Speeches

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, if we take a map in our hands, we see that enlargement to the Balkans appears to be an unavoidable issue from a geopolitical point of view, yet the summit on the Balkans on 23 June last was a failure. None of the countries waiting today have seen substantial progress, to the great disappointment of all leaders the European Union has failed to deliver on its promises to the Western Balkans. The question arises spontaneously: In which direction does European foreign policy go? We open up to the enlargement of two nations such as Ukraine and Moldova on the eastern side, but we have not paid enough attention to what is happening at our center. Leaving a void at the borders of our space, if not even within itself, inevitably leaves a free field for other actors. In order to respond to the enlargement process in the Balkans, we must first ask ourselves who we are and what we want to do tomorrow. Give us a serious, clear, decisive answer, without deluding anyone.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the concern of Moldovan citizens since the conflict broke out in Ukraine is very high. Moldova is on the border with Ukraine and has been facing a very complicated situation for years with Transnistria, a piece of territory that has declared itself independent, but in fact under Russian influence. In Transnistria there are not only weapons depots, but also power plants that supply Moldova with energy and the presence of 2 000 Russian soldiers, plus 6 000 Transnistrian troops. Moldova is 100 percent dependent on Russian gas and for them an energy stop from Moscow would mean economic catastrophe. During the recent visit of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to Moldova, where I participated as a member, I had the opportunity to talk to the people. And there an average salary is 120 euros, gasoline has already touched 1.40 euros per liter. The country still has a highly rural economy and rising prices for agricultural diesel, fertilisers and seeds are likely to seriously jeopardise the economy as a whole. Despite widespread poverty, Moldova has shown great generosity. This small large country has hosted in its territory the highest number of war refugees in relation to its population. Even as a non-EU country, Moldova is still part of European culture. It shares our values and is linked to us by the Association Agreement. It is an increasingly important partner for Italy, with a trade exchange that in 2021 reached 520 million euros out of a Moldovan GDP of 12 billion. The courage shown by a young woman president, Maia Sandu, and a government led by another very enterprising young woman, Natalia Gavrilița, must be supported. In the total absence of female figures at the tables for the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the strength of the women of the governments on the border with the war is an element that must not be ignored. Let us take an example from their courage and do not ignore the very worrying signs that come from that border.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'God bless you, bless your family and Hungary'. This was said by Pope Francis to Viktor Orbán at the end of their conversation, after giving him a bronze medallion depicting St. Martin, protector of the poor. This beautiful meeting, full of meaning, was a real blow to the European left that for years has been trying to attack Hungary and Poland through the most devious means, simply because these nations have center-right governments. The announcement of the opening of the procedure for the violation of the rule of law comes just close to the victory of Viktor Orbán in the recent elections. This relentlessness towards fully legitimate governments is both absurd and harmful at this time. I want to remind you that in these dramatic days Poland has received three million refugees and Hungary half a million. That is why Europe should show its solidarity and not threaten unnecessary sanctions. We have heard so many legitimate concerns about respect for the rule of law in these two member countries, but we are underestimating a much more serious danger: breach of the principle of subsidiarity on which the Union is founded. Does the reform of Polish justice violate the spirit of the Treaties, undermining the principle of the division of powers? This is the question we have been asking ourselves in recent months and years, but I would invite everyone to another reflection: To what extent does the European Union have the power to interfere with judicial reforms in a Member State? Honestly, it also makes one laugh that parliamentarians in certain countries where judges are almost entirely answerable to the left allow themselves to judge Poland or Hungary. The same goes for the media, certainly in Hungary and Poland there are more pro-government media than anti-government media, but is it different in France or Italy? Absolutely not. The issue of gay rights is also rich. fake news. It is not true that civil unions are not recognised in Hungary. They are, but they are not in many other countries of the European Union, which strangely, however, are not in the sights of Brussels, obviously for other merits, perhaps of a political nature. If there is a distinctive feature of our European civilization that has allowed the affirmation of human rights, prosperity and a development that over the centuries has had no equal, it is thanks to pluralism. The peaceful and creative competition between different nations by language, tradition, even different legal systems, has made Europe great. Where centralism is sought, division and conflict are created. Prime Minister Orbán was elected for the fourth time in an absolutely regular election. Those who deny this and claim that Orbán is an adamant dictator at the head of a parafascist party should explain why Orbán has long been a valued leader within the EPP. In major European media immediately after Orbán's victory, a letter was published by a famous English commentator explaining how it was necessary to cut every European fund to Hungary because the Hungarian government uses the funds to help families and thereby gains popularity. It's crazy. A government that uses the funds to help families instead of being praised is criticized to the point of demanding punishment. The European Union must stop fighting the legitimate governments of the Member States politically, focus instead on defending our Europe from the enemies who threaten it, those who have always been at our door ready to attack and who you have always pretended not to see until they have entered our house.

Thanks to the colleague, who will surely get a good complaint and with this money we will pay maybe some Italian who, unfortunately, cannot access social housing because in Italy, unfortunately, social housing is given first to the Roma, in many cases, who skip the lists. Here, I'll tell you a story. Maybe there is no time and I hope to have another blue card, because at seven they took me to visit a Roma camp. Here, twenty years later, as mayor, that Roma camp, where there were children in the dirt and among the mice, I evicted it and I'm proud of it!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, there are many prejudices about the Roma people in Europe. The first and most discriminatory is that, according to the left, they cannot behave like other citizens who work, pay taxes, send their children to school and pay rent. I was the mayor and, for years, the leftist administrations that preceded me had kept a Roma camp in terrible hygienic conditions, between mice and dirt. And this happens in many other municipalities, because on the left there is the prejudice that tearing down the Roma camps is racist. It's a whole other thing! How can one think that, in order to respect the population, one must turn a blind eye to abuse, to the mistreatment of children, to hygienic and sanitary conditions? To truly integrate the Roma, we must treat them like all other ethnic groups and therefore, where there is abuse, we must activate the bulldozers of legality. The same bulldozers that, as Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini set in motion in Rome to bring down the mega villas of Casamonica, a mafia clan of resident Roma families who had built abusive villas thanks to the proceeds of organized crime. The challenge is precisely this: integration. Integrated Roma citizens living legally make no noise. They probably don't need specific laws or discussions like this to feel integrated. The noise, however, is made by those communities that, in order to have the pretext of continuing to live in the illegality of the camps, demand ad hoc laws and special recognition and millions and millions, and billions, as we have heard, of funding from the European Union. Equal rights and obligations for all: This is the real challenge to integration that we must bring to Europe. (The speaker agreed to answer a blue card question)

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, North Korea is the worst dictatorship in the world and it is no coincidence that it is a communist dictatorship. In December, for the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-Un's father, it was forbidden even to laugh, celebrate one's birthday, speak aloud in public, under penalty of arrest as enemies of the people. In North Korea, the kwanlisopolitical prison camps, which serve to control the population, not other than Gulag or by Laogai Chinese. These days the alliance between China, North Korea and Russia is being tightened. Why just in the days of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, did North Korea launch a missile 170 km from the coast of Japan? Have you not noticed that the communist countries are re-creating a blockade against the Western powers? In recent years we have become dependent on their gas, their manufacture, their raw materials. We fed them, probably some even thinking that after all, being communists, they were good, because we know that many, even here in Europe, have the positive prejudice on communism... "a good idea misapplied". No, dear comrades, communism is a very bad ideology and when applied to the letter it becomes lethal!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, those who, like us, are lucky enough to have been born in the third millennium have long believed that they live in peace and prosperity. Today the tragedy is in Ukraine, but only two years ago the drama knocked just a few hundred kilometers further south, in a handkerchief of land between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in a region, Artsakh, where in a few weeks thousands of innocents, soldiers and civilians have lost their lives, and where an invaluable cultural heritage is in danger. Also on this occasion, as in 1915, and as in 1938, we are faced with a crossroads of history: remain indifferent, passive spectators, or open your eyes to the systematic destruction of one of the oldest and most fascinating cultures in the world. History, as you know, is made by the people. But it's always the winners who write it. And when they do, the modus operandi It is ruthless and well-crafted: erase memory, deny history, create a parallel narrative and finally propaganda. The duty of the institutions, therefore our duty, is precisely greater where it is necessary to protect memory and to support those who, for fear of being retaliated, have not even been able to express their dissent towards Russia bombing Ukraine. We left them alone in the past and now they no longer want to expose themselves. Respecting the history of the vanquished, laying the foundations for building a future of respect and civil coexistence, admitting the atrocities of genocide. This is Europe. For this reason it is our duty to commit and commit UNESCO and all stakeholders to carry out, survey and protect the history and cultural heritage of Artsakh. The destruction of the historical heritage of a people violates the principles of democratic Europe, bringing back the clock of time to 1915 and the human being to repeat for the umpteenth time, once again, the same mistake.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Jefferson said that 'where the press is free and everyone knows how to read, there are no dangers'. The litmus test of our democracies is freedom of the press. Because the free press can be good or bad, but without freedom the press can be nothing but bad. Precisely for this reason what has been happening for years in Mexico is very worrying. Official figures provided by the Mexican government speak of 43 journalists killed from December 2018 to July 2021, and this unacceptable trend continues in 2022, with at least six journalists already murdered. Exactly two years ago I was in Mexico on an official Parliament mission. It is a country with ample possibilities for growth, it is the fifteenth economy in the world and is becoming over the years no longer a nation of emigrants in America but a destination for immigrants from South America. The problem of security and crime in the country is one of the main problems that serves as a cork to greater possibilities for development. In Mexico, 33 308 murders were recorded in 2021, and the official figure may be lower than the real one. A frightening budget, which underlines the inability of the Mexican authorities to cope with the emergency, is based on impunity. Usually those accused of murder are just pawns, the principals remain free and unpunished. The doubt is that all this is also due to the policies of Mexican Socialist President Obrador, who is not very effective in fighting criminals. On the other hand, it prefers to invest in socialist policies, which block the development of the country, rather than in the repression of violent crimes. His shaky statements condemning Putin's Ukrainian invasion resemble dangerously the pro-Russia stance of the communist dictators of Venezuela and Cuba. This House has a duty to condemn the lenient attitude of those in power to take drastic measures and impose an urgent strategy to protect the safety and freedom of these professionals. We must act now, so that no reporter has to die and the fundamental right to information can be guaranteed again in Mexico.

In this book there are the faces of young people and they are just some of the 120 000 political opponents killed by the regime. 30 000 of them were executed in the summer of 1988, following one by Khomeini. Boys and girls, mostly students, killed in their prime by an unscrupulous regime. These women who fight for the freedom of their people are very brave, because they cannot even call their family members in Iran because they risk sending them to the gallows. From the choice of Ebrahim Raisi to the office of President there has been a significant increase in the number of executions, with over 270 people hanged, including 11 women. Raisi was a member of the death commission in 1988, ordered thousands of death sentences and, in his capacity as head of the judiciary, ordered the suppression and killing of protesters in 2019. We Members of the European Parliament call on the High Representative to reiterate to Iran that any improvement in economic relations must be conditional on the cessation of Iran's blatant human rights violations, including its arbitrary use of the death penalty. We think of many political prisoners such as Mrs. Maryam Akbari Monfared, in prison for 13 years, without a single day of leave, because she opposed the execution of her brother and sister, who disappeared by force and were executed in 1988. What does Europe do? Until a few years ago he had even included the opposition to the regime on the list of terrorist organizations, perhaps for economic interests, because the power of the Ayatollah is very strong and the propaganda reaches our home. Just the latest scandal. In August 2021, when Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as the new president of Iran, in front of him, in addition to the Italian Parliament and representatives of 73 countries including China, the staff of Hamas, which we remember are terrorists, there was also an official of the External Service of the European Union, Secretary Enrique Mora. A shame! An entire area, the Middle East, is hostage to Iran, which insists on putting pressure and fear on the only country Europe can really count on: Israel. There can be no confusion between enemies and friends, between allies and opponents. The Iran of the ayatollahs is not and will never be a country on which we can rely, the question of the nuclear program shows. Why does Iran want the bomb, if not to use it as a weapon of terror? I come from Tuscany, the first state in the world that, on November 30, 1786, thanks to Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, abolished the death penalty. Human life is sacred, and to think that the power to kill is in the hands of a State that, moreover, uses it to annihilate dissent, is inhuman. The war for energy resources is getting more and more bitter. Let us not let the Iranian energy power take over our values, let us not remain in check of a country dangerous to international security.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, women in Islamic fundamentalist regimes are the ones who pay the highest price. I have in my eyes images of a shocking video, where a husband beheading his 17-year-old wife, accused of adultery, walks the streets smiling, exposing his head like a trophy. In Iran, a man who kills his 14-year-old daughter faces eight years in prison. A woman who removes her veil risks up to 24. Yesterday I met two brave women, who are part of the opposition to the Iranian regime, and they gave me this beautiful book. They told me disconcerting things... (The speaker shows a book and is therefore interrupted by the President.)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'they called me from Cuba at three in the morning, they are repressing my family. I have a cousin who is like a sister to me. In August they took her off work, she's a radiologist. The gang of Revolutionary Defense Committees of the Federation of Cuban Women carried out acts of violence, threw a stone at her home, persecuted and threatened her. They had to go to live in the family home of their Covid-infected husband. They denied him medical care and he died. Now they are also threatening them with death. They fled and called me to tell me that if something happens to them, I have to tell them what happened. She fears for her safety. All because I denounce the dictatorship and with women they are very bad. How long, my God? This message was sent to me by a citizen who lives in Italy and fears for her family. The author of all this is that communism that many in this House know well either because they have suffered it or because vice versa it represents for many an uncomfortable past, a toxic love story, difficult to recognize and justify, littered with firing squads, torture, abuse and ill-treatment. Communism, nourished by hatred and contempt, invaded and massacred Europe in the last century and continues to repress and suffocate, even through the so-called battalions of order, the Cuban people today. Calling the communist regime the Republic of Cuba is a contradiction in terms. A republic assumes that there are free elections, while since 1959 fake elections have been held in Cuba, in which no other parties are allowed, as in the last elections held in 2018, in which all 605 elected deputies obviously belonged to the Cuban Communist Party. Cuba protests against hunger and the scarcity of food, while the thirst for freedom of elections and rights is felt by the people. Colleagues, we cannot pretend to be blind to the biggest demonstrations on the island since 1994. Let justice be done, let all the instruments at our disposal be used, including the human rights clause, which allows the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to be suspended, increasing international pressure on the ruthless and bloodthirsty regime. Long live Cuba libre!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, probably Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, the greats of Italian literature would laugh at the guidelines on inclusive language that were then rightly withdrawn. In Italian there are many words of female gender that indicate universal concepts: freedom, reason, faith, humanity. Even as a form of respect you give yourself. Only fascism tried to change her with you. Usually those who want to change, impose a certain language on people are regimes. But what is more serious in those guidelines – which have been withdrawn – is that, under the pretext of combating inequalities, Christmas, Joseph and Mary, our traditions, are being targeted. Europe must stop making itself ridiculous in the eyes of the world by denying itself. The whole world has taken inspiration and example from European civilization, which has its history and its roots in Judeo-Christian roots. There must be no shame in identity. Those who do not respect their own culture will not have respect even for that of others. And if I am not too politically incorrect, I conclude by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell: It was the triumph of freedom and the final fall of a totalitarian system that oppressed the peoples of the East. Since then great strides have been made by countries that were previously crushed under Soviet influence. Today, 32 years after that day, the wall must be erected, not to isolate us but to protect the peoples of Europe from the blackmail of foreign powers. In an attempt to emulate Erdoğan's provocations, today the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko exploits migrants with the aim of blackmailing Europe like his Turkish colleague. The Poles have already paid a lot: First with the Nazis, then with the Communists. Our firm will as Europeans must be to defend Poland as we have not been able to do in the past and, consequently, to protect our land. In recent weeks, on several occasions, here in this House someone has been entertaining for hours to challenge Poland, a piece of the history of Europe. The time has come for everyone to understand that the security of our citizens depends on that side of our continent and that it must be defended at all costs.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the political and media offensive against the defence of Europe's borders is getting stronger and stronger. In the ongoing migration crisis, powerful lobbies are working to influence governments and make European populations accept the massive illegal immigration that is coming to Europe. The many initiatives funded by George Soros' Open Society show that these lobbies have a clear plan of action to achieve their goals. Since the 2000s, several million non-Europeans, overwhelmingly Muslims, have emigrated to Europe, either by plane or by taking the Mediterranean Sea or the so-called Balkan route. After a pause during the health crisis, illegal immigration has increased sharply since the beginning of 2021, as recently highlighted by data from the Frontex agency, while in Italy, since Matteo Salvini is no longer Minister of the Interior, illegal entries have increased by 673 percent. It is clear, therefore, that ever-increasing border control is more necessary than ever. The discussion on the Frontex agency is undoubtedly conditioned by the aggressive campaign of politics and media over the last year. The other front of the controversy comes naturally from NGOs, which accuse the Frontex agency of not respecting human rights. With at least suspicious zeal, realities such as Sea-Watch, Mediterranea and others have launched a campaign to dismantle Frontex, obviously without proposing any alternative. In other words, these organisations envision a Europe devoid of any transnational reality that aims to combat mass illegal immigration. While we reiterate the need for full transparency in the budgets of the agencies funded by the Union and that, if some resources earmarked for the control of our borders have been diverted to operations that did not fall within the scope of the agency, those responsible must pay, but this does not mean that the tasks and purposes of the agency itself should be called into question. Monitoring land and sea and pushing back people who illegally try to reach the European Union remains a top priority that we could not pursue without an agency like Frontex. On the contrary, we must focus on strengthening the European standing corps, which will be deployed along the borders and equipped with weapons, once it enters into force. Europe cannot leave the Member States alone in their control and refusal of entry activities, but it is right that it should use all the resources necessary to assist European citizens and guarantee their security and defence.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, on 7 October, exactly 450 years have passed since one of the greatest battles in human history: The Battle of Lepanto. Without that victory, Europe would not be Europe today. And maybe we wouldn't even be here discussing trust funds and the refugee facility in Turkey. Because it is paradoxical that, after 450 years, we now have to finance an empire that uses our money to control our borders. An expensive and dangerous pledge, since that same empire today, with our own money, threatens to open those borders if it does not receive this contribution. Since 2002, the European Union has provided more than 15 billion euros to Turkey, a flow of money that has not stopped even after Erdoğan's Islamist turn. There was a moment, in our history as Europeans, where with pride and anger, determination and will, behind our insignia and in defense of our civilization, we defended our land, our traditions, our feeling of Europe. Without that pride, without a strategy, without a vision that goes beyond exceptional and temporary funds, we will not even be able to demand respect for our women who, as happens in those countries, are forced to beg for a chair to sit down. Without demanding the respect that we won in Lepanto on 7 October 450 years ago, we will never be able to look at the future of our children in a Christian, democratic and civil Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 'I accuse Westerners of having no passion. You who were born of passion, you who became a people thanks to the passion of your revolution. So you do not understand what moves your enemies, our enemies. You don't understand what it is that allows him to fight in such a global and ruthless way this war against the West. It's passion. The power of passion, my dear ones! It is faith that comes from passion. It is the hatred that comes from passion. Allah-Akbar, Allah-Akbar! Jihad-Jihad! They're ready to die, to blow up, to kill us. To destroy us. And their leaders, (true leaders), the same. I knew him, Khomeini. I talked to him, I argued with him, for over six hours on two different days. And I tell you that he was a man of passion. That what moved him was faith, passion. I didn't know Bin Laden. Too bad ... But I watched it well when it appeared on TV. I looked him in the eye, I listened to his voice, and I tell you that he is a man of passion. That what moves him is faith, the hatred that comes from passion. To fight their passion, to defend our culture, that is, our identity and our civilization, armies are not enough. We don't need tanks, atomic bombs, bombers. It takes passion. The power of passion. And if you don't get it out, we don't get it out, I'm telling you, you'll be defeated. That we will be defeated. I tell you that we will return to the tents of the desert, that we will end up as wells without water. Wake up, then! Wake up, wake up. Oriana Fallaci, 26 October 2002.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the age of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Today we are here to talk about the deception of the European left that, helped by the media, wants to silence the governments of two democratically elected European countries as homophobia. Have you read the Hungarian law that you are so disputing? Hungarian law in no way violates the principles and prerogatives of the European Union. Hungary reiterates that the sexual education of children is the responsibility of parents, exactly as laid down in Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The same left that today accuses Budapest is the same left that in 1956 applauded the Soviet tanks that massacred workers and students bringing the communist dictatorship back to Hungary. That left was wrong and lied yesterday as it is wrong and lies today. I ask all of you, among the freedoms of the European Union, is there the freedom for a woman to be able to walk alone at dusk in the clothes she prefers? You know that in many cities in France, Germany and Belgium this is in fact a very high risk undertaking, while in Hungary and Poland it is still possible. We must always remember that without Poland, which saved Europe under the walls of Vienna, today we would not be here to discuss. Long live the Europe of peoples, of liberties, of roots. We call on the governments of Poland and Hungary to continue to defend European children and values, those for which our ancestors fought hard and which sometimes the European Union would like to disown.