In a debate in the European Parliament over the pay gap between men and women on Wednesday, Poland’s Janusz Korwin-Mikke went on a rant in which he argued that women should earn less than men “because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent. They must earn less, that’s all.”
In an attempt to provide evidence for his remarks, Korwin-Mikke said that no women placed in the top 800 in the Polish theoretical physics Olympiad, nor did any rank among the top-100 chess players. Korwin-Mikke, who belongs to a marginal right-wing party, has issued controversial statements before. Last year he was fined and suspended for referring to Europe’s influx of migrants to “excrement.” And in the past, he’s used the n-word and issued the Nazi salute.
On Wednesday, fellow MEP Iratxe Garcia Perez from Spain, who visibly grimaced during Korwin-Mikke’s speech, shot back at his diatribe with blistering remarks:
Subscribe to The World’s Most Powerful Women, Fortune’s daily must-read for global businesswomen.
Parliament President Antonio Tajani is now investigating whether Korwin-Mikke broke the body’s rules, which ban defamatory, racist, or xenophobic behavior. Violating the body’s standards of decorum can earn a member a fine or a temporary suspension.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
More Must-Reads From TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- How Far Trump Would Go
- Scenes From Pro-Palestinian Encampments Across U.S. Universities
- Saving Seconds Is Better Than Hours
- Why Your Breakfast Should Start with a Vegetable
- 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Ryan Gosling
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com