Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as we speak, 1.5 million people know that they will be sentenced to death in Rafah if we do nothing. Israel is preparing to launch a massive ground operation there after shelling the city with bombs, while more than half of Gaza’s population has taken refuge there under Israeli orders and is now crammed into it in abominable conditions. What will happen in the coming hours, if international pressure does not bring Netanyahu back to his senses, is a real carnage. As Mr Borrell himself said, Gazans do not die alone. They are dying because Benjamin Netanyahu is acting with impunity. They die because they deliver military equipment to Israel to blindly kill tens of thousands of Palestinians. They die because the EU prefers to turn a blind eye and refuses to suspend its association agreement with Israel for some lucrative profits. They die because the European Union is unable to implement the ruling of the International Court of Justice, which orders precautionary measures against Israel in the face of the risk of genocide. They are dying because Members here in this Chamber, just now, from the right-wing side, refuse to help them. They are dying because members here prefer to condone humanitarian carnage and genocide. They die because some here prefer to have blood on their hands.

Mr Canfin, you told us that it would not change anything to point to free trade. However, you and your group voted for one of the last free trade agreements with New Zealand, which, for example, will include the import of 15 000 tonnes of milk, 25 000 tonnes of cheese, 36 000 tonnes of butter, 164 000 tonnes of beef, all produced with pesticides, such as atrazine, which are banned in the European Union but still allowed in New Zealand. So do you think, for all these farmers, that it will not change anything to continue to import massively these products, which contribute to unfair competition?

Mr President, 'we are supposed to feed people, and you let us die in our fields': This is what I was told last week by farmers I met on blockages. Who lets them die? Names must be given: it is you, ladies and gentlemen, who have systematically refused floor prices in order to pay farmers with dignity, who have swept away the possibility of blocking the margins of the agro-industry, who have squandered their pockets by cracking down on consumers, who have in turn signed free trade agreements that impose totally unfair competition on our farmers. How dare you come to this forum and make great statements for farmers, hand in hand, when with that same hand you have just approved the free trade agreement with New Zealand, which will increase imports of milk, meat, cheese, wine or honey from literally the other side of the planet? All this, of course, with pesticides banned on European soil. Fortunately, hypocrisy does not kill, colleagues, unlike farming. Our group here in Parliament is the only one in this Chamber to have unanimously rejected all these free trade agreements. As if that were not enough, you voted for two more, last week, with Chile and Kenya. Where are you going to stop? On the complete death of our European agriculture? Do not tell me that the agreement with Mercosur would be paused when, in reality, negotiations continue and another shovel of agreements with Mexico, Australia and India is looming. How do you want our farmers to be competitive against the huge factory farms in Brazil or Ukraine? Explain to me the meaning of importing from the other side of the world products that are already produced here, and of good quality! All these agreements are insults addressed to farmers, arboriculturists, market gardeners, fishermen, agricultural workers, who feed us on a daily basis. Last week, I met two beekeepers who were calling for help. Like many, they find themselves with all of their 2023 production on their hands, which large retailers no longer want to buy, preferring New Zealand, Chinese or Ukrainian honey. Bees are foraging and supermarkets are pocketing the loot. Like many of their colleagues, these two beekeepers are discouraged and are thinking about stopping everything. What are you going to tell them? That we will continue with this madness? Farmers no longer want, can no longer be the cash cows of agribusiness and your free trade obsession, colleagues. If you continue along this path, all European agriculture will be left behind.

Mr President, our European Parliament is under control. After Qatar, we learn that a member of parliament works for the Russian secret services. Putin's interference is outrageous, but don't count on me to cry with the ball of hypocrites feigning surprise. The truth is that corruption in the European institutions is not an accident but a system. The truth is that you, Mr Schinas, are giving a lot of ethics lessons today, but when it came to Qatar and you had your hands stuck in it, you did not hesitate to give them a hand. The truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that the majority of you refuse serious rules and controls and impunity is enshrined in law. The truth is that a quarter of the Members here have violated the law or the Rules of Procedure – corruption, embezzlement, harassment. Corrupt people, ladies and gentlemen, are like vampires: They hate the light. Then we will continue to shine a huge spotlight on these practices. And on 9 June, we will have the opportunity to clean up and drive out all the magouilleurs in the European institutions.

Madam President, Minister, Mrs von der Leyen, the record is clear. The reality is that you are giving in to Mr. Orban's whims. You play the game of this institutional hostage-taking organised by Hungary that blocks aid to Ukraine and prevents the revision of the European budget. But we'll talk frankly. It would be a bit easy to hide behind the Hungarian president's spree. We have been saying this for a while now: this European budget is totally insufficient to meet the social and environmental challenges of the moment. And in the face of this, you have systematically refused our proposals to increase the resources of the European Union, for example, randomly, by using multinationals and the richest who continue, year after year, to raise indecent sums. I'll take just one example. In my country, in France, 42 billionaires have earned 230 billion euros in one year, the equivalent of a check of 3,400 euros for each Frenchman. At the same time, shareholders received nearly €100 billion in dividends last year. And on the other side, we have a third of Europeans skipping meals and people dying on the streets of our states. The equation is simple: We have in front of us a privileged minority who are gathered in Davos at the moment - I do not know if you will go, Mrs von der Leyen - who are enriching themselves on the backs of all the others who are impoverished. However, your committee, as well as the right and the Liberals in this Parliament, have systematically refused to go and get the money, the money where it is, by blocking the margins of the multinational companies that are getting richer and by using the billionaires who are bingeing. Instead, you are making people pay, people who are struggling, people by destroying public services, weakening labour rights, demanding unfair reforms, pensions and unemployment benefits. All this for what? To satisfy your sacrosanct fiscal rules that bring back austerity. Because in reality, this is the real subject that no one is talking about today and that should mobilize us all. I'm raising the alarm here. We have before us the greatest fiscal austerity cure ever seen on our continent. And it does not come from nowhere, Mrs von der Leyen, it is your direct responsibility. Seriously, I have a question for you. You do not find that our nurseries are not overcrowded enough, that 30,000 beds have been removed from hospitals in my country, in France, since 2017, it is not enough that our hospitals are in very good health, that there is not enough teachers already in our public schools, that our medicines and medical consultations are already not expensive enough, that electricity rates are not high enough and that public aid must be abolished? And then you said to yourself: with the zealous support of European states, Eureka! Let's do even worse! Let us call on states to further sacrifice public services. I conclude, Madam President, because the President of the Renew Group – not even the President – Mr Verhofstadt, has had a little more time. I finish, I have a short time, I promise you. In my country, France, the application of these new fiscal rules will mean cuts in public spending of 22 billion euros per year. So OK, this is only 12% of Bernard Arnault's fortune, but in real life, brought back to the state budget, it will mean the equivalent of the suppression of 623,000 teaching positions. Suffice it to say a social massacre, to which you add a democratic scandal, ladies and gentlemen, since a coalition of social democrats and liberals and the right together is trying to pass in force. Perhaps you were inspired by President Macron to import 49.3 from France to Europe, well, I tell you, we will not let you.

I note, Ms Loiseau, that you do not answer my question. I am in favour of condemning all war criminals, all those who commit war crimes. But I ask you a very clear question: Do you call for a permanent ceasefire for the Palestinians who are now under Israeli bombs? And I have a second question. Since you are talking about armaments, the European Union is complicit and sends millions of euros of weapons to Israel. So are you going to call for the EU to stop cooperating in this massacre and to call for a permanent ceasefire and stop sending weapons? And I hope that this time I will have a slightly clearer answer.

Ms. Loiseau, more than 24,000 Palestinians have already died in the Gaza Strip, including 10,000 children, under Israeli bombs. And I believe, you will agree, that the least we owe to the Palestinians who are under the bombs is clarity. And I regret from that point of view that the Renaissance Group, and in this case Stéphane Séjourné himself at the last Conference of Presidents, supported the deletion of the term ‘permanent’ to our Parliament’s call for a ceasefire. So my question is very clear: Are you calling for a permanent halt to the massacres or are you just asking for a pause while Israel rebuilds its missile stockpiles to continue decimating the Palestinian people?

Mr. Speaker, 100 days, 100 days that Israel bombs Gaza without a truce and massacres more than 300 innocent people a day, and already more than 10,000 children. 100 days for Netanyahu to realize the macabre dream of the Israeli far right: to eradicate Palestine and its people. 100 days that together with my group on the left, I come here to ask you for our Parliament to act for peace. But today, ladies and gentlemen, our work and determination are finally paying off. Against the war-mongering of the right and the extreme right, the European Parliament is finally preparing to call for a cease-fire. But if you have come to your senses, ladies and gentlemen, also call for justice, by supporting South Africa's initiative, to bring the matter before the International Court of Justice to establish the genocidal nature of Israel's action, but also by suspending our partnership agreement with Israel and stopping our arms exports to Israel. In short, ladies and gentlemen, by ceasing complicity with the European Union. For 100 days, more than 24,000 Palestinians died. Let us not wait one more day or death to demand justice and peace.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it was not until 28 COP that States finally deigned to address the taboo of fossil fuels, but without asking for a clear and clear exit, when they are the main culprit of climate change. It will be necessary to transition without distance, without trajectory or binding timetable. In reality, it is our future on a habitable land that is moving away. The only victory to salute is therefore this great lexical creativity, I must admit, to invent terms that commit to nothing. Because today, humanity is actually transitioning mainly towards its extinction. And it's no surprise, as this conference of parties was actually a conference of lobbyists. 2500 lobbyists teeming in the corridors, four times more than for COP27. The boss of Total, a great eco, as we know, in Emmanuel Macron's suitcases. And, of course, the COP president himself, Sultan Al-Jaber, who happens to be the CEO of an oil giant. I summarize: We know that climate change is already irreversible. We're on a cataclysmic trajectory at more than three or four degrees. 2023 is already the hottest year on record. But we let the lobbies make their laws. How long are we going to accept this? As long as we negotiate with those who plundered the planet, nothing will move. As long as we refuse a radical and total break with this economic system that destroys everything, nothing will change. Ecology without questioning capitalism, colleagues, is gardening, and we no longer have time to garden. We have a planet to save.

It was interesting to hear from you, Ms Loiseau. I would remind everyone who listens to us outside that the salary of a Member is more than EUR 7 000 per month. I personally think it is an indecent remuneration, completely disconnected from the reality and everyday life of the European citizens you are talking about. I will continue to defend not only the reduction of Members’ salaries, but also the prohibition of ancillary salaries. How are you going to justify, during the elections, that there are MEPs who are paid heavily by lobbies and companies, when we are supposed to be making the law?

Ms Loiseau, you have had quite a lively plea concerning the fight against external interference and the fight against corruption, but I wonder about the distance between words and deeds. There have been many good statements following the ‘Qatargate’ corruption scandal, but I note that when it came, for example, to voting on the ban on ancillary remuneration so that Members, in addition to their very generous elected officials’ allowances, would not be paid by lobbyists, you voted against it. Have you changed your mind or are you still standing up for lobbyists?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, just a year ago the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the European institutions broke out: ‘Qatargate’. Members sold themselves to a foreign state for ticket cases, and today we even learn that Commissioner Schinás would be involved, which I pointed out a year ago. I remember each one of you here, ladies and gentlemen, coming to this rostrum and saying your hand to your heart: Nothing will ever be the same again. One year later, nothing has changed. The vast majority of the promised reforms have been buried. Members can quietly continue to be paid heavily by lobbies or states with impunity. Forgotten, the Independent Ethical Authority that you have promised us since the beginning of your mandate, Ms Jourová. Corrupt people, ladies and gentlemen, are like vampires: They hate the light. But opacity remains the absolute rule in all negotiations. I'm sorry for the slap in the face, but I honestly believe you're not giving a damn about us. I won't let you go. And count on me, on us, on my political camp, to continue to lead the battle, to drive out all the lobbies and external interference of the European institutions, so that, once and for all, ethics take precedence over money.

Madam President, one third of Europeans do not eat enough, and the 25% increase in food prices does not come out of nowhere. Even Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, acknowledges this: more than half of inflation comes from increased margins. Clearly, companies, large companies that are bingeing on our backs. People are tired of it. Tired that complicit governments politely demand price cuts that never come. I am sorry that the European Union is choosing this moment to re-impose austerity, right now, and is asking the States to cut the budget of our schools or hospitals, even though the solutions exist and you could now support our amendments on the taxation of superprofits and superriches and on the blocking of margins and prices. How could you, ladies and gentlemen, vote against and refuse to take back, as Abbé Pierre said so well, ‘those who have taken the whole dish on their plate, leaving the plates of the others empty’? Organising the big sharing or letting the big gavage take place is basically the dividing line that separates us here in our Chamber, and here is the choice that will have to be made for the next European elections.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is apocalyptic. Nearly 20,000 civilians have died under Israeli bombs, the entire humanitarian system has collapsed, the UN is talking about genocidal risk and, without the US veto, the UN Security Council would have adopted a resolution in favour of a permanent ceasefire. But here the good news is that the US is not represented. We must succeed where the UN has failed and pass a clear resolution to end this carnage, to call for a permanent ceasefire, to call for the entry of International Criminal Court investigators into Gaza, to suspend our association agreement with Israel and demand an immediate embargo on our arms deliveries, to take sanctions against illegal settlers in the West Bank. By voting on a resolution, ladies and gentlemen, we could clearly take a position. The European Union, if it so wished, could use its leverage to intervene and no longer be complicit. This is up to us.

Mr President, ‘I thought I was dying’ is the words of a French Member of Parliament, Sandrine Josso, who was drugged without her knowledge by a senator with the aim of abusing her. And what was the reaction of Senator Joël Guerriau questioned? His cat was dying. Yes, yes, colleagues, you heard that, because her cat was dying, it would allow her to assault a woman. But what sense of impunity must be achieved if such a defence is to be dared? Often, aggressors benefit from a power relationship. He is the radio host Sébastien Cauet, accused of rape, or the famous real estate agent Stéphane Plaza, prosecuted for violence. But these attacks and this sense of impunity are not just about celebrities. They are ubiquitous and affect all women. Predators are everywhere: in the street, even in our homes, at work or in private, from inappropriate remarks to beatings, from repeated harassment of raped bodies. How many of us here have not already suffered one of these attacks? I note, moreover, that all these debates on women’s rights generally bring together a few colleagues, and only women. It is always the same pattern, every time the same difficulty for women to speak, every time the same impunity. But we will not let patriarchy win. With more than 100,000 rapes taking place in the EU each year, France is blocking negotiations on a crucial text against sexual violence by wanting to exclude the definition of rape from EU legislation. I want to repeat it here in this gallery. Emmanuel Macron does not mind, sexual intercourse without consent is rape. Sexual intercourse without consent is rape and must be included as such in European law. It is, however, simple and we will say as long as it takes: Women's bodies don't belong to you, neither does our consent.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this morning we are giving a first breath of relief after the announcement of a truce and the forthcoming release of several dozen hostages. I am thinking, of course, of the families who will be reunited with their loved ones, of those who do not yet have this chance and for whom we must continue to do everything possible to secure their release. I am also thinking of the people of Gaza who will be protected from bombs for a few days, but who know that their ordeal will soon resume. Every day, the human toll continues to grow and the European Union has been complicit in this massacre by refusing to condemn it. Yes, you let 14,000 civilians die, including more than 5,000 children. You let the IDF deliberately destroy hospitals, homes, schools. You have not said anything about these crimes, but you are constantly opposed to the ceasefire – because the truce cannot be a mere parenthesis, a lasting ceasefire is needed. What are you going to say, colleagues, to the thousands of parents who have lost their children? That it's collateral damage? Why has no sanctions yet been considered against Israel? We are rightly on the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, but how are you going to explain that we are not doing anything about the Israeli army’s war crimes in Gaza? This double standard is unbearable and has concrete consequences in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, which is too little talked about, where settlements are growing more and more brutally. Israeli settlers no longer have any limits. Every day, Palestinians are insulted, threatened, brutalized, murdered, driven from their land. We are witnessing ethnic cleansing. It is a moral duty to stop it because every Palestinian life counts. This is a diplomatic obligation because peace will only emerge with a two-state solution. This is a strategic imperative because what is being played out in the Middle East will have global consequences. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are at a tipping point. If the European Union persists in its blindness, it will not only shame itself, but it will also permanently bury international law and with it the hope of lasting peace.

Madam President, if only we had farmers in Europe who produced quality milk and cheese. If only our orchards were filled with apple trees and our terroirs with vines. I know, I'm dreaming. But fortunately you, Commissioner, and you, ladies and gentlemen, who are never short of great ideas, will get us out of this bad step. Thanks to your free trade agreement with New Zealand, you will allow thousands of tonnes of milk and cheese, apples and wine to travel 20 000 kilometres in ultra-polluting cargo boats to land on the stalls of our supermarkets, with the added bonus of pesticides such as atrazine, theoretically banned from our premises. Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, and beware of the bad languages that would dare to say that this will accelerate the climate chaos, further undermine our food autonomy, subject our farmers to unfair competition and go against the meaning of the economic sovereignty so much touted by Mr Macron. If I am ironic, ladies and gentlemen, it is because you are actually very hypocritical in voting for this free trade agreement. There is a choice to be made, it is clear: it is the earth or the container ships.

We love parliamentary debate, so I thank you for that answer, but I am still hungry. I take a concrete example: a milk producer in France who now sells €450 or €500 of his 1,000 litres of milk, and who is unable to survive. He will see milk coming from New Zealand, which has been around the world (so it already makes no ecological sense) and which is also produced with pesticides banned in Europe, such as atrazine. And what are you going to tell him when he sees that milk from the other side of the world is sold cheaper when he himself cannot live off it? What about the consumer? Sorry, New Zealand milk is cheaper, but buy this one, it's better for the planet. You see that it has no ecological or social meaning. So yes, trade is good when you can’t produce at home, but when it comes to milk, you already have a lot of producers who can’t make a living from it.

. Mrs Vedrenne, I have seen that you have defended this new free trade agreement with great vigour. I have a question for you. Who said in 2020: "Delegating our food, our protection, our ability to care for our living environment, basically, to others, is madness". This is obviously Emmanuel Macron. So what are you going to say to French and European milk producers who are already unable to make a living from their production, to sell their stocks, to feed themselves? What will you tell them when they face unfair competition from New Zealand milk, given that New Zealand is the world’s largest exporter of milk?

Madam President, as Israeli bombs relentlessly rain down on Gaza’s civilian populations, our Parliament will debate a ceasefire for the first time this week. I welcome the fact that the concept of a cease-fire is finally no longer taboo in our Chamber, because until then, together with my group from La Gauche, we were the only ones to carry this slogan. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not enough. Talking about it is one thing, writing it in a resolution is another thing. Imagine the diplomatic impact of an official call by our European Parliament for a ceasefire. Imagine the strength of this message for the families of the 12,000 victims, for the more than two million Palestinians who are at risk of losing their lives at any moment. I remember that at every stage of Russia’s despicable military aggression against Ukraine, our Parliament rightly did not hesitate for a second to vote through the motion for a resolution. How then can we explain today that we would remain silent in the face of this ongoing massacre? This double standard vis-à-vis the Palestinian people would be unjustifiable and unforgivable. That is why I would ask you to add to the debate on Wednesday the vote on a resolution for a clear call: that of the cease-fire.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we must name things. What is happening in Gaza is a deliberate and organized massacre. Ten thousand Palestinians have already been murdered by the indiscriminate bombing of Israel and, I do not know if we are aware of it, children are being amputated alive, without anesthesia. One hundred and sixty children die every day, one every ten minutes. Gaza has become a burial-free cemetery where women mark their children’s names on their children’s skins so that they can be identified if they are killed by Israeli shelling. Benjamin Netanyahu does not intend to put an end to this carnage. He intends to amplify it. One of its ministers even proposed to use a nuclear bomb to wipe Gaza off the map. This is not self-defence, ladies and gentlemen, it is revenge. Meanwhile, illegal settlement is intensifying further and further in the West Bank, pushing, driving Palestinians out of their land. All this only adds to the spiral of violence and will in no way guarantee the Israelis’ right to security. We have to stop this madness. And when I see the answer from the European Union, Mrs von der Leyen, I must say that I am ashamed. Shame that you ignored the UN alert on Israeli war crimes and the risk of ethnic cleansing and genocide crimes. Shame that you refused to call for an immediate end to the fighting. Shame that you shamefully align yourself with the United States and miss your historic responsibility for peace. Shame, simply shame, with gravity, that you are complicit in these atrocities. The horrors committed by Hamas through the massacre of a people cannot be addressed. We must call for an immediate ceasefire. Everything must be done to secure the release of the hostages, the lifting of the blockade, the end of colonization and the relaunch of the two-state solution. The moment we are living in is crucial. No one will be able to say that he did not know. The days of 2.5 million trapped people are numbered. History looks at us and it will not forgive us for abandoning them.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is essential that we have this collective moment today to recall our strongest commitment against antisemitism. Europe has a special history and responsibility in this area, because it was on our continent that antisemitism led to the worst, with the Holocaust. It is in our countries that millions of Jews have been targeted, hunted down and murdered. And today I would like it not to be forgotten. Antisemitism is the foundation of the European far right, which still has deniers in its ranks. I do not want anyone to believe that it protects Jews today. It is an insult to the past and a lie to the present. So yes, we will participate here, in the European Parliament, and externally in all initiatives against antisemitism if they do not include those who have theorised, nurtured and disseminated it: the far right. Antisemitism is a profound evil that is part of a millennial history. It is a poison that always infects our societies and against which we must fight relentlessly and never let our guard down. More than a thousand anti-Semitic acts recorded in France in just one month, two thousand in Germany, a similar trend throughout Europe. The legitimate and necessary criticism of the policy of the Israeli far-right government must never be confused with the essentialisation of people of Jewish faith or culture. As the condemnation of the atrocities committed by Hamas must never be confused with the essentialisation of people of Muslim faith or culture. Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred of others have no place in our democracies. Any intimidation, any insult, any violence against a person because of his religion is unacceptable. Nothing can justify them. Never. I would like to address here, on behalf of my left-wing group in the European Parliament, my solidarity and support to all victims of anti-Semitic acts. I also want to express a clear commitment to all people of Jewish faith and culture who, I know for many, are worried today. I want to tell them, I want to tell you that you will always be under the protection of the European Union and I want to tell you that I will be, that we will always be by your side.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the whole world is watching us and waiting for the European Union to take a strong position, commensurate with the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Already 10,000 Palestinians have died under Israeli bombs, including 4,000 children. We must do everything we can to stop this massacre. But talking about a humanitarian pause, in the singular as well as in the plural, means absolutely nothing in practice. The war, ladies and gentlemen, is not child’s play, or even a perched cat game where it looks like ‘inch’, in the space of a few hours, before the bombs rain again on Palestinian civilians. The key word today, which can save thousands of innocent lives in Gaza, is the immediate ceasefire. It is the constant call of NGOs, it is the constant call of the UN Secretary-General that Cate Blanchett echoed again. That is why we call for this debate with a resolution on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the need for an immediate ceasefire. And allow me, Madam President, to insist that there be a vote. I believe that our Parliament must be able to position itself and that we have a vote on each of the proposals that have been made by our political groups.

Madam President, this is the original text: ‘urges the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Commission and the Council to join UN Secretary-General António Guterres in enforcing’ – this is the amendment – ‘an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unrestricted access to humanitarian aid’. The rest remains unchanged, Madam President.

Madam President, this amendment is intended to put into words what is necessary. Of course, we need a humanitarian break, as I understand the Renew Group is going to ask for. But this must be done expressly through a cease-fire, which is codified in international law by the Geneva Conventions. The conflict is raging, thousands of civilians are being targeted, and our European Parliament must have a serious word and use the exact words of António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who proposed an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’. Therefore, like the United Nations, like the NGOs Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, we call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. This means stopping all military operations to help the civilian population. Millions of people, ladies and gentlemen, are waiting for the end of military operations and the end of the conflict. Let us rise to the occasion and vote in favour of this immediate humanitarian ceasefire.