Debate contributions by Sebastian KRUIS

Mr President, in November Ursula von der Leyen travels to the EU-Africa summit in Angola – that is not the country of Ntula Kabongo, who came from the Central African Republic – as a kind of Euromissionary on safari with suitcases full of Dutch tax money. Tens of billions of euros will disappear in the eternal cycle of aid and dependence in the coming years. Meanwhile, Africa's population is growing faster than France's budget deficit. The population of Africa will quadruple in the coming decades. At the end of this century there are more than 4 billion Africans and half of them want to emigrate, many to Europe. We are already seeing this, and that while the European population is shrinking. There is therefore only one priority that counts, namely to give back to Africa what Africa brings us: migrants. No money, no partnerships, no investments, no trade, none of that without firm agreements on taking back defunct migrants. The Netherlands is not the Salvation Army of Africa. It's time we stop saving the world and finally stand up for our own people. Because he who gives everything away has nothing left for himself. Other people were allowed to talk longer than me, so you're not going to interrupt until I'm done talking.

Mr President, in the Netherlands last month a 17-year-old girl was murdered by an asylum seeker. Unfortunately, this is not an incident, but the result of years of mass immigration. On the left, crocodile tears weep for Gaza, but in our own streets, women are harassed by the beasts they bring in themselves. While women, gays and Jews in Amsterdam can no longer safely walk the streets, the mayor of that city is at the forefront in Budapest to protest for gay rights. Looking away at home, doing well abroad. This is how it is on the left. And now they want us to believe that we have a male problem. We don't have a man's problem. We have a migrant problem. A problem of masses of men from misogynistic cultures. A problem of abuse, murder, stabbing, rape, humiliation and violence. Because whoever wants to protect our women, closes our borders. And those who do not close our borders are sacrificing our women, and we as a Party for Freedom can never accept that.

Mr. President, the brutal murder of Senator Miguel "the Warrior" Uribe Turbay fills us with pain. This egregious fact evokes once again the darkest chapters of Colombia's recent history: murders, kidnappings and fear. The people of Cali, Bogota, Medellin and all regions of the country deserve to live in safety and tranquility. The upcoming elections represent a decisive opportunity to turn the tide. It is time to reaffirm a commitment to freedom and justice, we are still in time to build a different path. We don't want to follow Venezuela's example, we want a free Colombia. Colombia will rise again. The future of the nation is in the hands of its people. Long live Colombia!

Mr. President, two weeks after my birth in Medellín, presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was assassinated in Colombia. It was 1989, a particularly difficult period for my country. In the midst of that crisis, the Netherlands offered me something that Colombia could not: a future. Today, thirty-five years later, Colombia's democratic hope is again in jeopardy. The recent assassination attempt on Senator Miguel Uribe is an alarming sign. From here I express my sincere support for him and his family. Therefore, I call on the Colombian Government to guarantee free, safe and fair elections, because, in the end, the strength of a nation is born of the hope of its people. Colombians are united under the colors yellow, blue and red. Long live democracy! Long live freedom and long live Colombia!

Mr President, first of all I would like to thank Commissioner Šefčovič for his efforts to improve trade relations between the European Union and the United States. I am also pleased that he has accepted my proposal to strive for reciprocal 0% tariffs. Yet we see that while the Commissioner is trying to smooth out the folds in our trade relations, sand is being thrown into the machine elsewhere. Last week, Brussels again imposed fines on American tech companies, this time on Meta and Apple. The United States has previously indicated that they view such fines as economic barriers, which are just as harmful as tariffs. My question is therefore: Isn't it counterproductive that Brussels negotiates tariff elimination with one hand and distributes fines with the other, which Washington sees as new tariffs? How does the Commissioner think that this can contribute to the conclusion of a good deal? Let's stop letting our trade policy be held hostage by left-wing parties who, after their repeated loss in the election, suddenly seem to have developed an obsession with punishing big tech companies. After all, trade agreements are built with bridges, not with fines. So let's choose growth instead of ideological vendettas.

Mr President, this question shows that women and girls everywhere in Europe are "strongly in the wind" and no longer feel protected by politicians who look away en masse from the import of misogyny. If this lady interrupts me and says that Islam is a kind of beacon of female emancipation, then of course I answer that this is absolutely not true. Call me one country in the Islamic world where women have the same rights as men. There simply aren't. See how women have to go through life in the streets of Kabul, just to name one example. If I had a daughter, I would buy a helmet to protect her, because in this way women are completely abandoned by politicians like you.

Mr President, today we are talking about the Roadmap for Women's Rights, but when I listen to the women on the left in this Chamber, it feels more like a 'highway to hell': Gender Madness, Abortion, Climate Change and Subsidies is what counts. These are all "first world problems", while the biggest threat to women in Europe is the import of a third world desert ideology. Female circumcision, violence, veils, honour killings and forced marriages have become a bitter reality for many women in European cities. With the advent of Islam, we have massively imported misogyny. Our women are spit on, abused and raped. Sometimes they are afraid to go out on the street at all. One in three women in Europe has experienced sexual or physical violence. Where minarets rise, women's rights disappear. This roadmap should be about the resistance to this, because this is the only way to do justice to decades of women's emancipation in Europe. Those who are for women are against Islam.

Mr President, today we are talking about the first Omnibus proposals: the simplification of rules or – in Brussels terms – ‘cutting red tape’. That sounds hopeful, but anyone who digs a little deeper into it comes to a sad conclusion. While a handful of laws are under scrutiny, 50 new laws and regulations will come into force this year alone. The whole European system that has been set up here is focused on one thing only: More laws and more rules. And that's what happens. What good is it then to remove the "red tape" if, at the same time, our entire house is boarded up by a European army of 60 000 super-bureaucrats? Our businesses are failing at all, sinking further and further into an ocean of rules, forms and obligations. What we really need is not an "omnibus", but a chainsaw. Mass deregulation, the abolition of unnecessary EU agencies, the knife in the civil service: not papping and keeping wet and procedures, but cutting, scrapping and demolishing.

Mr President, with overregulation, we are falling further and further behind China and the US. Europe has completely lost its way. That is why we now have the Compass for Competitiveness. The Commission has considered that the best way to regain global competitiveness is to introduce an avalanche of new rules. Looking at this year alone, dozens of new EU rules will be added, such as the Digital Networks Act, the Package Travel Directive, the EU legislative act on cloud and AI development, the Carbon Capture and Storage Framework, the legislative act on innovation, the EU Networks Action Plan and the Clean Industrial Deal. This is just a small sample of the measures that will be poured out on our companies next year. Whether we speak of a compass, a sundial, binoculars, a map or a guide, it doesn't matter. The European Union is heading in the wrong direction without a sense of direction, so we will never get home again. If we want to become strong and competitive again, we need to stop stacking new rules and obligations that hamper our businesses.

Yeah, I'm just waiting for the little applause. The point is that everything we are trying to regulate here today in this Digital Surveillance Act can also be regulated in national law. And you know that the largest Dutch delegation, the Party for Freedom, is striving for the return of power from Europe to national member states. I know that Mr van Volt abhors the concepts of 'national member states' and 'sovereignty', but we want more sovereignty for the Netherlands and for all other countries within the European Union. And that is why we are against unnecessary regulation from the European Parliament, which will ultimately ensure that more censorship is imposed, while freedom of expression should glorify. And that booing just stimulates me.

The left is losing. Power is slipping out of their hands and so is their mouthpiece, the traditional media. That is why they are panicking, and that is why we are having this same debate for the third time in three months. For years, people like Bill Gates or George Soros influenced politics in Europe and far beyond. No one in this room has ever said anything about it. But now it's about someone with a different opinion, which he spreads on social media. And then all of a sudden, everyone's standing here on their back legs. Elon Musk is wrong. Just like Donald Trump. Just like Geert Wilders. Just like my party and like everyone with whom the left disagrees. But the people at home, they're awake. Thanks to social media, they are no longer dependent on the left-liberal orchestra of misery, which appears daily on their television. That is why the left here today has pulled out a whole arsenal of unwelcome opinions to shreds and impose their own opinion as the only truth on the people at home. But any restriction on freedom of expression is a restriction on democracy. So here's my call to the left: Stop destroying our freedom and destroying our democracy! For censorship is not the solution to your demise.

Mr President, today we are discussing the EU's priorities for the forthcoming UN meeting on the Status of Women. Once again, it is clear that this Parliament does not have its priorities in order at all. It calls for more money for gender policies, gender budgets in all policy areas, more gender legislation and even more attention to the effects of climate change on women. Because apparently it rains in a way that only makes women wet. And with the fact that Saudi Arabia is chairman of this women's rights club, everything has actually been said. It's like a tragic Shakespearean comedy. Not Hamlet, but woke and the madness. Meanwhile, the real problems facing women around the world are completely ignored. Nothing about honor killings, nothing about female circumcision, nothing about forced dress codes or forced marriages in Islamic countries. None of that. It sometimes seems here in this House that the greatest threat to women is a false form of address. That is why I have tabled amendments on all these points, as well as amendments to establish the meaning of women as a biological reality and to exclude converted men from women's sport. Enough is enough with all the gender drama. With symbol politics you might get a round of applause from Mrs. Van der Walle of D66, but of course you don't save lives with that. It's time for common sense, courage and priorities that can really make a difference.

Mr President, here we are again. The left-wing mafia always goes one step further to get rid of competitors. Not only must social media be censored even further, democratic elections must now also be re-elected if the result is not satisfactory, as in Romania. It is the parties that are stumbling over each other to take measures on democracy and the rule of law in countries such as Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and other countries, for example when it comes to tackling illegal immigration, which are now to be welcomed when the results of the democratically conducted elections in Romania were reversed. Hypocrisy to get dizzy. Of course, I am also concerned about Russian interference in Europe, but also about how easily the left puts democracy aside when things get awkward. This, of course, sets a precedent. Now it's Romania, but next time another party in Europe finds a horse's head in his bed. Because apparently the protection of the rule of law only applies if you are of the right political color. Otherwise, the rule of law will be used as a weapon against you. Like Geert Wilders. Matteo Salvini or Marine Le Pen. For the results in Romania it will probably not matter that much. But what I've said to the left before: Censorship is not the solution to prevent your demise. You can do elections a hundred times over, the rise of patriotic parties is unstoppable.

It is not the case that if you strike such a tone against me, you will be more right. Let me be the first to notice. The other point is: Just look at what is happening in the big cities of our Western democracies. Look what happens to women there. How in whole cities, with tens of thousands at a time, women all walk packed, because it must be from their husbands. And then someone like that, here today, comes to me because I'm standing up for women and telling us to do something about that. The oppression of women is implemented within Islam. And then strike such a tone against me, here today, on this day of violence against women. I think it is a gross disgrace and with that you also leave women in the cold.

Mr President, I hope that everything is going well with the woman who spoke for me. I have to be a little shivering about all those left-wing women who have spoken for me today. All privileged girls from the international school who have grown up in a left-wing bubble and have never experienced a real challenge in their lives. With their collectivism and their moral exaltation, they mainly fight against everything that is masculine. Because if you're used to privilege, equality feels like oppression. But their woke agenda increasingly clashes with reality. Gendergedram does not solve problems in the world. Instead of making a fist against violence, they are often the fist of violence in the face of many women who have to deal with violence. Because they associate themselves with Islam, while that is the number one cause of violence against women worldwide. Unfortunately, for many, it is also a cause of death. That I have to mansplain that here today, as a man, to a bunch of princesses, is a gross, gross disgrace. For it is precisely today, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, that it is time to reflect on the fact that we have massively, and I repeat, imported misogyny. Our major cities are security risk areas for women, both within Islam and beyond. We have to fight it tooth and nail instead of normalizing it. For those who are for women are against Islam.

Mr President, freedom of expression is under attack. The Artificial Intelligence Act, the Digital Services Act and now an EU proposal to criminalise hate speech. The left has pulled out an entire arsenal of unwelcome opinions to shreds and impose their own opinion as the only truth on the people at home. Because they can no longer do that with arguments. Voters are running away from left-wing parties all over Europe, and not without reason. So the next step is to disqualify and classify other opinions as disinformation, hate speech or anti-democratic. But curtailing freedom of expression is the most anti-democratic thing there is. Freedom of expression is the foundation on which our democracy is built, and any restriction on it is the most anti-democratic thing there is. So my appeal to the left is: Stop twisting our freedom and breaking down our democracy, for censorship is not the solution to your demise. A people without a voice is a people without freedom. We will never accept that.

Mr President, today we are talking about the European car industry in crisis. On Friday, it was announced that import duties will be imposed on cheap Chinese electric cars. Let me put one thing first: We need to combat unfair competition. From any country. But how did it actually get to the point where not only the European car industry, but actually all our European industries are in decline? Do we see our competitiveness deteriorate on a daily basis? That we, as Europe, are being laughed at worldwide? This is due to a huge deluge of rules and an unaffordable green agenda imposed from here. Automatic braking systems, speed limiters, stricter emissions regulations and so on. The engine of the European control machine is running at full speed. Everyone has to go electric, but electric cars cannot be paid for by a normal person. Our car industry is collapsing. Who would have thought that? It refers to the red communists from China, but it is the green communists here in the room who are completely in their own CO2-They are living in a bubble and using their beaks to kill European companies. Therefore, let us not only combat unfair competition from China, but at the same time work towards fewer rules for all our European companies. And for the automakers in particular, let's take the CO2-Easing the rules in Europe as soon as possible.

Mr President, Elon Musk conducted an interview with President Trump on his social media platform, X. French Eurocommunist Breton saw reason in last month's announcement to climb into the pen and send Mr Musk a letter, in which he threatened to take all kinds of measures if the interview did not meet the desired left-wing worldview. At that time, nothing was broadcast or posted online. There is nothing wrong with giving a platform to a presidential candidate of any political color. This is how the left works: Freedom of speech until we no longer agree with it. Then you will be suspected, disqualified and dismissed by Brussels Eurocrats – or even worse, murdered by Islamic terrorists. The leader of the largest party in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, has been heavily protected 24 hours a day for twenty years against Islamic terrorists who want to kill him because of his opinion. Freedom of speech is the only freedom he has left. It cannot be the case that the European Commission is on the side of those who want to kill freedom of expression. It should be on the side of those who defend this freedom. Which side are you on, Mrs Vestager?