Speeches

Madam President, yesterday, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, announced a new series of sanctions and a new procedure against Hungary. But what crime did Viktor Orbán commit? He was re-elected on Sunday with an absolute majority, the most comfortable in Europe. He is the best-elected head of government in the entire European Union. And of course, on this occasion, the European institutions show how much they have a real problem with democracy today. There have been Article 7 proceedings against Poland and Hungary for five years. And everyone is well aware that, in reality, these alleged breaches of the rule of law are just a pretext, a political pretext. Hungary and Poland are blamed for defending our identity as a European and Christian civilization. They are accused of wanting to combat immigration and of refusing mandatory quotas for the distribution of migrants. They are accused of not giving in to LGBT injunctions and activism. Today, Hungary is at the forefront of welcoming Ukrainian refugees. One billion was paid by the Hungarian State. It is time for the European Union to respect democracy, adopt sanctions and procedures against Hungary, and actually and concretely help Hungary. Because you are full of European solidarity, but you rarely apply it.

Madam President, Mr High Representative, last week in Dakar, Ursula von der Leyen announced more than EUR 150 billion for Africa over the 2021-2027 period, in addition to EUR 29 billion for sub-Saharan Africa under the new Neighbourhood and Cooperation Instrument. What is the counterpart to all this money? Commercially, the volume of trade between the European Union and Africa has been stable for ten years. At the same time, trade between China and Africa is growing so rapidly that Beijing could quickly supplant us. Diplomatically, tensions are growing. We are now being driven out of Mali, where our soldiers have been dying for years fighting jihadism, at the request of African leaders. Finally, in the area of migration, the European Union refuses to pressure Africa to take back its many illegal migrants. Without a firm commitment from African countries, the EUR 150 billion announced, the equivalent of one fifth of the European recovery plan, does not appear as a balanced partnership, but as a real gift. Relations between the European Union and Africa are a subject close to my heart. I was the author, together with my Mauritian colleague Sangeet Fowdar, of a report in 2018 by the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In particular, I called for two requirements. First, it is imperative to combat endemic corruption. If we provide funds, they must be injected directly into the real economy and into the construction of road, electricity and digital infrastructure, the existence of which is – as is well known – the prerequisite for economic development. Intermediaries must be kept to a minimum, so that the money actually reaches its destination. Finally, the payment of this money must be conditional on real control of migratory flows to Europe and the return to their country of the illegal immigrants present on our soil. If we help Africa, it is also to keep Africans there.

Madam President, Mr President of the Republic, we remember September 2017, your speech at the Sorbonne, the display of a certain European ambition that has proved, every day of your mandate, increasingly empty and often very arrogant. Today is the dawn of a new election. President but above all candidate, you use, although you defended the French presidency of the European Union as a communication operation and not as an effective lever for action at the service of nations and peoples. It is first of all a way to make you forget your balance sheet and especially your failures. Failure on posted work. Your tour in the Eastern countries will not have changed anything to unfair intra-European competition, the social charges remaining paid in the countries of origin. Failure to enforce Europe and France. When Erdogan provokes, humiliates, even threatens, billions of euros of subsidies continue to be poured into Turkey, which increasingly resemble a racket. And as a bonus, we renew the customs union agreement. Nuclear failure, which you abandoned for 4 years, which you rediscovered recently. But your commissioner, Thierry Breton, admits that in 2050, nuclear power production will have to increase from 26% today to 15%. Failure on the European recovery plan for which France will receive 39 billion, but will have to disburse 70. Failed on the borders, you promised to protect them, migrants enter illegally by the hundreds of thousands and France is the red lantern of Europe, with barely one in 10 illegal immigrants being deported. So who can believe that you will do in a few months, but in reality in a few useful weeks only of French presidency of the EU, which you have not done in 5 years, especially since you are carrying out a program that is not so much yours as that of the Commission. And it is undoubtedly this that the French, but also the other peoples of Europe, can most reproach you. On the necessary defense of external borders, on the affirmation of a project of civilization for a proud Europe, on the democratic will of a Europe of freedoms, on the hope of a powerful Europe, based on cooperation rather than coercion, nations expected the singularity and strength of a French voice. You have given up making it heard, preferring to stay on the beaten track of Brussels technocracy. This French Presidency already sounds like a great missed opportunity.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, with rising energy prices, many Europeans will find it difficult to warm up this winter. The green madness that has taken over Brussels and is likely to worsen with the new German government wants to exclude nuclear energy from the energy needed to combat carbon emissions, despite the fact that it is the Commission’s single reading grid – and indeed a reducing factor – in terms of ecology. It is true that so-called renewable energies, wind in particular, which are both expensive, intermittent and more polluting than we say, are often juicy markets from which some profit by claiming to save the planet. Nuclear power, however, is clean, decarbonised and the cheapest energy. It is mastered by state-of-the-art engineering, a sector of European excellence and in particular French excellence. Emmanuel Macron now claims to be aware of this, finally, after having nevertheless taken the totally irresponsible decision to close the neighbouring Fessenheim power plant. So remove your blinders, stop dogmatically rejecting nuclear power, an energy of the future to ensure the independence and purchasing power of Europeans. But producing electricity at a reasonable cost is not enough. We also need partners for an abundant supply of cheap natural gas. And don’t worry, the main one of these partners – as there is obviously no question of being dependent on anyone and therefore at the mercy of a single source – is Russia. It is essential for our energy security and the portfolio of our citizens that we get out of the infernal spiral of sanctions, themselves generating embargoes, of this crazy and absurd policy of a new cold war that Brussels has been waging for years. Despite its constant aggression and insults, you trade with Turkey. Despite the duplicity they often show, you trade with China and the United States, which also defend their own interests, which is not in itself open to criticism. But you are irrationally refusing any peaceful relationship with Russia. Of course, the sovereignty of our nations, the territorial integrity of European countries are not negotiable. But once these limits are set, we must know how to dialogue in order to find mutually beneficial political, economic and trade agreements. If you want Russia to leave us alone, leave her alone in return and let's trade with her: our civilizational proximity and our common interests, energy in particular, should encourage us to do so.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are once again debating the crisis at the Belarusian border. Let's be clear: Chartering charter flights to bring migrants home is arguably the most responsible and humanitarian policy. To expel is to protect. Protect migrants, first instrumentalised by the Belarusian authorities and pushed towards the border. Of course, no one forced them to embark from Baghdad or Africa to Minsk. Lukashenko helps them, but they are the ones who want to cross the border illegally and come to Europe hoping to find Eldorado there. They are obviously not there against their will. We saw them attack the border with a shovel, an axe, and throw stones at the Poles. At the same time, they stage to move public opinion and influence policy. And with you, it always works. So meditate on this phrase by Auguste Comte, who said that the mind must always be the minister of the heart, never its slave. However, you are incentivising migrants to come by promising them unreserved, unconditional reception, by giving more and more money – another EUR 700 000 just last week. If there is a humanitarian, migration and security crisis, you are largely responsible. The most humanitarian policy is that of Australia: zero regularisation, zero migrants and zero deaths at sea. The firmness of the Polish government, border guards and military paid off. Several hundred migrants have already left and many more will follow. They are back home with their families, away from the Belarusian cold. This is also true humanity. The security of our peoples is paramount. She comes first. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia know this. All Europeans can thank them.

Madam President, for several months now, Lithuania and Poland have been subjected to the migratory pressure and blackmail methodically organised by Belarus, which is implementing a real air bridge between the Middle East and Minsk in order to dump tens of thousands of illegal immigrants on our doorstep. Lukashenko acts as Erdoğan did before him, who was never sanctioned. On Monday, I was in Lithuania, alongside the staff deployed by Frontex and Lithuanian border guards who bravely face each other, strengthening their borders, hastily building a barrier with modern security, thanks in particular to the support and solidarity of Estonia, Slovenia and Denmark. But as usual, the European Commission is absent subscribers, obsessively and ideologically refusing to pay a penny to finance the closure, but suspiciously ensuring that the sacrosanct dogma of non-refoulement of migrants is respected to the letter. But who can believe for a second that these manipulated migrants, pushing women and children in front of them to artificially arouse empathy, but who do not hesitate to physically attack the border and try to reach European soil with violence, would have laudable intentions? Certainly, taken in hand and manipulated by Belarus, they come at best to benefit from a social generosity that we can no longer afford, and in the worst case, we know, to sow chaos, insecurity and sometimes even terrorism on our soil. In any case, we have only one duty: refuse blackmail, guard our borders, prevent them from entering, point out the way back and expel them from Europe. We are not meant to welcome all the misery of the world, neither the gangs of criminals and traffickers, nor the Islamists and terrorists in power. Today, Poland and Lithuania, like Hungary yesterday, are resolutely defending the external borders, despite European institutions trying to curb them instead of helping them. These states deserve our respect, our thanks, because by protecting the Polish border, they are protecting all of Europe and Europeans.

Mr President, Madam President, Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, where does legitimacy lie? Who defends freedom? Is the rule of law severable from national and popular sovereignty? Is an array of Commissioners, civil servants and elected officials from other countries legitimate to dictate to a people what their way of life and governance should be? This is the whole issue that brings us together today. Three years ago, I went to Warsaw as part of an official mission of our Parliament to investigate the reform of the Polish justice system and what was then presented to us as – I quote – a systemic breach of the rule of law. What I was able to observe, as in Hungary two weeks ago on a similar mission, is that these accusations have absolutely no basis. There is nothing, absolutely nothing. Moreover, it is legitimate to question the impartiality of the European institutions, which are concerned about the questioning of the primacy of EU law only in certain cases, and on the basis of political calculations and motivations which everyone can see are much more ideological than legal. As you pointed out just now, Prime Minister, judgments similar to that of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal have indeed been handed down in Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania and even France, a country that has forged its concept of constitutional identity. Similarly, Brussels is only concerned about an alleged breach of the separation of powers in certain countries, and strangely always the same, with worrying radicalisation. The Commission and the left of the European Parliament, of which the EPP now seems to be a part, as illustrated by Manfred Weber’s aggressiveness towards Poland, are persecuting sovereign states whose conservative governments are democratically and widely elected and re-elected. This should lead some of you to a little less arrogance when you see your election results. While the ongoing procedures are at a standstill thanks to a wise decision by the Council, the Parliament continues to claim to act under Article 7. And, since the attacks on the organisation of the Polish judiciary are in fact unsubstantiated, there are other pretexts: LGBT claims and willingness to control children’s sex education. And they are now taking the Polish people hostage by instrumentalizing the post-COVID recovery plan as a means of financial pressure. The methods are abhorrent, the objectives are no less so. Prime Minister, your opponents are not looking for the truth. They want to make you confess. They demand forced and public confessions in a country that faced two totalitarianisms in the last century. This is no trivial thing. The rule of law is a pretext for a real Stalinist trial. The real motivation for these attacks, we know: you refuse migration laxity, you refuse the moral and societal dictates of a European federalism that violates the Treaties and illegitimately interferes in all national policies, from education to health to family policy and judicial organisation. But why the panic of the federalists? Why such bad faith as to the actual scope of this judgment? Simply because the Polish Constitutional Tribunal is finally putting the European Union back in its place. It was composed of States which freely and freely consented to a common project. They recall that the powers of the European Union are only those that have been delegated by the nations in Brussels. The treaties clearly delineate its powers and they are also there for that. There is therefore neither a legal nor a political Polexit. Prime Minister, Poland is a great European nation. It was often at the heart of our common history, sometimes for your misfortune, sometimes for your glory. On many occasions, including the siege of Vienna in 1683, the Poles resisted and fought, defending European civilization, its nations, peoples and freedoms. Today, you continue this tradition by putting an end to the sprawling, unlimited, totalitarian extension of European law, instrumentalised to impose policies that people do not want. Thank you for your patience and endurance in the face of unjustified accusations. Thank you for your determination and courage in defending the freedoms of our nations. Thank you for your foresight in upholding our values of civilization. Hold on.

Mr President, when it comes to asylum, it would be reasonable to finally return to the strict definition of a refugee, as set out in the Geneva Convention. I quote: ‘any person who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’. Today, we see hundreds of thousands of refugees who claim to be fleeing the war, but come mostly for economic reasons and to benefit from our very advantageous social systems. As for the rejected asylum seekers, they are almost never expelled and therefore remain on our soil. Asylum has become a fully-fledged immigration channel. The creation of this European Asylum Agency, which you would like to see, will have only one result: send a new signal of weakness and laxity, that of a Europe whose doors are wide open. Lucides, several Member State leaders warn you: the errors of 2015 should not be repeated. Over the past six years, there have been five million asylum seekers on our continent, the equivalent in number of inhabitants of the Grand Est region, almost the population of Denmark. Denmark, let's talk about it, this is a country to take as an example! Copenhagen has already withdrawn asylum from supposedly Syrian refugees, as there is now nothing to prevent them from returning home. What we need is not an Asylum Agency, but an agency that organises in a humane, of course, but effective way the return to their country of origin of all those who have nothing to do in Europe. Your European Pact on Migration and Asylum has stalled. To live up to the challenges, you have to show courage, as in Lithuania: detention for smuggled migrants who have not lodged a legal application for asylum; as in Hungary: construction of a wall at the external land borders of the European Union; as in Denmark: return home of migrants whose country is no longer at war. As for Belarus, diplomatic and economic sanctions are needed with countries that refuse to take back their migrants or threaten us. The objective must be clear: shutting down migration flows and stopping the rush to Europe.

Mr President, Mrs von der Leyen, you have given us an endless speech, as usual, on the state of the Union. It is remembered that you are happy with yourself, but you are the only one. On immigration, 2015 had already marked the mistakes and failures of the European institutions. Today, the situation is increasingly catastrophic and the pressure at our external borders is increasing. Lithuania and Poland face hybrid aggression, manipulated by foreign powers. They respond with strong measures. Will you finally and clearly support them rather than defend your Pact on Migration and Asylum, which adds laxity to powerlessness? In the South, Turkey continues to put pressure on Greece and Cyprus. Brussels responds with curves hoping to sweeten Erdoğan. Today, we are at risk of suffering waves of migrants from Afghanistan. The Taliban’s victory is first and foremost the spectacular failure of those who thought that the Western democratic model was exportable anywhere on the planet. As several lucid European Heads of State and Government say, the mistakes of 2015 should not be repeated. Afghan refugees must be kept in neighbouring countries and in no way allowed to come to Europe. It is time, for example, to hold Pakistan to account. Pakistan, whose regime is almost openly Islamist, Pakistan, which enjoys commercial and economic benefits from the European Union and is therefore indebted to us as such. Ms von der Leyen, you said that welcoming Afghan migrants was our responsibility. No, no! Your responsibility is to ensure the stability of Europe and the security of Europeans. And I am amazed to hear some of your Commissioners begging the Taliban to be inclusive and even considering aid to Afghanistan. Thus, the ideologues of Brussels are ready to talk with the Taliban, but want to punish Hungary and Poland more and more. We are witnessing a worrying radicalisation and it is clear that the rule of law is being used as a real pretext to interfere and impose societal glories on education, health and the family. The Commission is now betraying the commitments made a few months ago by the Council to Poland and Hungary on the conditionality mechanism. It is instrumentalising the post-COVID recovery as a means of pressure, and the upcoming mission of our Parliament’s Committee on Freedoms to Budapest already looks like a real political trial. Clearly, the state of the Union is hard to see.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, an additional EUR 3 billion for Turkey is the decision taken by the Council which, Mrs von der Leyen, you were very pleased to announce. You may hope that Erdoğan will be grateful by reserving a seat for you at your next meeting. This new envelope extends the EU-Turkey agreement on migrants. While Ankara is supposed, in return for this money, to control migration flows, it is in fact endowed with a new means of pressure. Our Parliament is quick to denounce the instrumentalisation of migrants by Morocco and Belarus. It would be good if he finally decided to sanction Turkish actions. The Council also welcomes, and I quote, the 'de-escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean'. This is probably one of the motivations for the allocation of new billions. When Erdoğan shows the fangs, the European Union does not dare to answer. When he calms down very temporarily, but does not acknowledge his wrongs, Brussels hastens to congratulate him, hoping to soften him. But neither the money nor the gestures of appeasement prevent him from spitting in our faces. Turkey reacted immediately, saying that three billion is not enough. Erdoğan wants more, more. It also re-attacks the sovereignty of Cyprus, where the Turks have occupied almost half of the territory for 50 years now. Turkey, which continues to colonise the island, demands the creation of two states. Refusing the balance of power in the face of this country that openly threatens us, sends us thousands of migrants and violates the air and sea spaces of European countries, the European institutions are not up to the challenge. They continue to believe that we can get along with Erdoğan by making more and more concessions to him. What will Brussels give him this time? Visa liberalisation or, of course, modernisation of the Customs Union. It is time to stop and finally put a formal and irreversible end to Turkey’s EU accession process. Finally, since the subject was raised by the Council, I cannot help but refer to the scandalous lawsuit brought against Hungary with regard to its draft law against paedophilia. Allegations of discrimination and homophobia are pure disinformation, which can be seen by taking the trouble to look at the actual content of this text for two minutes. Hungary wants to protect its children from the delusions of gender ideology and trans-identity. The hysteria surrounding this case shows that Budapest is right to want to limit the propaganda of an increasingly aggressive and demanding LGBT communitarianism.