Debate contributions by Isabel SERRA SÁNCHEZ

Mr President, Spain is not a full democracy. The party of the ERE in Andalusia attacks the party of the Gürtel and, in turn, the party of the Punica and Mrs. Ayuso attacks the party of the Ábalos case or the Santos Cerdán case. It seems that you are competing for who is the corrupt exemplar, for which of the two he steals best. What is behind – what is at issue – is the case of ‘bipartisanship’: that both the People's Party and the Socialist Party rob the citizens with full hands. Both, whenever they rule, demonstrate that they are not qualified to do so democratically and both govern for large companies that pay the favors with envelopes. And look, notice, while bipartisanship steals with impunity, those who do fight for a full democracy in Spain are persecuted. The six of Zaragoza, the six of Switzerland, the seven of Somosaguas, the four of Rebeldía, those of Futuro Vegetal and so many other retaliated activists. I myself was condemned for mobilizing against an eviction with all the evidence against it, because the economic powers work like this: Either they buy you as the People's Party and the Socialist Party or they make you the dirty judicial war with the sewers, precisely for trying to fight for a full democracy in our country. But let it be clear to them that we are not going to abandon our conviction so that in our country there is a future and they do not steal it.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, you are as immoral as the genocidal ones. How far will your support for Israel go? How far will they support a genocidal state? After murdering 57,000 Palestinians with impunity, burning children alive, razing Gaza, trying to exterminate the entire population with famine, Israel has decided to launch an illegal offensive against Iran that can lead to a global nuclear war. And all this is thanks to their unconditional support, to decades and decades of occupation over the Palestinian territory, to bombings day after day on the civilian population, to the Israeli arms industry, to changing UNRWA for a private company that shoots Palestinians when they are starving, murders them and locks them up and cages them like the Nazis caged the Jews in the Holocaust. Can you really sleep peacefully at night? Despite their unconditional and criminal support, the Palestinian people are resisting. It also resists thanks to international solidarity, like the Freedom Flotilla or like that march to Egypt, even though the Egyptian dictatorship is repressing it. Not in our name, not in our name, yours will appear...

Mr President, Commissioner, when the war in Ukraine began, you said that with the escalation of war, increased military spending would make us more independent and more sovereign; Today you see that's a big lie. After three years we are more dependent – mainly on energy – on the United States, which since 2018 has increased its export of liquefied gas by 1 749 %. Those who have fought the war, apart from the big arms companies, are the energy companies. And now, faced with their failure, they are proposing more military spending and cuts to social rights, which also increases energy poverty. This plan that they are proposing today is a wet paper, you know perfectly well, in a European Union where there are no less than 42 million people who suffer from energy poverty and where, since its inception, the energy market is an oligopoly, a robbery and a scam to the citizenry. To lower the electricity bill, for us to be truly sovereign, we need more taxes on the big energy companies, a determined intervention of the energy market, public control and peace.

Mr President, Turkey systematically violates human rights, persecutes Kurdish opponents, locks up political prisoners, removes mayors... it is a state where the rule of law does not exist. Europe must not conclude agreements with countries that violate human rights and must not pay millions for border control, impeding the right to asylum, because Turkey will care more about continuing to receive those funds than the resolutions we adopt in this Parliament. I would like to recall that the deposed mayors must regain their mandate immediately and that the system of appointment of administrators by the Government must be abolished. From here the support to the Kurdish people without double standards - decided also in Syria - and the right to decide of all the oppressed peoples to live in their territories and to self-determination ... the recognition to the Kurdish people, also to the Saharawi people, to the people of Palestine, so that they can live once and for all in peace.

(start of off-microphone intervention) ...breaks with the World Health Organization or the Paris Agreement, or leaves USAID without funds. What are you telling us? Let the world rot; that the poor die; We are a government of the rich, of technobros who have come to save the big corporations, and goodbye to public health, humanitarian aid and the fight against the climate crisis. And for that they have a strategy: Do not look up, hate next door, forget that it is big companies that exploit you, charge a thousand dollars to betray your friend or your migrant neighbor, call trans people sick, feel empowered to denigrate women or say that Palestinians are animals. Trump is the representative of the most savage capitalism, without mask and without complexes, but, also, what is the European Union proposing at the moment? Because it has been walking along the same precipice for a long time, the big corporations defend in the same way, the submission to US imperialism, fifteen months financing a genocide against Palestine: They are betting on a more racist and more warmongering Europe and they are agreeing with their representative here in the European Union, which is Meloni's far right.

Madam President, the death penalty should be abolished worldwide, in Iran or in the United States. Two activists – two Kurdish women – are currently facing the death penalty in Iran. These are Pajshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi. Their crimes are opposing the Iranian regime, fighting for women's rights, defending and being part of the Kurdish minority: They are political prisoners. From here I express my appreciation to the Iranian women who two and a half years ago rose up in the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. And, from here, I express my rejection of the torture and repression they suffered and continue to suffer from the Iranian regime. Activists must be released. Human rights must always be defended. Stop, therefore, opposing our proposal for humanitarian visas. Women are changing the world. Listen to this, gentlemen of the far right, because you love to instrumentalize the feminist struggle for your geopolitical, racist or Islamophobic interests, but women's rights must always be defended. They must be defended in Iran, in Palestine, in Saudi Arabia or in the United States, where a sexual aggressor has declared war on women: Trump. In Iran and around the world, let the struggle of women live!

Mr President, the genocide did not begin on 7 October and, unfortunately, it does not end today, because the Zionist project of the State of Israel is the extermination of the Palestinian people, because Netanyahu and his collaborators have to be tried for war crimes and because the Palestinian territory has to be vacated and recovered. You come here today to say that you are celebrating the ceasefire, although you are responsible for this coming this far. Fifteen months! Fifteen months in which Israel has ravaged Gaza... (the Chair interrupted the speaker) As I said, fifteen months in which Israel has devastated Gaza, thanks to its unconditional support. Fifteen months in which humanitarian aid rotted in trucks, while weapons entered, which continued to kill Palestinian children. Not the ceasefire, but that's his doing. The genocide could have been avoided by you, from the governments of Europe, but you decided to support the genocidal and today you speak here to wash your consciences or to continue supporting Netanyahu. What will they tell the next generations? Will the history books dictate to hide their deeds? This photo is the symbol of cruelty, the collapse of Europe and the collapse of international law. We continue to support Palestine until Palestine is free.

Mr President, Commissioner, predatory tourism is sweeping our cities, our health, our life time, our neighbourhood networks, our planet. Degrade our spaces at high speed. Where there was a neighborhood store, there is now a neighborhood store. souvenirs; where there was a square, there is a tourist attraction; where there was a beach, there is concrete and large hotels; where there were streets, there are traffic jams, there are crowds. What needs to be fought is the mantra, which they insist over and over again, that it is good for the economy. For what economy? For those affected by natural disasters such as the Dana, for the Kellys who work in hotels for misery or for young people who in my country cannot pay rent because of tourist flats? The ones that always win are the hotel chains, the big companies, the real estate employers. In my country, to enter the European Union, what was said is that we had to be the chiringuito of Europe and that we had to have fewer engineers and more waiters, nothing for industry and everything for brick and for tourism. And there were the Socialist Party and the Popular Party to fulfill it. Now people can't do it anymore. She is fed up and knows that tourism has become unbearable for their lives and is taking to the streets, mobilizing, to demand that there be limits, that there be regulation against unbridled tourism. So, Commissioner, to protect our lives, to protect our planet, put limits on unbridled tourism.

Madam President, sexual violence is a weapon of war. And today, in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many women are suffering this most serious violation of human rights. Also in Palestine, by the way. But, ladies and gentlemen, beyond empty words and a return to the normalisation and impunity of sexual violence in our society, what should the European Union do? First, more humanitarian aid: it is clear – and this is stated by human rights organisations – that this is not enough. Secondly, to stop investing in more weapons, in more militarization, in the business of arms companies that manufacture weapons that go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sudan. Increasing military spending never creates more security. Third, to stop pushing a colonialist and extractivist policy: They call it cooperation but it means diverting official development aid for European companies to do business and it impedes the sovereignty of peoples in the global south, democracy and rights. Fourth, do not compromise with an ultra-right that denies violence against women to form a government here in the European Union. And, fifthly, not to make agreements with countries that violate human rights.

Madam President, today, as we commemorate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, I want to talk about one of the most common and most terrible causes of the violation of children's rights, which is gender-based violence against children: violence against women that directly affects children, because they are direct victims – not only witnesses – and many are orphans; vicarious violence, which is a form of violence against women where it hurts them most: mistreating and murdering children; violence which, moreover, is a reaction to feminist advances. Or sexual violence against children, which affects one in five children in the European Union and remains invisible, silent, protected and unpunished. Last week the Council of Europe highlighted my country, Spain, because it said that there is institutional abuse against protective mothers; mothers who, for protecting children, are criminalized and persecuted by the justice system. From here, my recognition and support to those mothers, those boys and those girls. Justice must cease to be adult-centric and patriarchal. The right to listen must be a guaranteed right. And an abuser is never a good father.

Mr President, the Cambodian Government is politically persecuting workers who organise to defend their rights, trade unionists, activists and journalists, the workers' rights organisation CENTRAL and its director. Today we call from this Parliament for the government to drop the charges, the persecution, the witch hunt against those who defend a democratic country, a democratic society based on labour rights and human rights. We also call for the European Union to put sanctions in place. But, ladies and gentlemen, this is not enough. The question is: who benefits from the violation of labour rights in Cambodia? Because many are owners of large textile companies, European companies. Cambodia is a country where one million people work in the textile industry (90% are women in absolutely inhumane conditions) and the European Union is Cambodia's second largest export market. Brands such as H&M or Inditex – whose owner is one of the richest men in the world – take advantage of this persecution of labour rights defenders by the Cambodian government. We therefore believe that Europe must take action against European companies that take advantage of the persecution that we all claim to be fighting.

Madam President, gentlemen of the far right, the integral sexual right in integral sexual education is a right of all boys and girls, regardless of what their parents say, regardless of the families of which they are part. Because comprehensive sex education is a guarantee to educate against harassment, to respect, to educate in respect for the diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity; also to respect the diversity of bodies, to identify violence, not to reproduce violence, to build relationships based on good treatment and consent and so that, as a society, we know that we can transform relationships and be better. Commissioner, you say that hatred against LGBTQI people is growing and that's true. It is not new that the far right identifies LGBTQI people as its main enemy, but what is new is that today, here, a new government has been signed in Europe that has at the center the ideas of the far right and that has the far right - who hate LGBTQI people - in the leadership of that government. How can Europe not be tinged with hatred if it has professional haters in its government? The far right speaks a lot about insecurity, but it is precisely she who generates insecurity against LGBTQI people. That is why, if they do not do it here, if the European Commission does not do it, if the Government of Europe does not do it...

Madam President, I would like to request that today's sitting be extended until 11 p.m. to include the debate on the obligations of the European Union and the Member States following the issuance by the International Criminal Court of arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Mohamed Deif Ibrahim for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These arrest warrants are a victory of international law over barbarism, a victory of the citizens – who have mobilised around the world to defend Palestine – and also a victory of the Palestinian people. But if Netanyahu has been perpetrating ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people for more than a year, it is because he has had the support of the European Union: diplomatic support, political support and financial support. Today, the European institutions have to comply, they have to oblige the Member States that have signed the Rome Statute to comply. It is an unbearable shame that we have Germany, Italy and Hungary saying that they will not comply. To fail to do so is to take international law for granted. Stop siding with war criminals and side with human rights once and for all.

Madam President, Turkey's authoritarian government is becoming more dangerous every day. The case of Bülent Mumay, sentenced in May 2023 to 20 months in prison for telling what the government did not want him to tell, is just one more case, one of many, and a very serious case showing that freedom of the press and the right to information are increasingly persecuted. But, unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg of persecution against civil society, against journalists, against human rights defenders, against Kurds and against political opposition. The Turkish government censors voices defending human rights and democracy, and controls the mainstream media and judges. But, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to convey to you an important point, which is that the European Union has given Turkey no less than EUR 10 billion since 2011 and has done so to externalise borders, to expel migrants, to do the dirty work of the European Union in violation of human rights. In fact, the Turkish Government itself boasted and welcomed the expulsion of Syrians and Afghans, Afghans and Afghans with the Taliban regime, namely 28 thousand Afghans and Afghans. So we defend human rights always and for all people.

Mr President, Commissioner, you speak in your report on the rule of law in the European Union about the declassification of official secrets. And these days in my country everyone talks about some audios that have leaked some conversations of the nineties between the king emeritus and an examante, Barbara Rey. In these conversations, the emeritus celebrates the silence of General Armada, who promoted and directed the attempted coup d'état in 1981 in my country. What does the king know that, more than forty years later, the citizenry still does not know? The truth is that the king emeritus could have participated in an attempted coup d'état, but the parties of the bipartisanship imposed silence and made the citizenry not know the truth, protecting those responsible. It is urgent to declassify official secrets. These audios do not talk about the sex-affective messes of the king emeritus, but they talk about the economic and political functioning of the system in my country: of a corrupt monarchy, heir to Francoism, which is above the citizens and outside the law. That's why, that's all right. Citizens have the right to know what has happened in the history of our country. And not to know it because it breaks the omertá among gangsters, but precisely because democracy works. So please tell your colleagues in the People's Party and the Socialist Party to declassify these official secrets once and for all.

Madam President, a few days ago, images were published in my country in which Libyan coastguards were seen shooting at a boat of migrants trying to reach the island of Lampedusa. It was recorded by a human rights organization (Sea-Watch). And those Libyans carry European equipment through Frontex, with our money. These images are not isolated facts. It is the new normal at European borders more and more and it is criminal. Opening fire on people is criminal. Returning them to the sea and returning them to the countries from which they are fleeing is criminal. Frontex is a criminal organisation and is growing more and more. Ursula von der Leyen said: tripling Frontex's resources because what this European Commission is leading is the agenda of the far right, of racism and of the militarisation of borders. And I ask the Socialists if they want this Europe: the Europe that spends 50 times as much on deporting migrants and shooting migrants rather than saving their lives and guaranteeing their rights. That is the Europe that is defending the entire far right and I hope that one day they will repent of defending it as well.

Mr President, the first thing I want to do is address the Afghan women who have come to this Parliament to be heard: Thank you for your voice, thank you for your courage, thank you for your struggle, we are with you. Afghanistan has become the most dangerous country for women worldwide. Women cannot go out into the street if they are not accompanied by a man, their voices cannot be heard, they have to completely cover their bodies, they cannot look out the windows, they cannot work outside the home, they cannot play sports, and beauty salons have been closed, which were spaces where they socialized and were safe spaces where they could be, talk, with other women. The Taliban regime has imposed a apartheid gender that is erasing them from public space and killing them with violence and hunger: It is denying them the right to live, it is the most aggressive patriarchy in the whole world. But I want to say that this was not always the case, that Afghan women have always been an example, a reference of struggle, for all women throughout the world for the advances and feminist conquests that they achieved since the 1920s, also in the 1960s, with the conquest of equality in the Constitution or with the right to education as a fundamental pillar for the equality of our societies. And that is precisely why they suffered a lot of political violence, a lot of fundamentalist reaction. By the way, this political violence that the right also deploys against women who advance in feminism throughout the world; those right wings that use the situation of women in Afghanistan, but who, in reality, do not care about Afghan women, nor do they care about women and women's rights around the world. I want to say one thing. On the situation in Afghanistan we must dare to tell the whole story, including the damage that the interventions by the United States and NATO have done for their own geopolitical interests, against the USSR and also against the advance of popular processes: illegal wars, financing of terrorist groups that generated a failed state, which allowed the advance of the Taliban. Learn from history: War is never the solution, war destroys everything. And finally, I want to say how it is possible that, in the face of this situation, Member States of the European Union continue to deny international protection to Afghan women, to minorities, to families fleeing the Taliban regime. Act firmly, break any kind of complicity and protect women's lives: Afghans are not alone and the European institutions must prove it.

Madam President, Commissioner, the European Union will participate in the next G20 summit and will talk a lot about cooperation, development, equality... But, let's be honest, either there is a change of direction of the project of the elites worldwide or it is doomed to failure, because the world does not work. We are talking about the fact that the richest 1% receive and accumulate 63% of the world's wealth. The planet can't stand more extractivism and environmental destruction. And human rights defenders – women, indigenous people, etc. – who are defending the territory are being killed. What is the European Union doing? More concentration of wealth and power in few hands; militarisation of borders; bringing the far right into the command of the next European Commission; plunder of southern countries; austerity and war. And, above all, to be complicit in a genocide, thus breaking the consensuses that raised the European project after World War II and after fascism. If they give up defending equality, social justice, human rights and, above all, peace, there is no future for the European project and no future for the world. And no summit is going to cover up this fact.

Mr President, it is a profound hypocrisy for the right wing to bring a debate here today on anti-Semitism, because they are actually doing so in a campaign to support Israel, the genocidal state of Israel. Enough of trying to equate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Under this pretext, Europe and the United States continue to fund an ethnic cleansing that has already killed 41,000 people. Under that pretext they violate the fundamental rights of those who, here in Europe, defend human rights and under that pretext deploy against the Palestinian people the same strategy of hatred and dehumanization that Nazism applied against the Jewish people. They're calling an entire town a terrorist. In short, they are repeating history, that of humanity and also that of Palestine, that of humanity. Nakba of 1948, that of decades of occupation and that of Zionist terrorism. Today, the whole world can see Israeli soldiers bragging about raping and torturing Palestinians simply because they are Palestinians. It is, again, the banality of evil that Hannah Arendt spoke of when she wondered how such atrocities could be committed. Nothing justifies not radically opposing what Netanyahu is doing to the Palestinian people. To the extreme right we already know that what defines them is always to stand on the side of the genocidal. To the rest I say: act, get the hell out of financing genocide and buying and selling weapons. Stand on the side of justice and truth. We will always do it with Palestine until it is free.