The ECR Group stands firmly with the Iranian people in their demand for freedom, justice and basic rights.

The brutal repression of nationwide protests in Iran requires a strong European response, including further sanctions and diplomatic isolation of the country.

Speaking in the plenary debate on Iran, ECR Co-Chairman Nicola Procaccini condemned the violent crackdown by the Ayatollah regime and expressed the Group’s solidarity with young Iranians risking their lives for freedom.

Procaccini said:

“While we are discussing in this Chamber, on the streets and in the universities of Tehran, the uprising of young Iranians is being drowned in blood. The Ayatollah regime is brutally repressing yet another generation hungry for freedom.

“In the face of this horror, however, Europe cannot remain a spectator. What is needed is an unprecedented political and diplomatic mobilisation”

He highlighted the scale of repression and the terror inflicted on families of victims, saying:

“In just a few weeks, the numbers of terror have become unbearable: thousands of dead of all ages, including many children. A business of horror has even emerged for the Basij militiamen, who demand 700 million toman, around six thousand euros, from the families of murdered protesters in order to return the bodies of their loved ones.”

Procaccini underlined that standing with the Iranian people is not foreign interference, but a moral duty, saying:

“For us European conservatives, standing on the side of a people in revolt is not an act of external interference, as the regime’s propaganda claims. It is a moral necessity even before it is a political one.”

He also pointed to the striking silence of parts of the European left in response to the repression in Iran.

“According to others, we should not concern ourselves with this because it is not our business. Often, these are the same people who set our cities on fire during the Gaza crisis. Sadly, when Iranian women defy the regime by uncovering their heads, we do not see the solidarity demonstrations that we have seen on other occasions. There are no flotillas on their way, no occupied universities, no colourful T-shirts in this Chamber”, he said.

Concluding his intervention, Procaccini addressed Iran’s youth directly and reaffirmed Europe’s responsibility not to look away.

“To the young Iranians I say: you are not alone. Your struggle is also our struggle. And your freedom is the measure of our consistency”, he concluded.