Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, there is a debate today on Hungary's residence and work permit to attract foreign labour from outside the European Union. However, this debate shows the duplicity of the European Commission and certain political groups when it comes to immigration and the security of the external borders of the Schengen area. In the LIBE committee a few days ago, the Commission admitted that the Hungarian system was technically in line with EU law and in this context, Commissioner Ylva Johansson repeated several times that the question for her was whether or not to trust the Hungarian authorities. This issue of trust is eminently political. So I return it to the Commission to see if we can trust it. For years, Mrs von der Leyen's Commission and Mrs Johansson have been explaining to us, together with the left, the centre and their NGO friends, that migrants who illegally cross the external borders of the European Union must not be prevented from setting foot on our territory, even though in doing so they are violating European law. Preventing migrants from violating the borders of the European Union was, according to Mrs Johansson and her political friends, I quote, 'push back'. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have entered Europe illegally every year over the last five years because of your ideology that wants us to believe, I quote friends of some NGOs, that "migrants have an unconditional right to set foot in Europe". This ideology, your ideology at the European Commission, threatens the security of Europeans because these illegal crossings let in migrants too often involved in criminal acts and sometimes, alas, involved in terrorist acts against our citizens. So I ask the question: Who preferred to make the interests of illegal immigrants prevail over the interests of Europeans and against the national security of our States? This is the Commission of Mrs von der Leyen and Commissioner Johansson. Moreover, she acknowledged this on the day of the adoption of the Pact on Asylum and Migration, stating that it was a victory for migrants. But the Europeans have disavowed at the polls your policy of supporting illegal migrants. So no, we cannot trust the outgoing von der Leyen Commission and no, nor can we trust the incoming new von der Leyen Commission. The accusations against the Hungarian residence and work permit are a smokescreen to make people forget that the Pact on Asylum and Migration seriously harms the identity and security of French and Europeans in general.