Debate contributions by Jaume ASENS LLODRÀ

Mr President, Commissioner, the European Union – you – have just signed an agreement with Morocco that includes natural resources from Western Sahara. That is precisely what is prohibited not only by the UN, but by the Court of Justice of the European Union. How can we disobey our own courts? That Court had said that Western Sahara did not belong to Morocco, and the resolutions must be respected. The same goes for Palestine: We ignore what the courts say in the conflict and not only do we not sanction and isolate the occupying force, but we also maintain military and trade agreements. Partial suspension should be debated, and not even that. With what legitimacy are we then going to ask Trump not to invade Greenland or Putin not to invade Ukraine if we are defending the invasion of other countries? What is worth to Ukraine must be worth to the Sahara and to Palestine; The opposite is hypocrisy, hypocrisy that destroys the soul and legitimacy of Europe.

Madam President, it's been four hours. Four hours talking about how to protect the European territory, about possible threats from Russia. But not a single minute on the real attacks that are taking place on European territory, against European citizens. Just this morning, a European Freedom Flotilla ship carrying humanitarian aid was attacked. And that, in international law, is European territory. With Russia, the armored skies. With Israel, we close our eyes and keep sending weapons. Weapons they use against our citizens. This is a double standard. And here, not a word of condemnation. You can't even discuss it. If we talk about the threats that European citizens face on European territory, let us talk about all the threats. Because this threat is real. It has happened this morning, and the crew members have been kidnapped and will surely be tortured, as happened last week. Please, let's talk about that too.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen of the People's Party, no lesson in anti-Semitism or Judeophobia, because the Palestinians are also Semites. We are the political children of those with the Jews who fight against Nazism and fascism. You are the political children of those who persecuted you and wanted you out. That is why they allied themselves with the Zionists, because they also had the same goal. And of course, they don't seem to hate Jews anymore. Orbán, for example. But the problem is not that they have stopped hating the Jews, it is that they hate the Muslims more and that is why they have allied themselves with Israel. Because as the German Chancellor said: Israel does the dirty work of the West. And you, when you confuse what Israel does with Judeophobia, are doing the Jews a disservice. Because there are many Jews who are critical of what Israel does. Primo Levi himself, Jean Améry, victims of the Holocaust, Jews who criticized Israel for what it did to Palestine. According to you, they would hate the Jews, they would hate themselves. Stop mixing the concepts, because they are promoting Judeophobia and offending the real victims of it.

Madam President, Commissioner, this is not a peace plan, this is a business plan of Trump, his son-in-law, his friends... to turn Gaza after a genocide into what appeared in your macabre video: in a theme park, in a luxury resort. Behind all extermination, there is always a business plan; Hamas is an excuse. And for this plan to be viable, cheap labour – slave labour, if possible – is needed. And hence the ultimatum to the survivors of the Gaza ghetto: Or you will obey or be wiped off the map. That's the same language of colonial empires or totalitarian regimes like Nazism. But we, ladies and gentlemen of the Socialist Party, have to defend the law, the courts of justice, the United Nations. No plan is legitimate if it arises from the impunity of occupation and extermination. No justice is legitimate without rights, justice and reparation, and that starts with executing the international arrest warrant against Netanyahu. The other thing? Go back to our neocolonial past and give us the spoils, which is what you propose. As, of course, we have laid half the bombs, we have participated in this genocide ... because now they claim their share. This is an embarrassment.

Madam President, I'm going to read you something: I asked them for my heart medication. They looked at me and answered: You're not a person, you're an animal. And animals don't need medicine. This is the testimony of one of the detainees following the Israeli boarding of the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters. Like this there are dozens and dozens of Europeans, who were on European ships, and who were kidnapped and then beaten, tortured and humiliated in Israeli prisons for doing what Europe and its governments should have done: a humanitarian corridor to save lives. And what has Ursula von der Leyen done in the face of these crimes? Protecting European citizens, the victims? No. As always, stand by the executioners, the torturers, Israel. What a shame! But know that we will not resign ourselves. That behind each flotilla comes another flotilla. Right now there's one 230 miles from Gaza. Because what we are playing there is not only the future of an entire people. It is the future of humanity.

Mr. President, Israel has released a video of its naval attacks threatening the Global Sumud Flotilla and saying it will treat its crew as terrorists. There are Europeans on those ships. It is sailed with flags of European countries. To attack them is to attack Europe and that is why the question is clear: What will this Parliament do? What about Ursula von der Leyen? Will governments protect citizens or will they continue to maintain their complicit silence? If it had been Putin, here today there would have already been a condemnation and perhaps warships to protect the citizens. But that's not going to happen. And you know why? Because this genocide is Europe's responsibility. Half of the bombs that fall in Gaza are European. And the Palestinians, because they are not white, don't give a damn. And those who help them too, because they remind them of what they should do and don't do: try to save lives and stop being accomplices. But I give you some advice: do not relax, because at any time we organize a world 15M.

Madam President, in a few years the new generations are going to ask us what we did while a live genocide was taking place in Gaza. I do know what I did. And you, Commissioner, Mrs Kallas, Mrs von der Leyen? You put yourself in the profile, next to the executioners, and the resolutions of the courts of international justice bounce you in the conscience like peas against a steel helmet, leaving no trace. It is true that the more than 60 000 killed in Gaza – and those to come – cannot be raised to point fingers at them; But I can, you and the governments that keep giving money and weapons to grease Israel's extermination machine. Today in Spain a complaint has been admitted against Netanyahu for the violent assault on the Freedom Flotilla. There are many of us – and I am proud to be a lawyer – who will not stop until those responsible have to answer to justice and to history. And you're on that list.

Madam President, it is unbearable, it is unbearable to continue to see scenes of extermination in Gaza every day and for Mrs von der Leyen to continue talking about war and side with Israel. Letting a child die of hunger, a bombardment of a cafeteria on a children's birthday or an ambulance: That's not an act of war, it's a crime of genocide. Shooting someone in a queue for some bread: that's not an accident, it's part of a protocol; This has been acknowledged by the Israeli soldiers themselves. Mrs von der Leyen does not see him because he is complicit, because he confronts him with his colonial prejudices in white, because he confronts him with his insensitivity in the face of a horror that reminds us of scenes that happened in his country during Nazi Germany. As then, there is a country that blindly follows a leader, Netanyahu, again for racial supremacy, to build an ethnically pure state. But now we can't say we didn't know: We see it live. We can't even say we don't participate, because we carry the guns and the money to make that happen, and that's why we have blood on our hands, like Netanyahu.

Mr. President, for the People's Party to come here today to talk about corruption is like, I don't know, Netanyahu talking about pacifism. You, who are those of "the Prosecutor's Office tunes you", who created the "patriotic police" to persecute adversaries, the sewers to illegally finance themselves and rigged elections, you who have been qualified by the courts and the police as a criminal organization. If they have more than three hundred accused or convicted of corruption: They could build a prison only with those of the People's Party. You have no legitimacy. We do, because we were born to fight against their corruption and that of the Socialist Party and in ten years we have not a single case of corruption. And from that legitimacy we can say that the Socialist Party is not just rotten apples or an isolated case. It is part of the same culture of power that it shares with the Popular Party: the bipartisanship of a monarchical regime of '78, of that real estate and financial block where the political elites and the builders who have lined themselves at the cost of what is everyone's. Therefore, today we need more than words and cessations. Democratic regeneration, not just cosmetic regeneration, transparency and exemplary regeneration are needed. Only in this way will we regain the trust of the citizens.

Madam President, yesterday I told Mrs Kallas that I was ashamed to be a European, and more so after listening to her. But there is a Europe of which I am proud, because there are two Europes. The Europe of her, of Mrs Kallas, of the banality of evil, which actively collaborates with arms and money in the extermination of an entire people in Gaza, which we heard today in the mouth of Mr Girauta when he said 'Heil Israel'. evoking the Nazi salute. But then there is another Europe, the one that puts the body and plays the guy in the Freedom Flotilla, in the Open Arms, the one of the ports that refuse to receive the ships of genocide, the one that is persecuted in Cairo before its deafening silence. Not a word of condemnation, Mrs Kallas, not even when we are Members of the European Parliament. That other Europe does not forget that "never again" was a commitment to the persecuted peoples. It is the one that believes that international law is not a luxury, but a plank of salvation in the face of barbarism. It is that Europe from below that does not preside over summits, like Mrs Kallas, but embodies the deepest meaning in our common memory and, in the midst of horror, resists and chooses not to be complicit. That Europe is the one that saves us, that sustains us as humanity and that one day, perhaps, will win.

Mr President, I am ashamed to be European, especially when I listen to Mrs Kallas: Can you sleep easy when European weapons and money serve to exterminate an entire people in Gaza, when we have a trade agreement with the genocide perpetrator, with the international arrest warrant? Don't you have a glimpse of humanity, of doubt, of restlessness in your conscience? Hannah Arendt said that the banality of evil is not born of monsters, it is born of ordinary people who live with horror as if it were something normal and who do not see human suffering, only numbers, business, alliances. That is what you and this Europe stand for. Why do you think South Africa ended the apartheid? Because it was isolated internationally, because there was a boycott. Israel will continue the genocide until we cease to be complicit in that genocide.

Mr. President, Orbán persecutes all those he considers enemies of the nation: LGBTI activists, feminists, migrants, NGOs, judges... And now he proposes to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Why does he do it? Because with Netanyahu he has a common enemy: Muslims. But in reality, anti-Semitism in Hungary has not disappeared, it has moved from place: Now it's against Muslims. In fact, many of those who were formerly anti-Semitic and are now Islamophobic are still anti-Semitic. Mr Orbán encourages anti-Semitic campaigns, such as the one against George Soros, with the typical clichés and stereotypes of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy. Therefore: There is no lesson from the far right of anti-Semitism, because anti-Semitism is in its DNA. It is only necessary to see VOX, the party of Spain that continues to claim Francoism, allied precisely with Nazism.

Mr President, today it is not enough to remember. Evil must be recognized when it is repeated with other victims and with other faces. Memory should serve to prevent evil, not as an alibi to practice it. We are reminded of this by some Jewish intellectuals in Israel, such as Idith Zertal or Meir Margalit, when they tell us that Israel uses the past as a shield not to be accountable to the present and that Europe – and especially Germany – clings to its historical guilt in order to continue to maintain its loyalty to a government that is practicing another genocide, and thus betrays precisely what it promised not to repeat: never again the extermination of a people, never again the complicity of European democracies. But now, unlike back then, we can't say we didn't know anything, because Europe keeps sending arms, keeps keeping the trade deal with Netanyahu. What is the fault of the Palestinians of what the Europeans did in the past, of what some did, who are the ideological fathers of those who are sitting here today and who justify yet another genocide? Like then, history is looking at you and is going to judge you again.

Madam President, after listening to the right, I believe that the real problem is not the blackout, it is the ideological darkness, the cavern in which you live. Get out of the cave, Mrs. Montserrat, Mr. Buxadé. The blackout was not caused by the sun or the wind, it was caused by an energy system privatised by you – which you sold to your friends, Mr Aznar’s friends, Mr Villalonga – which has no public control and which disguises itself as a free market, when it is a monopoly. And the problem is that it only seeks the economic benefits and, therefore, they have not made the necessary investments to avoid this - because this had been foreseen by the experts. The problem is that you are part of that, but in the literal sense, because you charge. The former ministers, the former presidents... they're sitting there, on the board of directors. Therefore, if you have to look for responsibilities, look among your friends. It's not that they defend the interests of corporations, it's that they defend their interests. The problem is that they believe that energy is a privilege, and it is a right.

Madam President, today Mrs von der Leyen and others spoke about principles, but there is a problem of coherence: Why isn't what's worth to Ukraine worth to Palestine? In the first case, Europe has sided with the victim and gives him weapons to defend himself against the aggressor. In the second, he has sided with the aggressor and gives him weapons to continue his genocide. In the first case, the decisions of the international courts were invoked and, in the second, they seemed to be ignored. Mr Netanyahu has an international arrest warrant. He's accused of genocide. Isn't the life of Palestinian children worth the same as that of Ukrainian children? Is it a question of skin color? Is it a question of colonialism? Historical guilt? Mrs. von der Leyen is German. But a Jewish writer, Margalit, said that the past should not be used as a shield to not be held accountable, because that is betraying that same past. And, as we mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism, we should remember that lesson.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, we cannot talk about the violation of human rights in Cuba without talking about one of its main causes, which is the criminal blockade of the United States. We defend human rights, but human rights must always be valid. You have talked about Cuba's relations with Russia: What about our relations with authoritarian and genocidal regimes like Morocco's or Israel's? Cuba sent doctors to Latin America, Africa or Italy in the pandemic. We send weapons to Netanyahu and you meet with his ministers, with the ministers of a government accused of genocide, while bombs fall in Palestine. Who were you representing at that meeting? To the Europe of human rights surely not. Therefore, from Europe, there is no lesson to be given to Cuba or any other country as long as it continues to collaborate with the genocide that Palestine is suffering.

Mr. President, Trump's trade war is a symptom of a structural crisis, that of the neoliberal order that has governed global trade since the 1980s. Every crisis is an opportunity, not to go back to before or to imitate Trump in a self-destructive dynamic, but to rethink the model from fairer parameters. That means many things, but – among others – strengthening the democratic sovereignty of our economy, making imports conditional on respect for labour and environmental standards. It also means creating a European digital space of its own, betting on a more balanced multilateralism and conditioning – boosting – public control of strategic economic sectors. In front of the walls that Trump erects, Europe must raise rights. We must not combat US neo-protectionism in the service of local elites with more neoliberalism in the service of global elites. Therefore, another world and another trade are possible and urgent.

Mr President, the international order from which the European Union was born, after the horror of World War II and Auschwitz, is today in crisis. But crises, Commissioner, are half failure, half opportunity. The one in 2008 declined on the right, with cuts, with austerity, and it was a failure. The pandemic crisis declined on the left, with well-being, with rights, and it was an opportunity. An opportunity to have a stronger and more united Europe. Today the dilemma is the same again. Faced with the threat of the United States and Russia, two projects are dueling again. Or the Europe of denial, the Europe that denies climate change, the Europe of save who can, the Europe of massive rearmament, cuts and financial despotism. Or the green Europe, the Europe that defends the public, that contains a promise of hope, a new pact of redistribution so that no one is left behind. If tax rules have to be broken, let it be for the climate emergency and not to buy weapons from Trump. It is time for that second Europe, to give it space and make it last. Refounding Europe based on its founding values: That is the political imperative of the times to come.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, your speech about fear - bunkers, war survival kits - is nonsense. You not only tease us but you want to manipulate us and inoculate us with fear to anesthetize our consciences, because you know that a society with fear, in a state of shock, it is a society that can accept any cut, resigned, that can sign that blank check of 800 billion euros for mass rearmament, that stays at home and does not go out to protest. But our obligation is to take away the fear of citizens and remind them that the only thing we should be afraid of is fear itself, as Roosevelt said in the Great Depression. Because where there is fear, there is no hope, no freedom, no social conscience. There is selfishness, hatred, nationalism, racism, fascism and the extreme right. What we need, Mrs Kallas, is not fear, but a calm reflection on the security model. We need information, not propaganda. We need a social economy, not a war economy. A rights kit, not clippings. Houses to live in, not bunkers.

Madam President, with Trump and Palestine we have returned to the old West, to when the United States exterminated the native Americans in 1830, or to when Nazi Germany did the same a century later with the Jews. There are patterns that repeat themselves: the same dehumanizing narrative, the ghettos, the walls, segregation, extermination, deportation, confiscation of property, land... It's what's behind Trump's macabre video: where there was Gaza there is a resort with golden statues in the Hitlerian style, in honor of him, with hotels built from the ashes of that horror. But that dystopia is not new, it is part of the Zionist project of Greater Israel as an ethnically pure state. And now we can't say we didn't know. In fact, we cannot even say that we do not participate, because we have supported it. And before the International Criminal Court, not only Trump and Netanyahu should be tried, but also those who from Europe have supported him by sending them weapons and participating in that monstrous plan.

Yes, I fully agree with you: Europe must indeed - as I said before - stop being a subject, a colony of the United States, and defend international justice. International justice has many shortcomings because it was born with an already Western bias, that is why it has never had problems in pursuing the crimes that have been committed in the south against the enemies of the West, but now, for the first time in history, it dares with the West, it dares with Israel, but it does so timidly, timidly. We must demand more and that is why I am proposing, as a criminal lawyer that I am, that here there is a criminal responsibility, not only of the United States, not only of Donald Trump, but also of Europe, also of the commissioners who govern this continent.

Madam President, if international justice were stronger, not only would Israel be sitting on the bench of those accused of crimes against humanity and genocide for what has happened in Palestine, but also the United States and Europe, for what criminal lawyers call 'necessary cooperation', for military, economic and political aid. But we are going in the opposite direction, towards the law of the jungle, to the principle of force above the force of law: The international order that emerged from the horror of World War II is crumbling, and Trump even wants to pursue with illegal sanctions the judges themselves who do not bend to his will. Normal, he's a convict with multiple trials pending. You know what that's called? Authoritarianism. And in the face of that challenge, Europe, yes, Commissioner, must protect the independence of judges, but not only with words, with deeds: must apply the blocking statute to counter sanctions and, above all, must stop violating the judicial decisions in relation to Palestine, the precautionary measures agreed upon; It must cease to be the subject of the United States to be a bastion of international law and human rights.

Mr President, this weekend in Madrid there was a conclave of ultras, the best of every house of the reactionary international. There has also been a documentary series by a journalist, Mònica Terribas, about Opus Dei, an organization to which many of them belong. And what relationship does one thing have with the other? For while in their particular religious crusade against Muslim communities they have once again shouted in the sky against them, instead, they have remained silent, they have said nothing, in the face of the abuses that this documentary has put on the table: threats, coercion, kidnapping, labour and sexist exploitation, deprivation of liberty, etc. That's the modus operandi of an organization that acts in more than sixty countries as a dangerous sect, as a criminal organization, and from Europe we cannot remain silent: We must act and protect the victims, who can exercise their right to truth, reparation and justice, as minors sexually abused by the Catholic Church did.

Madam President, 'society does not exist, there are only individuals'. Do you know who said that? Thatcher, when he declared war on organised civil society. And you are inspired by it to take funding away from NGOs, because for you there are only private companies and individuals as mere passive, isolated, conformist, frightened spectators, who do not participate in public affairs. That is the political and cultural project of the right. What you want is a Europe where public policies can only be influenced by your multinationals. Like yours, Mrs. Hohlmeier: you are in the pay of a company of the lobby agro-industrial. Of course they don't want NGOs talking about the environment. But our duty is to remind you that rights are not gifts fallen from heaven. Without the struggle of organised civil society there would be no eight-hour working day, no women in this room and no sick people in hospitals. Democracy needs to survive active, organized and mobilized citizens to exercise their rights. Democracy, let us never forget, is not a spectator sport.