European Parliament President Roberta Metsola called on EU leaders to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime as it cracks down on protesters, saying the days of “dictators will come to an end in 2026” in an interview with Euronews.
Metsola has expressed some of the harshest condemnation aimed at the Iranian regime among the Brussels institutions, suggesting that further sanctions should be tabled immediately and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard be added to the EU’s terrorist list.
“We are appalled by what is happening in Iran and we cannot stand idly when we see that the regime is using violence, repression and abuse to clamp down on what we believe to be fundamental freedoms,” she told flagship morning show Europe Today.
Earlier this week, the European Parliament boss banned Iranian diplomats from entering the premises of the parliament. She has also called on the EU to implement a swift response to the violent crackdown of protesters in Iran which the international community said would be a red line. Civil groups count more than 2,000 killed.
It is difficult to independently verify the numbers as phone lines and the internet have been taken down by the regime in Iran in a mass media blackout.
“We have seen violence, assassinations, and this is not something we will tolerate,” she told Euronews from the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Following the violent repression of protesters, the EU is debating a move to list the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist entity, which would carry further punitive measures.
Metsola said she would be in favour of the terrorist designation and added the European parliament has long lobbied for Iran’s most feared military body to be branded as such. In 2023, a parliamentary resolution called to add IRGC to the EU list of terrorists.
“This has been in a position of the European Parliament for many years now, ever since we saw those brave women on the streets of Iran calling for their liberty, their rights and their dignity” to be respected, Metsola said in a reference to Women, Life, Freedom movement which followed the assassination ofMahsa Amini.
According to Metsola, the Iranian regime is now on “its last legs” and the European Union has a “golden” opportunity to show its commitment to freedom and be a player in the region by supporting the protesters and punishing the perpetrators.
Metsola suggested the EU should not wait for the United States to finalise its plans on a possible intervention in Iran, which President Donald Trump has floated as an option, to take action.
She also echoed the words of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who suggested that the regime may be entering its “final weeks” and is “effectively finished” if it can only survive through force.
“How that happens, that’s not for us to say; it’s for the Iranian people to determine (their future), but we must support them”, she said. “If not now, when?”
“2026 is the year where dictatorships will be over,” she added.
