EU Parliament, Strasbourg, P10 CRE-REV(2025)05-05(1-0186-0000).
Herr President.
Scarce success, billions in German tax money trickling away – that is the mournful balance of REGI [Regional Development] promotion. Less poverty, more jobs, less emigration from rural regions – a nil return, despite a 270 billion euro promotion. Yet what actually happened with so much money? I asked Elisa Ferreira, the last REGI Commissioner about that. She admitted that it’s not about costs and uses, but about peace, freedom and welfare. In the end, these means would also help to check right-populist parties in rural areas.
In fact, there was in the past year a study of Kiel
University which indicated that, without the REGI means in remote regions,
rightist parties would have received two to three percent more. 270 billion
repurposed to the fight against rightists – that is unheard of. Let us make the
rural area livable again. Let’s finally put the REGI means to use for our Heimat.
[trans: tem]
