Debate contributions by Ruth FIRMENICH

Mr President! Ladies and Gentlemen! The EU wants to commit the biggest theft of all time this week. The EU wants to use EUR 210 billion of frozen Russian assets as collateral for a coercive loan to Ukraine so that the war can continue. What von der Leyen and Kallas are planning is nothing more than a despicable expropriation that will both shake confidence in the EU financial centre and call for appropriate countermeasures. In doing so, the EU is putting the axe to its own roots. The financial risk for the war credit lies solely with the taxpayers in Germany and Europe if Russia does not pay reparations. Even war-offensive politicians such as the CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen admit this. You have to look at the military situation. If you still think that Russia will pay, you also believe in Santa Claus. We must stop the war-mads Merz, von der Leyen and Kallas, who resort to theft in order to continue their self-destructive course of prolonging the war. We need diplomacy and not an EU powerhouse that puts the people of Europe at risk.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! European NATO states will spend €470 billion on military and armaments this year, up 15% on the previous year. The U.S. is concentrating its troops in the Indo-Pacific and calling for Europe to be upgraded. The Europeans follow the dictates like the lemmings into the abyss, because the rearmament destroys the social systems. There is less and less money for education, health and pensions. The German government is the champion among EU self-destructors, and not only in rearmament. Now it is the only one of the major EU Member States to reintroduce conscription and set up a mass army of 460,000 soldiers. Chancellor Merz wants to make the Bundeswehr the conventionally strongest army in Europe. Germany should take over the eastern front of NATO. Conscription in Germany is part of the war course and the gigantic rearmament that the citizens pay dearly. That's a mistake. We say: No conscription, stop the rearmament! Defend the welfare state!

Madam President, With the coercive loan for Ukraine on the basis of Russian assets in the amount of 140 billion euros, the EU is planning a breach of international law with unforeseeable consequences for its own economy. Three comments: What the EU intends to do will cause lasting damage to the EU financial centre. Even the European Central Bank has warned of this. Who likes to put their money where it is later expropriated? The financial risk of war loans is borne solely by European taxpayers. For Germany this means: 35 billion euros for the new shadow budget. And it is to be expected that the de facto expropriation of Russian assets will be answered in return with the confiscation of European assets. Instead of devising sleight of hand tricks to generate new money for the war, the EU should finally use brainwashing to make a constructive contribution to a peace solution in Ukraine. However, this is not to be expected in the case of Mrs von der Leyen and her Commission. It's high time she left.

Madam President, Ms von der Leyen appears to be planning drastic measures if she considers that Member States' pension reforms are not sufficient. According to the magazine Politico In the future, EU payments will be linked to the implementation of the pension recommendations from Brussels. What we are talking about is pension cuts. Because nothing else is an increase in the retirement age. As is so often the case when the political elites encounter resistance in the Member States, the EU's detour ensures the measures that one wants to have. In the case of pensions, this means: scoundrels to death. In Germany, government experts are already talking about 73 years. This is inhumane. It is a mockery that is done as if there is no money. Billions of dollars are being thrown in the throats of defense companies and their shareholders, such as the US investment fund Blackrock. But for the people who have worked hard all their lives, isn't there anything? This has nothing to do with a Europe of solidarity. The EU's attack on pensions must be stopped.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! The foreign policy concept of Ms von der Leyen and Ms Kallas in the Middle East is to follow the US like lackeys. Now there are new sanctions against Iran. Does anyone seriously believe that the resumption of the suspended nuclear controls can be achieved in this way? No, it is simply a matter of legitimizing the next attack on Iran in violation of international law. The EU's sanctions are a precursor to a new war between Israel and the US against Iran. The Brown University just quantified that since the beginning of the Gaza war, the US has paid $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel, a country that illegally possesses nuclear weapons and is committing genocide. The US finances Israel’s wars and the EU helps legitimise them – one wonders what is more depraved. We need an independent, peaceful Europe, without Mrs von der Leyen and Mrs Callas, because they have made a terrible double standard the core of European politics.

Madam President, Foreign Representative Ms Kallas would like a strong response in response to the alleged Russian drones – there is conflicting information, by the way – on Polish territory. What you and Commission President von der Leyen are proposing is not de-escalation, but another step on the road to war. Ms Kallas and Ms von der Leyen – the duo of infernals of European politics that pushes Europe socially against the wall – seem to have only one political objective: To drive Europe into a war with the nuclear power Russia. Whoever, however, only relies on further escalation and, like Ms von der Leyen, refuses to disclose contacts with the arms industry in violation of EU law, acts completely irresponsibly. Instead of the ladies of war, we in Europe finally need a diplomacy worthy of the name; a diplomacy that does not aim to win the lost NATO proxy war in Ukraine or even to smash Russia, but that aims to end wars and not to wage them.

Mr President! We are talking about disaster risk reduction, and that leads us directly to Ursula von der Leyen, because the Commission President is the biggest disaster in the EU. Mrs von der Leyen stands for unenlightened corruption, for gigantic rearmament and for the dismantling of the European social model. Pension à la von der Leyen looks like billions of deals are concluded via SMS – even the European Court of Justice criticised the lack of transparency. And because Mrs. von der Leyen cannot defend herself in the matter, she attacks those who want to deprive her of trust. She says nothing about the specific allegations. Instead, all are labeled as extremists who do not want to be content with their silence. If the EU is to undertake genuine disaster risk reduction, it must rely on diplomacy and good relations around the world, rather than on horrendous rearmament and confrontation. It must provide people with social security and not super-profits for armaments companies – the Commission under Ms von der Leyen is doing the exact opposite. It's time to remove her from office.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army. Israel is working with the United States to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. The people of Gaza are starving, they are starving, they are being allowed to starve. What we see in Gaza is a genocide. For what is happening there, the far-right Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is responsible. But his accomplices in Washington, Berlin and Brussels are also responsible. It is a disgrace that weapons continue to be delivered from Europe to Israel and that the Association Agreement is still not suspended. This is despite the fact that Israel is now waging a war of aggression against Iran alongside the United States. It is disturbing that Netanyahu can still count on EU support. If Ms von der Leyen and you, Ms Kallas, continue this policy, it could be that in the long run it will not only stick to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu – and rightly so!

Madam President, NATO will decide on a gigantic rearmament. US President Trump wants to double military spending to 5% of gross domestic product – that's €3 trillion. This has nothing to do with defence, and certainly not with an independent European foreign and security policy. The tax money that the EU pumps into NATO serves only the US's global hegemony policy. While Europe is to continue the US proxy war against Russia alone, the US is now waging a war of aggression in the Middle East with Israel and wants to challenge China in the Indo-Pacific. For Europe, rearmament means social war against its own people. In the future, Germany alone will spend half its budget – 225 billion euros – on armaments, more than Russia currently spends overall. This madness only benefits the armaments companies. Every euro for armaments will be lacking in education, pensions and health. The further social and economic decline of Europe is thus pre-programmed.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. Let's keep this in mind: Israel is waging a war of aggression against Iran in violation of international law. Israel has nuclear weapons, has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not allow international inspections. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, allows international inspections and has negotiated its nuclear program with the US. And what is the EU doing, which is already circulating in the Gaza war? Mrs Kallas, who you usually like to talk about international law, you do not even manage to condemn Israel's war of aggression against Iran. Where is your protest if Israel tramples on international law with attacks on nuclear facilities and Iranian journalists? When US President Trump tweets about killing Iran's leader? Why are arms still being delivered from the EU to Israel and why is the Association Agreement not yet suspended? How can it be that you continue to reward the aggression policy of the far-right Netanyahu government? The double standard is debunking and frightening.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen! 80 years ago today, Germany was liberated from fascism. Today is the day to thank the liberators from the Soviet Union, the US, Britain and France, as well as the partisans who fought for our freedom. It was the Soviet Union that bore the brunt of the fight against Hitler fascism. More than 27 million Soviet citizens, most of them civilians, died in the Nazi campaign to enslave and destroy the Slavic peoples – more than a million in the blockade of Leningrad alone. But the German government refuses to recognize this crime as genocide. The memory of history is in danger. Unfortunately, there are attempts – also here in the House – to reduce the Soviet Union’s share of the victory over Nazi Germany. But it was the Red Army that liberated the Auschwitz extermination camp and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. It is a shame that representatives of Russia, the largest successor state of the Soviet Union, are excluded from commemoration on the 80th anniversary of liberation. We must not allow history to be distorted. We owe this to the millions of victims of German fascism.

Madam President, "Europe swears by the Leyen for a possible Great War" just headlined a large web portal. With 800 billion, the EU is to be made war-ready. But why, if even US intelligence say Russia isn't planning an attack on NATO states? If it is not defence, then it can only be about preparing for a war against Russia, which the coalition of the EU's war-willing people obviously wants. This madness must be stopped! The New York Times is currently writing about how the US is waging its proxy war in Ukraine from Germany. This is tantamount to a direct entry into war. We should therefore be glad that there are negotiations to end the war. But the EU now wants to continue the war without the US. That's insane! The attacks on democracy in Europe also act as part of a mobilization for war. Prospective candidates are excluded from elections, the Russian minority in Estonia is deprived of the right to vote, and in Germany, despite a mega-scarce election outcome, is not counted. But he who abolishes the democracy which he claims to defend is no different from the democracy which he declares to be enemies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen! The EU, which likes to call itself a peace project, wants to become European NATO – 800 billion euros are to be spent on rearmament. And just like NATO, the EU is neither a community of defence nor a community of values. Where are the European values when it comes to Gaza? Where are they when the EU cheers for electoral fraud in Romania? And why has there never been an EU initiative for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine? Now you want to continue the proxy war in Ukraine without the US. You see peace as a betrayal, which is reminiscent of George Orwell. They say defense and my attack. They are preparing a war against Russia. Some even dream of French nuclear weapons for the EU, even if the range of French bombers only reaches Hanover. The time of illusions is over, Mrs. von der Leyen said today. However, this should apply above all to the unrestrained self-overestimation of the EU, in which one feels reminded of the German Empire. The EU degenerates into the Europe of armaments companies, for whose profits you go over corpses. War credits must be stopped, we need a policy of détente.

Mr President! Ladies and Gentlemen! The situation in Gaza continues to escalate. In the spirit of the far-right government of Israel, US President Trump wants to expel the Palestinians from Gaza and relocate them to neighboring states, as it is euphemistically said. Instead of a Palestinian state, a luxury Riviera is to be created. These plans are inhumane and belong in the rubbish piles of history. With Trump's ultimatum, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the delivery of aid and the fate of the hostages are now completely in question. But what can we hear from the EU in this dramatic situation? Not much. Because those who otherwise like to act as a moral authority remain silent when it comes to the Palestinians. Thus, the last remnant of credibility is lost. Instead, it is accepted that, like the US, Germany continues to supply weapons to Israel. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, is calling for an end to arms deliveries. Instead of weapons, it needs use for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr President! The good news is: There is finally a ceasefire in Gaza, and the first Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are released. However, the cruel truth is that, according to negotiators, there was already the possibility of concluding a ceasefire on practically the same terms in December 2023. But this has been evaded by the US, Germany and the EU Commission. German Foreign Minister Baerbock even said literally that it is not the job of politics that the weapons must remain silent. What a shame! It takes diplomacy and not this deviant warmongering. The Gaza war has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians. The West is clearly co-responsible for this, as the weapons for the war of Netanyahu’s partly far-right government come mainly from the US and Germany – and this must end. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, is therefore calling for a ceasefire for Israel. And last but not least: It finally needs a political solution with an independent Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Mr President! The reports from Syria are alarming. Al-Qaeda affiliate HTS has taken power with other Islamist terrorist groups. Minorities are already being harassed and Sharia law is threatening. But Brussels is sympathetic to the redistribution of the Middle East, which is also to be enforced with the help of Islamists. This is unbearable and revealing at the same time. Finally, we are constantly hearing from the High Representative about the importance of international law. But this never applies to NATO countries or allies of the West. At the same time, the right-wing extremist government of Israel is bombing Syria and occupying Syrian areas along the border with Lebanon and Jordan. And NATO member Turkey is attacking the Kurds with Islamist SNA militias, without any consequences for Turkey's EU accession status. The EU, which constantly speaks of the European community of values, is simply untrustworthy. The EU's foreign policy thus degenerates into a bloody farce.

Madam President, $20 billion a year will be spent on biodiversity protection next year. Only 2% of this amount was collected at the UN summit. The question of funding is unresolved. The EU also complains of alleged lack of money and rejects new binding funds. Instead, a fund was created for companies that profit from plant diversity. But how do you get enough money from voluntary payments? When it comes to war, EU and NATO countries are more spendable. Last year, NATO countries spent $1.3 trillion on armaments. Ukraine’s support has the motto ‘For as long as necessary’. So far, this alone has cost Germany more than 40 billion euros. Wouldn't it make more sense to rely on diplomacy so that the weapons are finally silent? The billions squandered for death and destruction would be better invested in protecting our livelihoods, rather than risking a world war with the use of far-reaching weapons against the nuclear power Russia.

Madam President, One of the goals of the UN Future Pact is to strengthen international diplomacy. This is urgently needed. A negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East is finally needed. The United Nations can and should play a central role in this. It cannot therefore be that the right-wing extremist government of Israel prohibits the UN Secretary-General from entering the country and torpedoes all attempts to reach a ceasefire. But it is also people in Europe, such as Ursula von der Leyen or Mrs Strack-Zimmermann from the Liberals, who lend their voices to the arms lobby, who, alongside the US and NATO, are trying to undermine diplomatic solutions and who defame anyone who speaks out in favour of peace negotiations. That's a disgrace. It is good that tens of thousands of people are now taking to the streets against warmongering. With more and more weapons for Ukraine and Israel, the risk of escalation to the point of world war is increasing. A secure future is only possible with diplomacy and negotiations for an immediate ceasefire.

Madam President, More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed so far by the Israeli army in Gaza, half of them women and children. But the EU Ursula von der Leyens continues to support the right-wing extremist government of Israel alongside the US and Germany. The war is justified by the fact that, after the terrible attack by Hamas, it is a fight against Islamist terror. But terror cannot be combated by bombs or by overriding international humanitarian law. What the war in Gaza has achieved and is apparently intended to achieve is to make peace efforts in the region permanently impossible. But a regulation is needed that both secures Israel's right to exist and finally implements the formation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. My party, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, calls for an end to arms supplies to Israel, an immediate ceasefire and negotiations. The killing in Gaza must come to an end.