Debate contributions by Milan UHRÍK

Madam President, dear progressives, do you want to come back to Slovakia in the European Parliament and talk about breaches of the rule of law? Okay, let's take a look. First of all, there is no one to talk to, because no one is sitting here and no one in the European Parliament is really interested in these fabricated topics of yours. It's empty here. Secondly, tell me, where were you when human rights were violated in Slovakia during the previous government, when people with rubber bullets were shot at? Tell me, where were you when the media was banned? No one cares. Of course, nobody's sitting here because it's stupid and nonsense. When the media was banned and when the websites were shut down, then you were silent. At that time, you didn't mind stealing EU funds or Šimečka tunnelling with the whole family of subsidies. You were silent then. You suddenly wake up and say that the rule of law is being violated in Slovakia just because you are not in power in Slovakia. I only want two things: if you would finally stop inking at Slovakia in Europe and if people like Mr. Zdechovský would stop caring about Slovak affairs.

I admit that I did not understand because this interpretation did not work. But what I understand from how I understand Polish, so: You know, I believe that the European Union should not be transformed into a military union. The European Union is supposed to be a peaceful economic project. The project of economic cooperation, fair cooperation between nations. And it should not buy weapons, it should not divert money from agriculture and regions to purchase missiles or tanks. It is not to be turned into a military project, into a military union. It is a peace project and an economic project. That's all we want.

Madam President, Mrs Leyen, for how you are destroying Europe, you should have been sitting in court a long time ago, not here in the European Parliament. Calling for a two-billion-dollar budget and presenting another, even more devastating greendeal measures. Europe is burning, and here you are deluding about some completely unrealistic visions. At the same time, because of your war and sanctions policies, people are suffering and paying record energy prices. Because of your the Green Deal European companies and factories are fleeing Europe. Because of your immigration policy, it is already being shot every week in Europe, and in Brussels they even have to deploy an army against immigrants. You have destroyed Europe and we are just such a small piece of the total collapse. And yet you do not want to admit the mistake, and the only thing you will come here with is that you are asking for even tougher enforcement of those policies that have destroyed Europe and have not worked so far. That you demand even harsher punishment and censorship of all opponents and critics. Mrs Leyen, please do one service to Europe. Get out of here! You're not the boss of Europe. Europe belongs to the people, not to you.

Madam President, wake up. When will you finally understand that half-naked men marching in dog masks are really a threat to moral development for children. I absolutely support the decision of the Hungarian government and it will not change the fact that this progressive colleague Esztergom was there with her friends Yar, Jourová or even Greek Thunberg, waving rainbow flags to make it look like that march in Budapest is supported by anyone at all. It will not change the wrongness of that rainbow ideology, nor will it change the fact that Commissioner Lahbib decides to push literally 1.5 billion into LGBT NGOs and projects to spark the appearance of public support for this rainbow ideology. We support the decision of Hungary, but also Bulgaria, to protect children in schools from the rainbow agenda, and the only thing I regret is that we do not yet have such a law in Slovakia.

Madam President, Mrs Leyen, you will destroy the European Union. And I am convinced that the European Union will collapse soon because you are doing everything you can to make it happen. Please be aware of what you are asking of Slovakia and Hungary. You will come and tell us to approve the eighteenth package of anti-Russian sanctions and finally cut off the bad Russian oil and the bad Russian gas. But these hydrocarbons are absolutely important, vital for Slovak industry and economy. Without it, our industry would either not work or not be competitive. Mr. Šefčovič, and you are sitting here and you know it, and I urge you to stand up a little bit more for Slovakia in this matter. Then the allies from the west will come and tell us that we need to put 5% of GDP on weapons and on road construction, on which tanks will go from west to east, as Mr Zdechovský said. No, no! Thank you, that's enough. We just don't want this. And I wonder why the Slovak prime minister did not block those anti-Russian sanctions definitively, because we would have done it a long time ago. And I am not surprised by the Slovaks who are starting to call for neutrality, because they certainly did not imagine such a future in the European Union.

Most mainstream journalists don't write objectively. That's not what I say, that's what citizens say, people who don't trust these media because they see a clear contradiction between what they read in the media and what they see on the street. And it concerns whether it is war policy, green policy, rainbow policy, immigration policy of the European Union. People see that the reality is completely different from what journalists write and therefore they do not believe them and the Digital Services Act will not help either. It is the fault of journalists who have simply misappropriated their mission.

Mr President, unfortunately most of those so-called mainstream media outlets are now an absolute cesspool, and unfortunately most of those so-called journalists today cannot even pronounce the word objectivity. Normally, I think the blue screen will pop up, like when Windows collapses. Let's look at the facts, my friends. In Slovakia, three-quarters of citizens do not trust mainstream media, according to surveys. Three-quarters of people simply don't believe them, not because journalists aren't free or don't have enough protection. This is because they are arrogant and lie. They lied about Iraq, they lied about COVID, they lied about war, they lied about immigrants, they lied about patriots, they lied about everything. That's why people don't believe them. Many of these mainstream media outlets literally act as the press bodies of the progressives or the press bodies of Brussels, and they no longer even try to look objective. And that's why no one trusts the mainstream media anymore, and people are looking for the truth on the internet, which is free anyway.

Madam President, Commissioner Kallas. We all know that you are known for your fanatical anti-Russian hatred. But I am still surprised that you have the courage to come here and ask citizens to practically double their spending on defence, on weapons, on missiles, on submachine guns. At a time when the European Union is ahead of the BRICS in economic growth practically everywhere in the world. At a time when European citizens have to face record consolidation and increased costs, you come up with a brilliant idea to put twice as much money on guns and squeeze out what else you can. But of course we can't agree with this, and I'd be interested, and say out loud, who are all these weapons supposed to be targeting? That needs to be said out loud to people. Tell me out loud who's going to fight all those guns. Because your sons, my friends, will not. You'd be the first to make exceptions for them. And tell me out loud, who's going to pay for all that gun spending? So for these reasons, of course, we cannot support an increase in arms spending. This is at the expense of the standard of living.

Mr President, the men in Slovakia have asked me to tell you to Brussels that they are already fed up with Greek Thunberg and her childish ideas, that they are fed up with the European Green Deal and your orders and prohibitions. And yes, I'll admit that I'm also a normal guy who likes normal cars, who likes the smell of gasoline, the sound of powerful engines, tractors, sports cars, and the symbol of the freedom they represent. Do you know what bothers me the most? The hypocrisy you often show here. When you talk about the need for public transport or the need to ban people from choosing the car that suits them best, President Leyen herself takes a private plane 40 kilometres away. Do you think that's okay? We also support public transport. We are not opposed to electromobility, but the freedom of individual transport and the freedom to choose the car that suits you best must be preserved. Therefore, when we are in power, we will definitely lift the ban on internal combustion engines that the European Commission is still pushing for.

Madam President, after the insults and arrogance shown in Slovakia by MEP Zdechovský in his so-called monitoring mission, the European Union has lost any moral right to teach someone how to live. The same applies to the rule of law and transparency. Because how the European Commission can teach someone about some kind of transparency, when European Commission President Leyen herself bought vaccines for 30 billion euros in text messages, and no one cares, no one cares. Nothing has happened to her so far. Please. The same is true of the current case, where the European Commission is preparing to declare Slovakia and Hungary on the issue of Russian gas supplies. And simply, if Slovakia and Hungary do not want to cut off vital for our Russian gas supply industry, then the European Commission has said that it will let us vote by qualified majority. The question is, is this democracy? Is this the European Union that you promised us and that we entered into? I think definitely not. And the first place to start cleaning up and supervising and upholding the rule of law should be Brussels and the European Commission.

I'm sorry, but have you really gone crazy here in Brussels? While you are sending such incredible billions to a corrupt Ukraine, European citizens have to pay two to three times the price of energy. Commissioners, you are restricting people's freedom, you are restricting the import and export of technology. You are imposing sanctions on uranium, on oil, on gas, sanctions that harm Europe more than any Russia. You are imposing meaningless economic regulations that are destroying our industry and forcing us to import more and more things from abroad. Stop lying to us and tell us who really drives you. Who are you really serving? Because Europe is not. Because if you serve Europe, you are trying to make sure that citizens, people, industry have the cheapest energy possible so that they can live as well as possible. Just as we plan to do in a Europe of sovereign nations.

Mr President, do you really think people can do this? Consolidation, increase in price, inflation. And now you are also asking for new European taxes from them. You live at least a little bit, Mr Hojsík, for example, in contact with reality, when you have the audacity to ask citizens for new taxes for Brussels. And tell me, why do we need more weapons, for immigrants, for high salaries for European Commissioners? Things that have failed so far? I don't think these are priorities. And you even have the audacity in that draft budget to demand the creation of a new European Union public administration with more staff and a higher budget, that is, even more officials with even higher salaries. Where are the apartments for young people? Where is the support of the traditional family, where is the leveling of the standard of living between our countries and the West? Nowhere. For the Slovaks, I say that we do not want to pay new and higher taxes for Ursula von der Leyen. We want to balance the standard of living of our countries with the West, because we already have Western prices.

I have no problem with the fact that the rainbow march was banned in Hungary. I think it's the right thing to do to protect society. I absolutely fully support this, because at events where there is an explicit sexualization of their orientation, simply, such things in public have no space. Dot.

Madam President, progressive colleagues, please, what problem do you have that Hungarians do not want immigrants on their territory and rainbow propaganda in their schools? Well, what? Well, what? It is their right, they have the right to decide, and I fully support it. And I firmly believe that in Slovakia, too, there will one day be a government that will officially reject the immigration pact and also officially ban rainbow propaganda among children in schools, and will also have the courage to vote for peace at the European Council. Please save yourself these rumors about some rule of law, because in France they annulled the election just because, or they annulled the possibility of running for Mrs Le Pen just because you were afraid that she would win. In Romania, you annulled the entire election because your candidate did not win. And you're going to talk about some kind of rule of law. Save yourself this hypocritical theater. We all know that this is not about the rule of law at all. It's just a clean, clean policy. Begin by finally respecting the sovereignty of individual states.

I ask you, what independent medium is Radio Free Europe, which was paid directly by the government of the United States of America? Elon Musk himself, a man from the United States of America, says: ‘Yes, turn them off! Europe is free now, if we do not count the suffocating bureaucracy. No one listens to them anymore. It's just radical left-wing fools talking to themselves and spending a billion dollars a year on American taxpayers' money. Definitely not. Definitely not. So I'm very clear about turning them off.

Mr President, please help farmers in Slovakia struggling with foot-and-mouth disease, rather than paying unnecessary donors from independent media. You know, when I hear the word independent mainstream media, I'm just laughing at it, because your mainstream media is actually the opposite of independence. You silence and destroy independent opinions, censor social networks, fine companies that don't want to mislead censorship, ban alternative media, and label any other opinion as spreading extremism, disinformation, or Russian propaganda. What independent media is Radio Free Europe?

Thank you, colleague, for the question, but I will answer in Slovak. We want to end the war. Yes, we want to restore Russian gas supplies. Your sanctions policy has been extremely unsuccessful. It has not produced any results so far. Only now are there reports that Ukraine is losing, losing the Kurdish region. So all these solutions that have been presented here so far were simply unsuccessful, invalid, did not work. Unfortunately, that is reality. That's what we see on the front. We see it in Ukraine and the United States of America has realized it, the rest of the world has realized it, and I would like Europe to finally realize it.

(Beginning of the speech outside the microphone) ...must be abolished, not further strengthened. Please, wake up to reality, you're playing some moralists here. You say that Central Europe must cut itself off from bad Russian gas, but you yourself import record quantities of liquefied LNG gas into Western countries directly from the Russian Federation. Because of your Greendeal green policy and sanctions policy, we have the most expensive energy prices in Europe, in the whole world. Gas is five times more expensive than in the United States, and you are now saying that more sanctions are needed and that gas is even more expensive. Is this your plan? Is this your offer for European industry, for European citizens? Even more costly, even more problems, even more liquidation of European companies? We do not agree with this in any way and ask for the exact opposite: Abolish the nonsensical energy sanctions. Let companies have the opportunity to choose the cheapest supplier, for me from all over the world, but let citizens and European industry have affordable, cheap energy.

Madam President, colleagues, when I saw that Leyen was presenting an even more devastating Green Deal 2, I did not believe my own eyes. I normally believe that the European Commission has either gone mad or is corrupted from outside to simply destroy European industry for the benefit of, I don't know, China, the United States of America or anyone else, because it makes absolutely no sense for any sane person, sane politician after having caused the Green Deal to destroy the European economy and lead to a rise in energy prices, for any sane politician to continue this environmental policy at a time when the United States and China are running away from it. What doesn't work, let's do even more. You write that decarbonisation is becoming not only an environmental objective, but also our growth strategy. What growth strategy? However, due to decarbonisation, we have the most expensive energy prices in the world in Europe. Industrial producers should limit production according to the cost of electricity. So people will be waiting at home for the sun to start shining and solar panels to work to make electricity cheaper. This is not a plan for economic growth, this is a plan for disaster, and stop it. Stop this senseless green policy.

Madam President, Mrs Leyen, do you want to buy weapons for 800 billion euros? Please don't hide behind the scenes and show us how you bought vaccines, because I believe that under your guise, buying weapons will be just another huge mega-fraud against Europeans. And I would also be interested to know who should fight with all the weapons purchased, because for Europeans this will only mean further militarisation, further indebtedness, further consolidation and further increase in price. I regret that once again only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the only one who opposed this war plan of Leyen at the summit, that all the others – Macron, Scholz, Fiala, Fico and others – voted in favour of increasing European military and financial assistance to Zelensky instead of joining Trump's plan and pushing Zelensky into peace negotiations. They betrayed and disappointed many voters. I can guarantee that we will not support the military plan in the vote of Leyen and will not betray our constituents.

The murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée was tragic and inexcusable. There is no doubt about that. However, I sometimes regret that this murder is still politically abused, often for literally uncharacteristic political campaigns, such as in the case of the Slovak opposition or in the case of a former police director who, under the picture of Martin on a cloud, presented the persecution of inconvenient police officers or even the persecution of the political opposition. I find it a little sad that Slovak media often use the case of Martina and Kuciak , i.e. Martina and Ján Kuciak , to defend their bias. In any case, much more than some political gestures or political abuse of this monument, I would be interested, colleagues from Progressive Slovakia, in particular, to investigate the case, revealing the real commissioner of the murder, who unfortunately remains secret to this day.

Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I think that President Donald Trump has today presented many measures that could also inspire the European Union. Launching deportations of illegal immigrants, recognizing only two genders and improving the protection of women, stopping it gender ideologies, for example in sporting events, tightening the fight against drugs, suspending foreign aid until it is shown where this foreign aid is actually going. This also applies to Ukraine. Last but not least, the restoration of freedom of speech and the cessation of state censorship. I think all the right things. Sure, President Trump's pushing these things, this agenda, into reality isn't going to be easy. But if the people of the United States have done it, I firmly believe that this change will gradually come to Europe, to the European Union. And let me say for myself, I look forward to the day when we, together with our colleagues, will announce similar changes in the European Union here in the European Parliament.

on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. - (DE) Madam President, liberal colleagues, please do not make fools of people on social networks and do not play as if you are trying to protect democracy by imposing censorship. Some of my colleagues mentioned independents. fact-checkers. I would like to remind you that in Germany it is the so-called Germany. fact-checking some Ahmed Heikel Ghaffar, a Muslim, by the way, and in Slovakia this is the responsibility of an NGO, which is paid for and financed directly by the European Commission. What kind of independence are you talking about, please? Social media owners themselves admit that they are being pressured into censorship by governments. Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that the U.S. government was pushing him to censor negative information about... (objection) Shut up, please.

Madam President, this debate is ridiculous. Your liberal war candidates are losing, and you can only blame the young and call for TikTok censorship. Colleagues, but do not blame the young, blame yourself and your agenda first for the fact that people already vote differently and that they no longer want you. You are accusing yourself of ruining the future for young people with your green pro-war punitive policy, of making everything more expensive because of your policy, of houses normally costing 200, 300 or more thousand euros and young people cannot afford it. And that's why they reject you, not because of TikTok or because of some social networks. Look for the culprits in the first place. You have detached yourself from reality, you have ceased to listen to ordinary people's problems, and only from above you moralize and instruct everyone how to live, what to think, what is right, what is wrong, how to choose their life path. Let it be up to the people to decide what future they imagine in their countries and stop moralizing with or without TikTok. People simply choose, and the truth always wins in the end.

Mr President, a little while ago, I saw shocking footage from Germany, where thousands of Syrian immigrants marched through the Christmas markets shouting Allah Akbar. Once again. Thousands of Syrian migrants through Christmas markets filled with beautiful stalls, Christmas trees, parents and children looking forward to Christmas. And I ask you, is this the Europe you want people to just be afraid to go to the Christmas markets? But now there's a chance for change. You say there is a democratic government in Syria. All right, let's try. It's high time. Just as the European Union helped those immigrants to enter the territory of the European Union, it helped them to ensure their return home. To all those youngsters who are shouting in European cities. All those immigrants who left their wives and children in the war and fled to Europe. Help to come back. Let us do a good deed once again and help clear them out of Europe.