free speech versus "hate speech": EU Parliament edition | Eastern NC Now

"Hate speech" is an Orwellian term used by totalitarians who hate FREE speech, but that term is now being used to try to censor conservative members of the European parliament. The left has filed complaints against three conservative members for their political comments that the left deems "hate speech" and demands penalties for it.  All are for comments made in debate on the floor of the parliament.

An MEP of Forza Italia, the traditional conservative party in Italy led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlosconi had a complaint filed against her for making reference to a Muslim "honor killing" that happened in Italy of a young woman who refused an arranged marriage.  Mentioning that incident was deemed "hate speech".

An MEP of the Danish Peoples Party, a populist / nationalist anti-immigration party had a complaint filed against him for citing official statistics on migrants and sex crimes.  He denounced the move as an attempt to censor discussion of the problem of migrants and crime.  Denmark's Social Democatic Justice Minister confirmed the statistics cited were accurate.

An MEP from Romania's National Christian Democratic Party has a complaint filed against him for stating in debate that "civilized society needs to put female safety over and above that of dangerous gender ideology."

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/hate-speech-at-the-eu-parliament/

Democracy in Europe, even among its elected officials seems to be on thin ice with these challenges to freedom of speech of elected officials in their parliamentary debate.

As George Orwell wrote. "freedom of speech is your right to say what I don't want to hear".