Nine months before the next European Parliament elections on 6 - 9 June, President Ursula von der Leyen outlines her Commission’s priorities from now until the end of its mandate. She focuses on a stronger and more resilient European Union, on the EU’s continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s aggression, on energy security and EU energy independence, the EU’s twin green and digital transitions, and on protecting core EU values. Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) co-Chair of the The Left Group, gives his statement during the State of the European Union 2023 in Strasbourg. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

SCHIRDEWAN, Martin (The Left, DE)

The Left

state of the European Union 2023 (T)

State of the European Union 2023: Statement by Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE) co-Chair of the The Left Group

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/72165358/1694596813597_I244629Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - Thank you very much, Madam President. Our political success cannot be measured in soapbox oratory. It's measured by the real life conditions of the majority of people. And we've heard about the man-on-the-moon moment. When it comes to what you're talking about: social justice, tax justice, rule of law, climate neutrality, respect and dignity, there's all sorts of watchwords you're using.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - Basically you are promising Europeans everything under the sun. But reality is very different. A simple worker in the EU over the past year has had to take around a 4% hit to their real wages. This worker can no longer afford to take a well-earned holiday with their family because electricity, heating and rent is becoming more and more expensive. They just don't understand the world anymore when you talk about social justice.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - Single mothers hear your speech about the child guarantee as being cynical. It's completely cynical because in her daily life as a single mother, she's trying to work out how to get food on the table. But during your presidency, food has become 34% more expensive to feed her children. You didn't say anything about the crisis in purchasing power, speculation. You didn't stop that. You didn't stop the forced price rises.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - You didn't introduce a sustainable windfall profit tax. We're looking at recent figures that say 95 million people in the EU are threatened by poverty. That is your achievement that you need to be judged by. There was a pensioner in my constituency in eastern Germany who got €660 a month as his pension. He's had a long life of graft. And it's too little to live off, but it's too much to die for. And this is a case of one in four pensioners in the EU who cannot enjoy a life of dignity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - These pensioners' twilight years are just as many light years away from dignity as this European Commission is from the day to day life of most people. So we see this house of Europe that's been turned into some sort of ramshackle ruin. Your man on the moon for a long time has been in freefall without a parachute heading towards the hard ground of reality. What you do? Well, we see you clutching on to the broken energy market, the tax break, without any economic rhyme or reason.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - We see this policy of just cutting payments, cutting money, stymieing investments for the future about doing this. And you're stopping the fight against poverty. And that really borders on a political denial of reality. And people are incandescent, rightly so. Same time as you're plagued by existential worries, we see energy companies and food corporation, housing companies making huge profits. Also the armaments industry.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - I just wonder, Madam President, how you can sleep at night. 11,000 people have died on external borders of the EU since 2019. Seven die every single day. And you talk about respect and dignity and humanity and compassion. Well. Looking at the deportation camps, destruction of families, militarisation of the border police and lethal pushbacks have nothing to do with respect and dignity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), - So stop with your soapbox oratory. Let let's have policies once and for all that's going to help the majority of people. There seems to be a lack of respect by this Commission of the people in Europe, normal people in Europe, and their situation. And if you want a Europe that is socially just, ecological, peaceful, then you have to vote against the policies of this Commission. Thank you.