters Act, we will certainly be able to create a European supply chain of these elements that are indispensable for the green transition, but we will not be able to free ourselves from dependence on China, Turkey and the countries of Africa, from which we import 98% of the rare earths. Already today, in fact, with the stop to the endothermic engine not yet operational and with the "green houses" directive not yet approved, we are tied hands and feet to these countries that do not recognize our democratic values, that do not care about the defense of the environment and that are willing to do anything to grow at the expense of Europe. And from tomorrow we will be even more vulnerable. Demand for critical materials is set to increase exponentially: Only the need for lithium, used for electric car batteries, will grow up to 89 times by 2050. The geopolitical risks for Europe are very high: If we want to continue to decide on our future, the only solution is to slow down Brussels' mad race towards climate neutrality by revising the absurd timing imposed by the green directive. Environmental sustainability is an objective that we share, provided, however, that it is not our development, our independence and, above all, our freedom that pays the price.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, everything has changed since the killing of Mahsa Amini in Iran. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in Europe. While in Tehran people die, Brussels has quickly forgotten all the Saman Abbas of Europe and continues to promote the veil as a symbol of freedom and emancipation in official communications, thus trampling on the battle of Iranian women against what they instead believe to be the emblem of female submission and thus sending a very dangerous signal to all fundamentalists living in our democratic countries. We cannot be outraged by the rights denied in Iran if we let the Islamist drift trample on our Western culture and values. We have reached the point where in Italy the acquittal of an immigrant who beat his wife to death was demanded, justifying years of beating as a cultural fact. If we continue like this, by taking backward steps on our conquests, Iran will unfortunately seem less and less distant to us.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, when our local administrators try to apply in the territories the crazy and ideological measures decided in the buildings of Brussels, the results are inevitably disastrous and only the citizens are always at the expense of them. In Piedmont, for example, 140 000 workers and families who own relatively recent cars – for example, cars that are only eight years old, Euro 5 diesels registered until 2015 – have risked losing their right to mobility and, therefore, their sacrosanct right to work. Fortunately in Italy there is a center-right government that, thanks to the strong pressing The League has averted this European absurdity, postponing with a decree the blockade of Euro 5 diesel cars in Piedmont and throughout the Po basin, thus allowing the engine of the Italian economy to continue to run. This government, light years away from living room environmentalism, will always defend the pockets of Italians, because environmental sustainability cannot exist without that... (The President took the floor from the speaker).

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, with a single entry into the family, our parents were able to buy the first house, sometimes even the holiday home, and arrive at the end of the month. Today a family with two salaries struggles to support the installments of a single mortgage and, in four out of ten cases, fails to pay the bills or sobs. The ECB's decision to raise interest rates to combat inflation generated not by increased demand, but by the rising costs of war and the energy crisis, is a short-sighted strategy that will weigh further on the middle class and lead Europe to recession. But the coup de grace to the middle class will come from the environmentalist impositions of Brussels, such as the obligation to renovate the home owned or to buy more cars. green. If the middle class, which pays 80% of taxes, supports social security and fuels consumption, disappears, the European economy and the social fabric risk imploding. Is that what this environmental majority in this Parliament wants? Let's be clear, otherwise it would be necessary to take a step back.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, historic cars are a wealth that contributes to promoting tourism and the identity of our territories through gatherings and charitable initiatives that move a great deal and above all give prestige to European industrial design. The stop to endothermic engines risks dispersing this heritage, handed down from generation to generation, with dedication and economic sacrifices, by millions of enthusiasts. Fuels and spare parts, in fact, will be increasingly unobtainable and, without the European green light for biofuels, vintage cars are destined to disappear despite their totally negligible environmental impact. The short-sighted Europe manages to see in the historic car only its internal combustion engine, the sworn enemy of the green turn. We, on the other hand, also see beauty, culture, our roots and an illustrious past that must not be erased but on the contrary defended and valued. I conclude simply by expressing a thought for the figure of Silvio Berlusconi, who has passed away today and who has been the centre, the protagonist for decades of European political life, waiting for this House to pay him the right tribute.

Mr President, with the Taliban in power, women's conditions in Afghanistan have gone back 20 years. In the name of an archaic and extremist interpretation of sharia, women were forced to wear the full veil and were forbidden not only to work, but also to study. Almost all girls' schools have been closed and those who study or teach secretly do so at the risk of their lives. The recent arrest of Matiullah Wesa, guilty of promoting the schooling of girls and adolescents, breaks the last hopes of an entire generation of women who are stolen not only their rights, but also their future. If we want to be truly consistent in condemning the Taliban regime, we reiterate the need for the rights denied in Afghanistan to always be guaranteed in our civilized Europe, where unfortunately many young immigrants or immigrant daughters are often sent to early marriages instead of higher education with the short-sighted complicity of the leftists, who promote the Islamic veil instead of our Western values of equality and freedom.

Madam President, Europe's industrial and geopolitical future is mainly played out on the energy front. Yet so far Europe has not been able to respond adequately to the challenges posed by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. For years it has demonized gas, a resource that has turned out to be strategic and will continue to be so for many years to come, it has made energy agreements with unstable and unreliable countries such as Azerbaijan, and above all it has not retreated by a millimeter in its mad race towards the electric transition. The huge amount of these ideological choices, already paid hard by families and businesses, is destined to grow even more with the stop to endothermic engines starting from 2035. A self-defeating measure that will further increase prices, decreasing the purchasing power of citizens and putting our manufacturing in crisis. We will certainly listen to the Commission's proposals for next winter, but let us make it clear at once that we will not come up with solutions. green naive and disastrous. In fact, Chinese photovoltaic panels will not be deployed to ensure the survival and competitiveness of Europe, its economy and its companies.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in this debate on women - and I greet the two guests who are a tangible example of success, courage and women - I have decided, however, to draw attention to an important issue: the issue of eating disorders. A dramatic phenomenon and above all in worrying increase, which concerns mainly the female universe and of which there is still not enough talk. Today in Italy we celebrate the Day for the prevention and treatment of these disorders, from anorexia to bulimia, which affect women in 90% of cases, with an increasingly early onset. The marked changes of the body of adolescence, combined with the increasingly pervasive, uncontrolled action of the social media, which propose increasingly extreme models of thinness and success, can disorient our most fragile girls. Today is therefore a celebration established not on the initiative of a woman, but of a man, demonstrating that this is a theme that concerns everyone: parents, educators, doctors, psychologists, associations, but also the world of politics and institutions. This brave man is Stefano Tavilla, Giulia's father, suffering from bulimia nervosa and torn from life at the age of 17, on March 15, 2011. Since that day this father, together with 60 associations, brings this lilac bow throughout Italy, not only to do information work, but also to fight prejudices, ask for accessible care, create a support network to all those people and families who share this drama. And we are at his side, ideally and concretely. That is why, today, we urge this House to keep its guard on this phenomenon and, in anticipation of the International Day against Eating Disorders, which will fall on 2 June, we call for a week of initiatives on this issue to be organised, so that what happened to Giulia – and is happening today, while I am speaking to you now, to many girls in Europe – does not happen again.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, under the pretext of protecting the environment, the European lefts have finally succeeded in inventing a hidden patrimony over the home of Italians, hitting the refuge par excellence, the result of work and sacrifices of a lifetime. In the name of ideological environmentalism, the Household Directive green will lead to the devaluation of what for many families is the only asset, forcing them to spend on average 35 000 euros to adapt the house to the new standards: a wrong provision on the merits and in the method, which will tilt the construction sector and make another huge gift to China that will be enriched by selling us photovoltaics. A norm, however, inapplicable to our country, where 75% of the buildings are in an energy class lower than D, and to renovate the paintings, according to the data of the builders of ANCE, it would take 630 years against the 7 granted by the directive. We are facing yet another masterpiece of European self-harm to which the Italian left accompanies itself without a minimum of dignity. The vote in favour of this measure is a vote against our country and against the Italians, who tomorrow will have the opportunity to understand who, in this House, fights for their interests and who instead tramples them. For us the motto "Italy first" is valid and we of the League will oppose this euro-madness as long as we have breath. Hands off the houses of the Italians!

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, speculation about energy prices is literally bringing citizens and businesses to their knees, but unfortunately Europe does not seem to realise this. Today, here in the European Parliament, we have awarded the Ukrainian people the highest European award, namely the Sakharov Prize, but we do not realise that if Europe does not take concrete and immediate action in the short term in favour of European citizens, this will very soon make the support that Europe is giving to Ukraine unpopular. We cannot, in fact, continually demand sacrifices from our citizens, already bent by two years of pandemic, without offering them concrete solutions to contain the speculative bubble and, above all, prospects of exit from the energy crisis. Almost a year after the beginning of the conflict, in fact, it is time for Europe to take action to avoid shameful speculation on the war and, at the same time, to review all those ideological positions that are incompatible with the economic scenario we are facing. Inflation generated by choices green out of reality, strongly desired by the European left, is sinking the already difficult post-pandemic economic recovery, hitting above all the weakest sections of the population and small and medium-sized enterprises. Today, when the credibility of this Parliament is severely undermined by serious political and judicial scandals, the only way to regain public confidence is to give concrete answers to the dramatic problems that citizens face every day, even if this can mean putting aside ideology or giving up defending some lobbies. Without courageous and effective initiatives, the future of this institution hangs in the balance.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come when Europe could proclaim unity and solidarity without having to demonstrate it in practice. Today, the energy crisis, a real test for the European Union, requires concrete and shared initiatives, which, however, are slow to arrive, leaving room for divisions and selfishness, which make us lose face at international level and undermine the cornerstones of the single market. Brussels cannot allow Germany to fake domestic and global competition with a $200 billion shield against expensive bills. All European manufacturing must be saved because it is the only one that can take us out of this crisis, repaying with interest the economic support of the European institutions. Europe cannot wage small shop wars at the crossroads of history. We have competitor They bet on our divisions and weaknesses and that is why we need to prove ourselves stronger and bigger to signal to the world that Europe is ready to take up the challenges of this time.

In this regard, I have just mentioned the good practices of the region from which I come, which is the Lombardy region, where 48% of women managers reside in Italy, without the need to impose quotas. We have reached better percentages, but I am not satisfied. The problem is that I do not think quotas are an appropriate instrument. We need welfare, that's the only solution and that's the only keyword we need to pursue. To ensure balance and equal opportunities, we must allow women not to have to choose between career or work. Creating quotas on the boards of directors only means privileging women who will go on to hold elite roles but, beyond women working on the boards and women managers, there are millions of women who do not have the opportunity to access those positions, but who still have the right to have a career and to be able to balance their family life. So, we can't do elite politics, we have to think about all women, leave no one behind.

I believe that focusing solely and exclusively on pink odds is a diversion not to address the problem. We are facing the digital transition and there will be new professions of the future, especially in STEM subjects, but we must be aware that only a very small percentage of women approach technical and scientific subjects, because they tell us that these subjects are probably the prerogative of men. So let's work on this, focusing especially on schools among the youngest, to introduce and approach women to these subjects, where, moreover, they obtain even more brilliant results than men, to actually give them quality jobs, which allow them to also balance work and family. This is true equal opportunity, competition must be there, on equal terms, but competition must be there. (The speaker agreed to respond to two "blue card" speeches)

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, imposing equality on the boards of large companies is a façade operation, which certainly appeals to progressives, but unfortunately does not solve the problem of gender inequality at work at its root. To have more women at the top you do not need pink quotas or fines for companies, but an efficient welfare and a valid training offer, which allow women to assert themselves thanks to their merit and their skills. This is demonstrated by the case of the advanced Lombardy region – and here my thoughts go to Governor Roberto Maroni, who helped to make it great – where 48% of managers across Italy work. So we need more pragmatism and less ideology. We do not need preferential lanes, but a fair and equal competition, in order to arrive at a true and not convenient equality, which can guarantee, in addition to women's rights, also the economic and cultural progress of our nations. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)