Speeches

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Italy is under unprecedented migratory pressure and is at risk of exploding illegal immigrants, while Europe continues to do well with the borders of others, namely our own. Commissioner Johansson probably didn't even notice, so busy doing the stocking as she is. Germany, probably in the company of other European countries, has funded NGOs to bring immigrants to Italy. It's so good to be good with the boundaries of others. The resources promised to Tunisia have not arrived, if not in small part. Clearly, human rights must be respected. But this did not apply to Erdoğan, to whom we have given more than 20 billion euros over the years. Human rights were not worth it there. We Italians can not carry out pushbacks. Judges have rejected the government's request to send some migrants back to Tunisia because they appeal European standards. Here, the European standards have stewed the Italians. The Italians are fed up and the patience of the Italians will end before the sock of Johansson.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in twenty years Europe has released tens of billions of euros to Turkey for pre-accession funds to the European Union. Sultan Erdoğan used this river of money for his own propaganda, to threaten Europe with migrants, to Islamize the country more and more and to repress human rights. I do not read in the report an acknowledgment of the total failure of the European Union's policies towards Turkey, but only the usual good-will attitude on the possibility of allowing it to enter Europe. Fortunately, the rapporteur, Mr Sánchez Amor, spoke of a dying accession process to Turkey. But you noticed it a little late: The league has been saying that for 20 years. And then, before tomorrow's vote, I advise you to read "La masseria delle laodole" once again, which is the most beautiful novel ever written in history about the Armenian genocide. That Armenian genocide of one and a half million people that Erdoğan continues to deny: He says it's been over a hundred years now, so it's not worth talking about. A part of Cyprus is still occupied militarily and any of you still have doubts that Turkey is not Europe?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Timmermans, I wonder why we are pursuing such masochistic policies in Europe that penalise the jobs of European citizens? I come from Tuscany, I live near Pontedera. In Pontedera there is the Piaggio factory, where the legendary Vespa is produced. Here, they started to produce the electric Vespa. Visitors went to visit the plant and in the production line of the electric Vespa there was almost no one. Will they be on strike? No, they are not on strike, it is that for the electric one needs, in the production line, a third of the workers that would serve for the internal combustion engine. Among other things, the internal combustion engine was born in Tuscany, in Pietrasanta. I wonder what our great entrepreneurs in history – Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Enrico Piaggio – who have created millions of jobs together with many other European entrepreneurs, who have made the history of the world and European economy in this regard, would think? They created jobs, you, who also belong to the Workers' Party, should change party, because you create unemployed!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the solution based on peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians is the only possible solution to the conflict. Certainly, however, we do not get there by accusing Israel and putting it once again in the dock, because to talk about peace it is first of all necessary to re-establish the truth. The failure of the European Union is to have given hundreds of millions of euros for years to the Palestinian Authority without asking for anything in return and without even checking where that river of money actually went. We know well that most of that money ends up in the pockets of the Oligarchs of the Palestine Liberation Organization and still others come to Hamas that turns them into weapons for terror, while the civilian population gets almost nothing. Europe needs to find a new approach, we need control and intransigence. Leftist groups, with the usual ideological approach, call Israel an occupying power. Once again, the European left is ready to justify and finance radical Palestinian groups, denying the right to self-defense exercised by the government of Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East. This is a report that fuels racism against Israel and contains crazy ideas, such as the one promoting the boycott of the products of Judea and Samaria; This practice is reminiscent of the atrocious affixing of signs of infamy to Jewish shops. The creeping anti-Semitism that lingers in some of these amendments is repulsive. We will not vote on this resolution tomorrow. I hope that the moderate line will prevail over certain extremist positions that for years, not firmly condemning Hamas terrorism, have in fact backed it.

Madam President, I would like to appeal to Rule 10 of our Rules of Procedure because an unfortunate event happened in the LIBE Committee on 23 May. We were talking about the events in Cutro, the shipwreck of a migrant boat and 94 deaths; During this session, and therefore an important debate, while the parliamentarians of the centre-right groups were speaking, the German MEP Birgit Sippel showed the middle finger to the centre-right parliamentarians, in great contempt of the victims and of the important topic we were talking about. That is why, Mr President, I would ask you to take steps to restore the good repute of the sittings of the committees of the European Parliament and to sanction the Socialist MEP Sippel.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, trust is fundamental in politics because, if the citizen does not trust the institutions and their representatives, the institutions are less representative and therefore weaker. Corruption has existed since the existence of public power and is one of the most detestable human vices. The Qatargate affair was probably the biggest scandal to hit this Parliament. It is a story that investigators are still investigating but that poses a fundamental question: The European left has always boasted of a certain moral superiority, which is evidently non-existent. The beautiful words such as defense of rights, protection of the last, contrasting injustices are zero against the images of the briefcases swollen with money. Worse, they become hypocrisy. Corruption is a threat to our economy; when companies pay bribes to obtain contracts or to avoid penalties, this can lead to an increase in costs or a decrease in the quality of the products and services offered. The corrupt pollute civilized life and that is why politics has the task and the duty to isolate them, but the solution is not to add rules, quibbles, bureaucracy, so as to make bureaucrats stronger and more powerful, but to simplify the rules for honest people who want to work and test themselves. Simplifying the rules and reducing the weight of the state in the lives of citizens is the solution.

That's exactly what I told you. In the Middle Ages there were no industries, there was no industrial revolution, but it is precisely thanks to the industrial revolution and, let's say it, also thanks to emissions, that progress makes us live up to ninety years and we do not die at twenty. Unfortunately it has contraindications, of course, the industrial revolution has pollution, but without that industrial revolution you would not be here today, we would not have come by car, we would not return home by plane. You want to go back to the Middle Ages, that's the problem. I agree that an ecological transition must take place, but we must do so at the right time, not by impoverishing people, not by degrowth. That's not the answer. The answer is progress.

Mr President, climate change also divides the scientific community: According to some scholars, the transformations of the climate are part of the natural alternation of the phases that make up the history of the world, according to others, they jeopardize the future of the planet. However you see it, it is certain that our society, since the industrial revolution, pollutes more. There are those who say that, in order to respond, humanity must "decrease", as consumption and as lifestyles. They are those of happy degrowth, but when has degrowth ever been happy throughout history? In the Middle Ages no one would discuss CO2 emissions and environmentalists in 1200 would all be unemployed. There are those who say that the human population itself must decrease, because humanity itself is not an opportunity, but a problem. They are the same, not surprisingly, that smear the works of art and everything comes back: It is nihilism. I reject this approach that leads nowhere. The answer to the pollution of the planet is more development, not less. Today we are fortunate to have, for example, robots that collect plastic in the sea and clean up our rivers. We have the engineering of the purifiers, which only fifty years ago were unimaginable. The technological and energy transition can happen, but it must be done in the right time, otherwise we risk impoverishing people and starving them, not overheating. We have the opportunity to live in balance with nature and face climate change without succumbing, the solution is technology, progress, without hysteria and without catastrophism. Between Elon Musk and Greta Thunberg I choose Musk. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Look in Italy we have seen the captain, your captain Carola Rackete, ram the Italian Coast Guard and thus perform an act never seen before. We have seen in Italy in recent months – because you may not know why we are here discussing the emergency in Italy – we have seen 31,000 migrants arrive in Italy precisely because your reception policy would like more and more of them. He attacked the government because they don't get enough? How many do you want in Europe have you not told us, how many immigrants do you want to bring to Europe? Tell that to the citizens. More, more, more and more.

Mr President, the debate on migration is always an ideological battleground. Not even on the title of this debate did you agree and the left wanted to change it because it did not want the word emergency in the title. So does what is happening in Italy seem normal to you? Think that in Italy there is discussion because the left does not want repatriation centers. A regional councillor in Tuscany – and I also heard this evening from the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani – defined the CPRs of the camps as for the Jews, thus offending the memory of the Shoah and of all the people of Israel. Improper comparisons, instrumentalization, ideology only create problems and do not allow us to find solutions. Instead, the way forward is always the same, starting from legality. Irregular immigration causes deaths at sea. I've never heard of an immigrant with a regular visa taking the plane, dying on the trip. That is why joint solutions must be found. Also military operations in defense of legality. European credibility is at stake. Help us stop the smugglers, help us stop the migrants, help us facilitate orderly immigration and help us save lives in the Mediterranean. There is a need in Europe to firmly reaffirm the right of member countries to decide who can enter our home. We must be able to welcome those who want to work and integrate. There is no room for others. It is a cultural, economic and social battle. Europe must return to defending its roots, its values and its borders and it can do so precisely by helping Italy, where European culture has its ancient roots. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what is discrimination? The dictionary says that it is a distinction made following a judgment or classification. And do you know what the paradox of this anti-discrimination directive is? The paradox is that this directive has too many classifications but not enough. For example, to the abbreviation LGBTQ you had to add the "plus" because you had finished the letters of the alphabet to classify diversity. But the world is made up of diversity, of individuals, each different from the other. And how will you classify them all in your tables? Inevitably, someone will stay out and end up discriminated against. What do most of the world's constitutions say? That all men are equal? Let us return to this principle that is shareable and sacrosanct and let us try to give everyone equal opportunities, which does not mean ad hoc laws for every individual in the world. Standards must be general and abstract in order to work. States have blocked this directive because the problems of implementation are concrete and those concrete problems are those that citizens face every day and which politics should deal with more.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, two months ago one of the most dangerous bosses of the Italian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested. An important achievement that must be dedicated to the memory of the law enforcement agencies that lost their lives to fight crime. Two above all: Falcone and Borsellino, martyrs of the mafia massacres. Today, organised crime acts in an increasingly branched manner and uses new technologies. But as always he does business exploiting the weakest: Vulnerable and blackmailable immigrants are most often employed as labourers in European cities. Crime first asks him for €8,000 or €9,000 to get to Europe and then continues its chain of exploitation. Many of them end up doing cheap jobs, without a contract and in the worst cases end up on our streets begging, stealing, selling or prostituting themselves. This is why the Italian government recently decided to increase the penalties for smugglers up to 30 years in prison. Those who make money on the skin of the weakest do not deserve indulgence. To combat crime, we must have confidence in the law and especially in those who are responsible for enforcing it. Just criminalize our police forces, as the left has done in recent years. Our policemen need support and resources.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago the red flags of the former Soviet Union were flying over Russian tanks invading Ukraine. An unequivocal message to the whole West, an attack on freedom, on the territorial integrity of a sovereign state. Europe had to stand up, and we stood up for the freedom, sovereignty and dignity of the Ukrainian people. Twelve months later, however, the risk of the conflict turning into a perpetual freeze is high. A very dangerous situation, which we must avert, for Ukrainian civilians, the first victims of this war, and for our companies and our citizens, who are suffering from the rise in bills and goods. Could Europe have done more to achieve the goal of peace? If the solution to accelerate the conflict was to send more weapons, why didn't we do it right away? I think that the diplomatic solution and also the diplomatic path must be followed and we must work on it together. The forward escapes of the first of the class do not guarantee the promotion of the whole class, but only the awareness that, once again, it is divided. And that is really Putin's goal.

Mr Bartolo, however, your words are certainly ideologised, because you know very well that putting rules on NGOs means putting rules also on the protection of migrants. Who, in your opinion, should take care of the reception, of private NGOs, which in many cases have also been investigated for having then taken undue money to collect as many migrants as possible? These are sea smugglers, they are not people who save migrants. To save migrants it is necessary to implement policies in the countries of origin and not to take the whole of Africa. Because all of Africa, Mr. Bartolo...

Thank you Silvia Sardone for allowing me to respond to some of the speeches that have been made in this House. Perhaps Mrs Strik and other colleagues are not informed about what happened in Italy. Mimmo Lucano was not condemned because he is on the left and therefore he was a champion of justice. He was condemned because with the money destined to the reception we made the villa, because he distracted the money destined to the reception and other myths of the left, unfortunately, perhaps your Italian colleagues did not inform you, they steal the money destined to the reception to put them in their own pockets, such as the Soumahoro case. So please find out more, because these myths of yours do not do a good service to the European left.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let us start with the title of this debate on the criminalisation of rescue at sea. Do you think that laying down rules means criminalizing? Let me give you an example: On board ambulances there are doctors and volunteers who save millions of lives every day, yet, rightly, they are subjected to rules, protocols, procedures. No one would ever dream of saying that we must remove any kind of rule, because the rules save lives and help everyone to manage our coexistence in a more orderly way. Why should NGOs at sea be an exception? That the presence of NGOs at sea is a factor of attraction is scientifically proven. Lately there has been a joint study by scholars from the University of Turin, Cagliari and Houston that confirms this. Migrants, if they are comforted by the presence of NGOs at sea, leave with less safe means and precarious boats, thus increasing the possibility of shipwreck. The duty of a good minister and a good ruler is to protect the security of a country. Matteo Salvini is on trial for having defended the borders of Italy and therefore of Europe, for having rendered a service to Europe. At trial, however, there should go all those NGOs that agree with the smugglers to land irregular immigrants on our coasts. To have private bodies such as NGOs manage immigration is to sign off on the failure of European policies. Politics goes back to politics, to defending borders and its citizens. Otherwise, those citizens who think that this Europe is useless or, at worst, harmful to our security are right. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today in the Italian press finally comes the news of the closure requested by the judges of Milan with regard to the investigation into Russian funds to the League. We have always supported it: The League, Matteo Salvini have never seen a ruble, but here in Europe there was someone on the left who wanted to find the friends of the Russians, he wanted to accuse us of international corruption, when instead there was corruption at home. Someone should apologize and I am happy that the League's position in recent years has always been firmly in favor of the Western bloc to support the Ukrainian people, unjustly the victim of a military invasion. This is the position of the Italian government. I am proud, in this sense, that the new center-right government has given a very clear signal, promoting the working group "Ukraine electrical emergency", which has already had 53 tons of material to rebuild the country's electricity grid, fundamental to ensure the survival of Ukrainians. We agree with the establishment of the Special Tribunal for crimes committed by the Russian side, because the massacre of civilians, women and children must always find justice, in the hope that a peace agreement will soon be reached in 2023.

Mr President, High Representative, ladies and gentlemen, the challenge of dictatorships to democracies has begun again. We need unity of purpose in all democracies, even outside the borders of the European Union. That is why it is really important to forge stronger cooperative ties with the US, with Israel and with Asian democracies that share our values. But is this unity of purpose really achieved by the principle of unanimity? Do we also want to take important decisions against the interests of minority member countries? Europe is strong because it is plural. Europe is strong when the nations that make it up are strong. We must never confuse unity with unification and centralization. We have decided to prioritise the defence of our eastern flank. And that's right. But I see little interest in the Mediterranean. And there are still ongoing conflicts in Libya, in Syria. We must fight against the hostile influences of Russia and China. That's right. But everyone has to clean their house. Qatargate shows that an important part of European politics has been bought by countries that violate human rights. A plural and free Europe. Free from all hostile influences, with no exceptions affected. This is the Europe we want.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are talking about a very important report, because the Libyan issue is a geopolitical, energy and migration time bomb. Unfortunately, the same European powers that brought down and toppled Gaddafi's dictatorship set off that bomb that explodes now in our hands, without having a plan on how to rebuild Libya afterwards. After many years, no international actor has yet an idea of how to solve the Libyan problem and the international community is content, on the skin of Libyans, to have crystallized a civil war. Libya is exactly on the southern border of Europe and NATO. While Europe is rightly committed to defending the north-eastern front, we are neglecting the front on the Mediterranean. Foreign powers such as Russia and Turkey are taking control of Libya and unfortunately here too Europe comes last to understand and resolve issues that geopolitically are strategic for our continent. We have already seen in other contexts how immigration is used as a weapon of blackmail. Do we want to allow the main port of departure of illegal immigration to Europe to be controlled by others? We more than anyone else would need to protect the southern side of our continent. Talking about Libya in this House means talking about issues such as political stability, the role of hydrocarbons and the immediate stop to migratory flows. Italy cannot take on the commitment to stop illegal immigration to Europe alone, as ministers Piantedosi and Salvini are already doing, we need identification centres in Libya run by international organizations and we need to finance Frontex to fight human traffickers. We claim a leading role in the Mediterranean. Stopping traffickers on beaches does not endanger anyone, except the business of the traffickers themselves and their protectors at all levels. Perhaps the time has come for the whole international community, even Europe in the first place, to go to Libya once and for all to fix the mess it has created.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is true that racism exists in Europe. It exists in the abandoned suburbs, where the poor go to war for a subsidy or a people's home. A battle between the last, where those who participate do not play to win but fight to survive. It is the racism of the world of the vanquished. But there is also another, more subtle racism. It is the racism of restricted traffic areas, that of radical chic; the racism of the centre that discriminates against racists on the periphery; the racism of those with the 40 000 euro electric machine against those who pollute with the car in 2005 to diesel that can not change; Racism against those who do not have the inclusive vocabulary of those who have studied in exclusive schools. You who talk about "including" and have extended a cordon sanitaire to colleagues, in here, who do not think like you. This relationship is full of words that are incomprehensible to those living on the margins. They don't understand you and you don't understand them. We will not vote for this report not because we do not share the fight against racism, but because we do not share its hypocrisy. Pier Paolo Pasolini said: Racism is unconscious class hatred. And he was right.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, many years ago now, Europe decided to remove the internal borders that separated the Member States, in order to develop the exchange of goods and people on a continental level. A choice that has favored the development of networks, infrastructure and trade within the different European areas. Well-being and economic development, however, are not achieved unless they are accompanied by respect for a fundamental duty: security. The empire of Rome was based on the Roman pax, which guaranteed the peoples within it to prosper, while the emperor's legions guarded its borders, administering the possibility for the barbarians to access or not. When the security of borders failed, the prosperity of peoples also failed. Let us then ask ourselves how we intend to administer and defend this European pax if we renounce internal security and the defence of external borders. For years, the countries bordering the Mediterranean have been those that regulate the entrances that then pour across Europe. In the years that he ruled the left, the policies of indiscriminate reception brought in hundreds of thousands of irregulars. Now, fortunately for us, right at the southern border of Europe, the League in Italy has returned to government and this immense work of control and surveillance of our European borders will be done by us Italians. We expect your support.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I have heard many fine words, but I would like to tell you a story. In Pisa, in the 2000s - in Pisa and Tuscany the left ruled for many years - with the funds of the European Community for about one billion of the old liras, 500 000 euros, villas were built to overcome a Roma camp that had hundreds and hundreds of inhabitants. Well, what happened? That these houses were built, among other things very beautiful, completely disassembled to resell the pieces by the same inhabitants, by the same occupants of the houses, and a few years ago in that village they arrested an entire family that had forced a fifteen-year-old to a forced marriage and had practically kept her segregated with violence and unspeakable abuse. That project, which then gave rise to incredible illegality, was financed with money from the European Community. But I ask myself and I ask you: Don't you know the old saying that if you want to feed a man you don't have to give him a fish but you have to teach him how to fish?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, there are many beautiful words in this accessibility report: rights, respect, sensitivity, civilization. Unfortunately, good words are not always followed by deeds, not even in the European Parliament, not even in the building that should be accessible to everyone more than any other. I want to tell you about a direct experience. I've been wanting to hire Michela for months. Michela is a girl from Florence, intelligent but on a wheelchair, and should come here to do the intern. Unfortunately, after a long and exhausting search, Michela was unable to find an affordable apartment in Brussels and Parliament did not know how to help her. Yet Michela would only like to do an internship like so many of her peers. I'll get you a copy of this report. The internship for now can not do it, but in the meantime you can console yourself by reading these beautiful words. I have written to the President of our Parliament, Roberta Metsola, to denounce this matter. In the meantime, we really try to help disabled people and their families who would like to be able to live with dignity thanks to the real support of the institutions.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, small and medium-sized enterprises are the fundamental artery of Europe and also of Italy: think that in Italy they are 92 % of the total number of companies operating and employ 82 % of Italian workers. I visited some small and medium-sized enterprises last week, in Tuscany, in the footwear sector, in Santa Maria a Monte: 70% goes to exports. And what are these companies asking for? These companies are clearly asking for help on their bills, which now have exorbitant costs that have a major impact on their budgets; They ask to be helped in accessing credit, because banks often do not even finance solid companies and therefore do not have the opportunity to invest. But here we must not make ideology, because two days ago this Parliament voted on the strategy on deforestation. Rightly so: But among those products that Parliament believes encourage deforestation are leather, which is a waste product and therefore helps the circular economy that Europe should absolutely help. So let us not be hypocritical and, above all, when we vote for measures, let us vote for them without ideology, because European businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises cannot die of bureaucracy.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the arrest of Monsignor Álvarez and some seminarians is only the latest of the persecutions carried out by the Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega. Just as in Cuba, Latin America is dominated by a self-styled left-wing democracy that over time has become a ruthless dictatorship. Unfortunately, in the world we are still forced to witness situations with countries where the people are slaves to dictators: defenders and guardians of social, human and economic rights but in fact people like Ortega: repression, violence, kidnapping, extortion and corruption. This is happening today in Nicaragua, in 2022, where reports of non-respect for human rights are no longer counted. In recent times, especially the representatives of the Catholic Church have been targeted, arrested or persecuted for their faith. In Nicaragua, between April 2018 and May 2022, religious were the victims of as many as 190 attacks; In the past year alone, the Ortega regime has banned nearly 400 non-profit organizations, many of them linked to the Catholic Church, depriving them of their legal status. Missionary sisters working alongside the poor expelled from the country; incarcerated priests; non-profit organizations related to the suppressed Catholic Church. I imagine that, if all this had happened in another country, anyone here would have mobilized in defense of freedom, democracy and law. Do we still want to wait for a new martyr bishop to join the many that the Latin American Church, unfortunately, has recorded in the last century? I am thinking of Monsignor Romero in Salvador and I do not want to believe that anyone wants to reject this obvious parallelism just because, instead of a ferocious military dictatorship, we are facing a ferocious socialist dictatorship. In Nicaragua, there are terrorists who have been fleeing justice for years. President Ortega, in fact, protects the Italian terrorist Alessio Casimirri, involved in the kidnapping and killing of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro and the murder of his guards. The Moro murder for us Italians is an event that has changed the history of the country and for decades Italians have been demanding that those responsible pay for their crimes, exactly as it was for Battisti, another red terrorist protected for years by the left-wing internationalist network and delivered from Brazil to Italy only thanks to President Bolsonaro. For the repression of that Catholic Church that is a victim every day, for the families of the dead because of terrorism, we ask for justice.