Thank you for organising this important conference. Its aim is to bring together different political and trade union forces to promote joint action against war in Europe.

And the slogan of this conference is also of the utmost importance: „Against war – against social war“.

Our first common international task centres around the question of how to create an „anti-war“ force. We are therefore trying to bring together at European level the forces that are united in their opposition to the war, i.e. to the arms deliveries by European governments to Ukraine, and to the policy of sanctions against Russia, which particularly affects the population. It is illusory to think that sanctions will ruin Russia, as Annalena Baerbock announced with great fanfare, but it is increasingly realistic to think that sanctions will ruin Germany. Sanctions primarily affect the Russian population, not the oligarchs. But at the same time, they are hurting people around the world and in Europe. Rising energy costs are driving de-industrialisation. At the same time, sanctions are a weapon in the economic war waged by the United States against Europe, and Germany in particular.

In the parliaments of our countries, but also at a European level, it is unfortunately only a minority that is opposed to the war.

Yet the overwhelming majority of people around the world are opposed to this war. The majority of countries do not support the arms supply and sanctions policy of the US government, NATO and European governments. The majority of the world’s peoples are with us in opposing the war and arms supplies.

In Germany, the majority of the population would like to see diplomatic initiatives developed. This increases the need to take this demand for peace to the streets. We have seen this. The most effective action was undoubtedly the demonstration by Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer at the Brandenburg Gate.

The American war economy needs this war to ensure its survival.

For the US, this war is about obtaining markets, raw materials and finding new sources of profit. As in Europe, there are those who profit from war by making their profits from people’s deaths.

The acceleration of this rearmament is also destroying public budgets.

Workers are the ones who have to bear the costs of the war. To this end, the government is waging a social war against the working population. This makes it all the more important for us to show solidarity with the strikers, who are fighting to defend their real wages and their jobs. Through their struggles, they are also defending the achievements of the social state.

Allow me to conclude with a personal comment. I myself have Ukrainian roots and let me say that the most important solidarity with the Ukrainian people, with the people of Ukraine, is to support initiatives and resolutions that provide information about the war and the crisis and that commit to an immediate end to this war. To achieve this, immediate negotiations are necessary.

We need an immediate ceasefire. Today! That is true solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Unfortunately, the European Union, European governments and NATO are not taking any initiatives in this direction. Initiatives to send more weapons have nothing to do with solidarity, with solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

I thank you for this important conference, for your commitment in all countries, for your work and your invitation, and I am convinced that a broad force will emerge to defeat the belligerents in all countries.