Debate contributions by Ana MIRANDA PAZ

Madam President, sexist violence takes many forms. In the streets, at work, in educational centers, in homes, in the press. Also in politics. Male violence must be combated with laws, with means, with resources, with educational support. 25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. And ladies and gentlemen of the far right: Your negationism attacks, your negationism and hatred attack, your impunity attacks. This hatred fundamentally attacks the rights of us women. This impunity of patriarchy that you defend here in this Parliament and that is not to be ashamed after the murders that there are throughout Europe. Male violence kills. That is why today I support all the demonstrations in my country, Galicia, and throughout Europe against sexist violence.

Madam President, dear comrade Vicent Marzà, to you, who come from Valencia, to you, who are from a party that has made the seats of your party available to the people, I want to convey to you as a Galician MEP and on behalf of my party, the Galician Nationalist Bloc, all our solidarity. For two reasons: first, because the Valencian people have suffered and are alone; And second, because we, twenty-two years ago today, suffered a tragedy that has nothing to do compared to lives, but in mismanagement. And the culprits were the same. Today I tell you that, from the Galician people, from our town, we send you a never more, also so that the resources arrive, so that you are not left stranded as we were left, so that people receive encouragement from the European Parliament and go to the essentials, not to these fights that take place here, between cocks, but to what is really needed, which is to remove the mud, to have a house, to have a normal life again and to rebuild their lives. (She ended her speech in a non-official language of the Union)

Today, twenty-two years ago, a ship sank off the Galician coast: His name was Prestige. How can you have the audacity, twenty-two years later, to say that all catastrophes are managed the same? Its president then called a huge mass of oil black tide "the spinners." You have no shame.

Madam President, I come from a maritime country, Galicia, a country on the European Atlantic axis. There, we have two marine reserves, two marine protected areas of fishing or fishing interest, also said in our language. The Cedeira marine reserve, which is a real opportunity, in which the fisheries sector also works to protect the environment and defend an economic resource vital to my country. In my country, which is rich in marine biodiversity, governments are against marine protected areas. They prefer to support marine macro wind, the electric companies that leave no benefits, they prefer that the sailors are out of work, to support the wind macro parks. Commissioner, how is it possible for the European Commission to ban bottom fishing and then, in marine protected areas of particular interest, to allow these macro-electric plants to take away the resources and the fish and the life of our fishing communities, such as Cedeira?

Mr President, today the Presidents of Spain and Portugal met to discuss the priorities of the Peninsula. Once again, Madrid centralism has priority over Galicia and northern Portugal – 2040 for the high-speed train to arrive. And, as a Galician MEP, I have to denounce that the Galicia-North euroregion of Portugal continues to take time. The route between the two most important cities, Vigo and Porto, is 121 kilometers and takes two hours and 22 minutes. To compare, between Brussels and Paris, there are almost 300 kilometres and the journey lasts one hour and 22 minutes. If we want greater economic dynamism, decarbonisation and speed, we need to prioritise this area: Galicia-North Portugal. If this infrastructure is not a priority, it is due to a regrettable lack of political will and centralism. The same lack of political will that there is in the government of Galicia, in local train transport, because traveling by train in the Galicia is a veritable odyssey; If not, tell it to our students.

Mr President, as a Galician MEP, I advocate a local development policy with quality public services. We need a cohesion policy that helps to retain the population in medium-sized towns and rural areas, from Galicia to the rest of Europe. A policy that is close to citizens, with services available within 15 minutes – as in the case of Pontevedra or Santiago – and that promotes actions and projects, so that we have a living rural environment – as in the villages of Alhariz or Ribeira. However, an average Galician village or a small urban or rural village does not have the same development, access to medical services, local transport and employment as an average village in Germany or Belgium, Commissioner. How are we, the Galicians and the Galicians, going to live in our land, in our country, if there are no basic services or public transport to fix the population in most rural villages? How can we have the same level of development as other European peoples if the Galician Government reprogrammes the funds with interest? We are against the centralisation of European funds in capitals such as Madrid or Brussels.

Mr Omarjee, I would like to thank you because, during the previous parliamentary term, you, as chairman of the Committee on Regional Development, fought hard against the centralisation of funds. Think that with the proposal of the new Commission, this debate will take place, and with it the terrible dangers it poses to our municipalities and our cohesion policy?

Mr President, mental health is a universal right. In my country, obstacles and difficulties in accessing psychological care are a problem. It's okay if we're all wrong. It is necessary to visualize mental health problems. As the Official College of Psychologists of Galicia says, "it is not taboo, it is life". The suicide rate in my country is 37% higher than the European average. The use of psychotropic drugs is also alarming. The causes: many due to job insecurity, lack of decent work, rising prices – many causes that affect many people. You know, Commissioner, how many psychologists do we have in Galicia? 5.2 per 1 000 inhabitants, well below the European average. There are shortages of professionals and territorial inequalities. I am concerned about adolescents, among whom the rise in disease is alarming. Let's take care of them and them.

Mr President, on 2 October, 80% of Galician students went on strike and their request was for decent housing. Since 2020, the price of housing in Galicia has skyrocketed. In 2024, renting a house costs 23.5% more than four years ago. Almost 300 000 people aged 18-34 live with their parents, representing 64.3 % of the population in that age group. Housing is a right, not a commodity. Solving the housing problem requires measures that articulate courageous policies and focus on large landlords. As a Galician MEP, I will argue that it is necessary to closely monitor the number of tourist rentals. Who are the owners? Where do they pay taxes? In my country, there are currently 20 000 tourist dwellings. We welcome the proposal to revise European state aid legislation to include social housing as a public interest good.

Mr President, Vice-President, the situation in Sudan is a human tragedy and the situation continues to deteriorate, kill and injure. Eight million people are displaced within Sudan and 2.4 million have crossed borders to neighbouring and other countries. Starvation, famine, violation of human rights and obstruction of humanitarian assistance – a disaster. Sudan is alone. We need to do more efforts for the application of international humanitarian law to help the Sudanese people suffering in this dramatic situation. We can help the country in the protection of civilians, abuses, and obstruction of humanitarian assistance. Also in the support to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor's investigation into apparent war crimes and other atrocities in Darfur, and ensure that the EEAS, the US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, and the Council raise serious violations in the context of ceasefire and humanitarian access talks and ensure that there is provision for robust monitoring as well as accountability for violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Madam President, 6% of Gaza's population has been killed (42 000 people, including 11 000 minors) and almost 2 million people have been displaced. Now horror is coming to Lebanon. Indiscriminate bombings of hospitals like tonight's. Bombings in areas where civilians and a large displaced population live. Mr. Borrell, how far will this madness go? When will Netanyahu's government be satisfied? The longer it takes to stop this genocide, the greater the suffering for the civilian population. Europe needs to act now. We must stop the Netanyahu government and prevent Lebanon from becoming a new Gaza. There is only one solution for peace: external pressure, the arms embargo, the suspension of the EU-Israel Agreement, the breakdown of diplomatic relations – because we have seen that nothing has worked so far – and international justice for the warlord. Orphaned mothers, children, elderly and disabled people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It is nonsense to punish the innocent and defenseless civilian population. It's inhuman. Do you know what the name of what is happening to the civilian population is? It's called genocide.

Madam President, I am writing to the European Commission to convey to you what the Saharawi people are celebrating, which is the victory the other day at the European Court of Justice in three agreements for which the Saharawi people have been fighting for many years, which have to do with legality, justice and the fact of being able to access their own natural, terrestrial, fishing and halieutical resources. And that is why they are celebrating this victory in the refugee camps and also in the occupied territories. But now the European Commission has to get wet and so do the Member States. They have to do things right after years of thinking so that these agreements do not go ahead in any way, as would be international legality. Now the Commission and the Council will have to define themselves to agree first to return to the Polisario Front what they did not receive, because there is an agreement with Morocco that would be illegal at the moment. Secondly, they will have to set up a Western Sahara working group within the European Commission itself and implement the ruling. That's what's expected.

Madam President, today the streets of Galicia are full of a voice against the femicide that took place yesterday in Domaio, Moaña. Male violence, violence affects one third of European women. Right now, the streets of my country are saying 'no' to violence to stop femicide. Thirty-seven women were murdered this year in Spain. One in 200 women is raped. Violence is much more than external violence, it is intra-family violence, for those who speak of foreigners. We women don't have to go out in fear on the streets; we women must not be afraid in our homes; We women must have public support so that this violence, this femicide, does not end our lives.

Mr President, speeches by the far right, such as those by Salvini, Le Pen and Bardella, in favour of reinstating border controls are speeches against European cohesion. We have had a lot of discussion in the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions about the petitions of citizens from different Member States such as Bulgaria or Romania. I do not see Mr Bardella in the Chamber, as I have never seen him in the Committee on Petitions, even when there were debates about borders or other issues. So the extreme right comes here, it talks, it produces blabla, but it is not interested in the situation of citizens in the border areas, which is really serious. Where's Mr. Bardella?

Madam President, all lives matter. We care about all lives, but do all deaths matter the same? A year later. A year of murder. A year without going to school. One year of families suffering: all families. A year without a home. A year of destruction of hospitals. A year of not being able to cure diseases. A year without enough humanitarian aid for lack of medicines. A year calling for peace. A year without international law. A year without humanitarian law. One year calling for a ceasefire, as we have called for in this Parliament. One year. In a year too many people have died without solutions being sought. One MP said that more children were being killed because of rapid population growth. I ask that those words be removed. No child anywhere has the right to be killed. Geopolitics cannot be equidistance. Confusing anti-Semitism with denouncing genocide is very twisted and that is why we will continue to cry out for peace. Because in these 12 months of brutal offensive in the Gaza Strip, more than 41,000 people have been killed. A year without humanity.

Mr President, all my solidarity with disasters throughout Europe. The image of the scorched earth in Portugal... All my solidarity with the brother country. The ashes are coming to my country, Galicia. It's devastating! Deaths, affected agricultural land, loss of biodiversity, depleted firefighters. And you know why? Because the eucalyptus is the species that burned the most in Portugal and Galicia. The cellulose industry, which devastates Portugal and Galicia and grows thanks to companies such as Ence, and now with the threat of the Portuguese company Altri, which wants to come to Galicia, is a flammable species that increases the risks of fire and that has an impact on water scarcity and the change of the hydrological cycle. Today I say to the European Commission and its services: be alert, attentive to the problem of intensive cultivation of eucalyptus, watch over this cellulose company, Altri, which attacks the water and causes fires.

Madam President, imagine that you live in a country that cannot give enough resources to its citizens, in a country that is absolutely blocked, in a country where scientists are prevented from publishing in international journals because there is a blockade, the blockade of the United States, that unjust blockade that has been denounced at the United Nations so many times by an overwhelming majority of its Member States. Listening to the interventions of the right and the extreme right in this House, I would like to tell you one very important thing that affects my country, Galiza. We are an emigrant people and most of our emigrants in the 19th century marched to Cuba; We have a sister relationship with the Cuban people and there is enormous solidarity, because we know what they are suffering, but, above all, I would like to bring them a little shame, because even their historical leader, Manuel Fraga, had relations with Cuba. And that they come here to take advantage again of the suffering that the Cuban people are having because of a tragic embargo, is, of course, a joke and, in addition, to support institutions that are protecting from Miami the overthrow of a Government. And finally, to break the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement that Cuba currently has with the European Union.

The reality is this, it is a series of international crimes that violate international law, with an abandoned population; the reality is this and, although they do not want to see the photographs, nothing happens, it is that it is reality: there are more than 41,000 people killed. And it annoys me very much that there are MEPs like Mr Girauta, who has just left, who has been paid by the European Parliament. lobby Zionists, come here to give lessons, because what those MEPs would have to have is a little humanity, and call for a ceasefire and for that abandoned population to have humanitarian assistance. They have not been to Rafah, as I have been, seeing more than two thousand trucks of humanitarian assistance stand still. Israel is violating international law, and what we need to do is very clear: suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and proceed with the arms embargo and the rupture of diplomatic relations of all the countries of the European Union. Afterwards, there will be peace when there is equality and precisely when one speaks not to a genocidal person, but to a people who are massacred. European streets, from Galiza to Brussels, speak loud and clear: "not in our name, let's not fight or be complicit in genocide". That is why we voted against this European Commission, which has not moved and has totally opted for inaction in the face of this genocide.

Madam President, Commissioner, Madam President von der Leyen, it is not a war, it is genocide. And as such genocide I will show you this image, Commissioner: Look at her, please. You've seen her many times. Or this image...

Mr President, as a Galician MEP, I want to represent the mandates given to me by the voters to stop Altri's pulp project in Galicia. A project that degrades the environment, landscape, agriculture, waters, ecology and way of life of an entire territory. Multinationals arrive, they consume our resources and then they leave. In Galicia, we refuse to allow this situation to continue. European funds should be used to combat depopulation, to build necessary infrastructure for collective use and not to destroy our land. The social response to this project has been communicated to the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament and will bring together, on 3 October, representatives of the Ulloa Viva Platform, which brings together numerous groups, to explain why this project violates European directives. The Galician and Spanish People's Party are already exerting influence to prevent the voice of our people from reaching this Parliament through me. So, in this first plenary, let the Galician people know that they are going to have me here to fight for this cellulose project to be stopped. Not Altri!

Madam President, Commissioner McGuinness, as a Galician MEP, I invite you to come to my country to talk about the Strategic Dialogue, to talk to the producers and producers, who asked me during the election campaign: why does a Galician farmer or a Galician farmer receive less than a farmer from Germany or France? We have to live to produce, not live poorly, as is happening with many Galician farmers. There is talk of renewal and a future for young farmers. In my country, they leave the rural sector because there are no services, because prices are very low, because there are no fair wages in agriculture. We need a reform to ensure access to land and that you pay for producing, for working, and not for having, not for hectares. We need services, advice and a rural structure that is not based on eucalyptus, as is now the case with the Galician government. Between 2005 and 2020, half of the dairy and meat farms in my country closed down. 200 milk farms have disappeared each year. Of course we have to dialogue. Discuss to make it easier and not for farmers to disappear.

Madam President, after the more than 41 000 Palestinians and international victims killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, in this new term, colleagues, I want to reiterate my request of the past mandate for a minute of silence for the victims in Gaza. The European Parliament must stop with the double standards with the victims and stand against the genocide in Gaza, calling for a permanent ceasefire and sanctions on Israel: children, hospitals, schools, journalists are not a target.