The ECR Group is calling for stronger pressure on Iran’s regime, the release of political prisoners and an end to politically motivated executions. Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the Group also warns against any normalisation of relations with Tehran while the repression continues. EU High Representative Kaja Kallas met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at the UN General Assembly in September. At the initiative of the ECR Group, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola had already raised the case of Taraneh Rahimi publicly in mid-September, after ECR Co-Chair Nicola Procaccini brought the matter to the Conference of Presidents.

Speaking in the plenary debate, ECR MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen criticised European leaders for continuing high-level contacts with Tehran despite the violent crackdown on protesters. Tynkkynen said:

“European selective moral disgusts me. A 20-year-old girl, Taraneh, was sentenced to death in Iran for waging war against Allah. She simply opposed the Islamic regime.

“What is Europe doing? Our highest officials are having dialogues with the killers. The Islamic regime is constantly killing people, many just like Taraneh.”

ECR MEP Jessika van Leeuwen said repeated European Parliament resolutions had failed to halt the worsening repression. She called for those facing imprisonment and execution to be released and warned European governments against negotiating with Tehran while executions continue. She said:

“The repression only gets worse. In 2025, Iran carried out at least 2,159 executions, the highest number since 1981. But we are not just talking numbers.

“I call upon our national leaders, we must never, ever negotiate with a regime that exploits wars as a pretext to carry out executions on their own people.”

ECR MEP Veronika Vrecionová said Europe should end its policy of accommodation towards Tehran and respond more forcefully to a regime that represses women, minorities and other groups while supporting terrorism across the region. She said:

“Again and again, we come here to speak on this stage to criticize the terrorist regime of Iranian Ayatollahs. Again and again, we come here to condemn death sentences imposed on opponents to the Iranian regime, but also people sentenced completely on arbitrary charges.

“Iran keeps on funding terrorist groups across the region. Iran is waging a war against us openly and also secretly. It is trying to cut us off from raw materials. So why don’t we make sure to defend our interests, but also interests of ordinary people in Iran?”