Three Euro MPs have been accused of using hate speech by female colleagues.
The complainants have written to Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, and asked her to take action on the grounds that hate speech should not be tolerated in the European Parliament.
“All three of us reacted verbally and called out these speakers during the debate,” the EU lawmakers wrote in their letter seen by Politico. “But it is our firm belief that the European Parliament itself also needs to put its foot down and show that it does not tolerate this kind of hate speech in its chamber.”
The women want Metsola to make clear “they crossed the line” and possibly reduce their daily parliamentary allowance.
Two of the accused MEPs, Anders Vistisen and Isabella Adinolfi, agreed that all forms of violence against women were wrong, but they stated that in their eyes, the biggest problem in this regard was the influence of Islam on the position of women and the rule of law.
“When I look at my own country, Denmark, there is no doubt about where the male chauvinist culture is dominant: where female genital mutilation is favoured, where girls are sent on re-education trips to Islamic countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where domestic violence is widespread, and where, unfortunately, there are also many examples of murder and rape,” Vistisen stated.
Dutch Renew MEP Samira Rafaela, who is Muslim and co-signer of the letter, spoke up in parliament and said the words of Vistisen “can foster aggressiveness and attacks toward people, for example with a migrant background.” In the letter to the President of the Parliament, Vistisen’s remarks were labelled a “clear example of hate speech” based on ethnicity and religion.
Kære @Enhedslisten @nvillumsen, @Spolitik @SchaldemoseMEP, @venstredk @Loekkegaard_MEP, @moderaterne_dk @BergurLokke og @radikale @mortenhelveg – nu har jeres grupper i @Europarl_DK valgt at kræve jeg sanktioneres med bøder 1/2 #dkmedier #dkpol #eudk https://t.co/VW4UBmgNdn
— Anders Vistisen (@AndersVistisen) May 11, 2023
The Brussels Signal spoke with the press officer of Mr. Vistisen on May 12, who said he had heard nothing from Parliament authorities. The press officer said Mr Vistisen had two objections to the original resolution.
First, that the EP does not have jurisdiction. “They speak for example about Uganda” he said, when, “criminal law is a national competence, not a European one.”
Second, that the the resolution had nothing to do with hate speech or racism. “Statistics in Denmark show clearly that in cases of violence against women, as referred to in the resolution, there is a strong over-representation of migrants from Islamic countries.”
The other accused MEP, Cristian Terheș, a Romanian who sits with the Conservatives and Reformists group, talked about transgenderism. He made made a parallel between men identifying as women and men identifying as cars. The remarks were deemed “transphobic” by the authors of the letter.
