Debate contributions by Matthieu VALET

Mr President, Commissioner, I will give you a scoop: drastically restricting immigration and enforcing removals is not just the Patriots’ agenda, but it is also the demand of the overwhelming majority of European public opinion. It has even become a vital necessity for our peoples and states. When an asylum application is rejected, there can be a second, third or even 20th chance, always disguised on humanitarian or international protection grounds, or always an excuse, as we so well know how to invent them in our democracies. The return procedure must be swift and fully executed. Above all, I wanted to draw your attention, Madam, to the fact that the authorities must have at their disposal all the necessary means, control, investigation, search of the person and the home where this is essential for the execution of a return. Non-cooperation can no longer be tolerated, it must become a clearly sanctioned criminal offence. Finally, as regards unaccompanied foreign minors, I do not know whether you have ever been to Barbès, whether you have ever been to Noailles, to the Duchère, to Wazemmes – in the north of France, to my home – but it is becoming a real scourge for public security, since the fact that they cannot use the DNA tests or bone age examinations that have already been carried out, the investigators, it allows them to benefit from double immunity: that of the minority excuse, and that of being released each time.

Madam President, Vice-President Kallas, in the face of Islamism, the European Union is trembling. Not a word about Turkey, a real Trojan horse of the Muslim Brotherhood. When will the European Union finally have the courage to consider this organization for what it is, a terrorist organization, as did the United States, but especially many Arab countries, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Jordan. Worse still, the European Union is funding this scheme to the tune of nearly €10 billion over the 2021-2027 period. Ten billion as Islamism progresses. Not a word either about Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as Iran, these Islamist countries with the Islamist regime from which the people suffer. So let us be clear: are the Islamists our enemies, your enemies, Mrs Kallas, or the Commission's allies? And your cowardice doesn't end there. Nothing about the smugglers who turn our seas into cemeteries. You mourn the dead children on the beaches, but you tremble when you have to treat their executioners like criminals they are. Worse, the far left makes a syncope when it is simply necessary to name them that way. Cherry on the cake, you are demanding a seat on the UN Security Council, as if it were obtained by incantation, where France has obtained it at the price of blood and its history. So let's stop these leftist delusions, stop dreaming in 3D and return to the reality of what our fellow citizens and peoples around the world are experiencing, who are waiting for freedom and our fight.

Mr President, first a word, of course, for Amine Kessaci and her brother – Amine, with whom I had the opportunity to discuss in previous positions. We do not share the same opinions, but in any case, I have always respected his strength of character and his convictions, and I imagine that his brother would have made an excellent guardian of the peace, armed with the same values that I imagine one shares within his family. Ladies and gentlemen, I will tell you about a war: no Kiev, no Aleppo, no Baghdad, but in France, in the face of narcoterrorists. Instead of sending armoured vehicles, helicopters, CRSs and mobile gendarmerie squadrons in front of our peasants, send them where the Republic retreats, to the cities that fall one by one into the hands of the gangs. We will hold the ground in front of the "narcoracailles" who hold the walls! We will send CRS 8, CRS 81, 82, 83 and 84, as well as the 16 new mobile gendarmerie squadrons to help their brothers-in-arms from public security, BST, BAC and PSIG. Not with Fiat Ducato, not with exhausted Renault Masters or rinsed Iveco, but with new powerful, armored, light vehicles, to attack these deal points safely. We will create and send new, lighter, more manoeuvrable Gendarmerie armour into the cities, supported by helicopters and drones, so that our forces can progress, track and arrest watchmen and dealers safely, even in the midst of the firing of weapons of war, as we saw in Rennes or Castres. For us, consumers are not victims: They're accomplices. They have blood on their hands: that of Mehdi and that of Socayna in Marseilles, that of Fayed in Nîmes. They will have to pay and serve a short prison term. We will also hit the networks: creation of a new judicial police, reinforcement of the research and intervention brigades with a special bonus, as for the bikers, the LAC and the FTSI, who are waiting for it so much. We will create a working group against organised crime, because we have to hit not only drug traffickers, but also those involved in arms trafficking, human trafficking – pimping is exploding in our cities. We'll also go get the money from the traffickers with the IRS, which only asks for that, and we'll redistribute the criminal assets to the investigators to motivate them. Speaking of investigators, plan to help OPJs: payment of overtime, simplification of criminal proceedings and new procedural software with artificial intelligence. Finally the word of the policeman will be superior to that of the thug. The administration will protect its police and gendarmes by paying the lawyer and the hospital automatically. We are ready to wage war against them, not with Playmobils, but with a real army, a police force – and not the one that protects us outside, at the risk of its life, for the French flag.

Mr President, I find it a pity that, for a debate on the role of the police, which plays a crucial role in our democracies, you have slashed the debate and that we cannot raise blue cards to be able to conduct a debate in the face of an extreme left that insults our police officers, that taxes them on police violence, on facies checks, and that still explains to us that they defy the prohibitions on protesting to defend honest people. So I would like that, in this forum that calls itself "democracy in action", every sensibility can express itself on positions that we do not share, but in any case, democracy is that. You distribute all day long patents of respectability. It would be nice to apply them to yourself and make this temple the real democracy in action.

Mr President, the police, for me, are a big family. It is a passion and above all a great pride to give back to France everything it has given me by protecting it for twenty years. In 2023, I was proud to command women and men who bravely defended the Republic in the face of scum that set everything on fire, ransacked everything and injured nearly 1,000 police, gendarmes and firefighters in France. With us, they will all be decorated, all rewarded and especially all honored during a red white blue ceremony that Emmanuel Macron did not organize. With us, the police officers of RAID, BRIPP, the intervention brigade, the LAC will not wait ten years after the Bataclan to be decorated for their courage in the face of the Islamist terrorists who crossed Europe to come and strike my country. With us, all their medical expenses will be covered, without delay, without advances, without begging, without begging. With us, the lawyer's care will be automatic. They will be systematically protected by the administration. We will create a presumption of responsibility for the administration. Be assured, in front of this European Parliament, that all those wankers who ransack everything at the expense of honest people who can no longer pay up to the last cent: No more allowances, no more social housing. Above all, we'll put these thugs to dry bread. Faced with the savages who smash a LAC policeman in Tourcoing, a brother in arms, the rule will be simple: You touch a cop, you sleep in jail and it'll be at your own expense. Same if you are a loyal client of the police and gendarmes: In addition to a loyalty card, no more snooping in front of magistrates who can no longer. It will also be the prison from the first recidivism. In the face of the narco-scum that gangrene my country, we will restore its letters of nobility to the judicial police that was dismantled by the Minister of the Interior at the time, Gérald Darmanin. And we will save all those investigators who are dying. To these elected leftists, I tell them to stop defiling my brothers in arms, policemen, gendarmes, with "the police kills". Instead, talk about Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, police officers slaughtered by a terrorist in Magnanville in front of their three-year-old child Mathieu, Constable Arnaud Beltrame who sacrificed his life to save a hostage in the face of an Islamist, Eric Masson, police officer in France, executed by a dealer in Avignon, who left two little girls behind. I also say to my LFI colleagues: appointment in 2026 for Florian's trial in the Nahel case. You've defiled his honor. In front of you, I will never be afraid, I will never back down. It is true of all my brothers in arms who fell for France, under the uniform of the national police.

I recognize you there, the elected LFIste. Take your breath, I was afraid you'd make a syncope. I should have brought you a glass of water, dear sir. I recognize here the bias of your anti-France movement, always on the side of thugs. You always have a word for thugs in demonstrations. You're bordering the street. When your antifa friends attack law enforcement with Molotov cocktails; We never hear you. When victims are razed savagely, you are never present. I don't know what you've done before in your life as a police officer. You, you make great words behind your desk! But I was brave with my colleagues, I faced the Islamist terrorists that you never denounce. I have defeated the thugs you always defend and I have always stood by those who protect us in demonstrations, where you want to trash everything. So I have no lesson to learn from you. For you, human rights are the rights of thugs. For me, human rights are those of the victims and those policemen and gendarmes of the French Republic whom you are sacking, insulting and smearing the honour of. I, the uniform, have worn it, the courage, I have defended it, and I would like to see your record, because neither in your life nor in your politics do I feel that you have done anything.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as a police commissioner who has devoted my life to fighting crime, I consider that the spectacular results achieved in El Salvador in terms of security deserve at least our interest, rather than denunciation, your systematic denunciation, as is the case in this report. It is true that, before being a parliamentarian, I walked the streets of the cities of France, I was going to chase thugs, I faced refusals to comply, burglars, aggressors, and I was useful to my society, to the French Republic which gave me everything. So since 2019, El Salvador has grown from one of the most violent countries in the world to one of the safest in Latin America. The homicide rate has increased from more than 100 to less than 2 per 100,000 inhabitants. These figures would make heads of State blush, including my own, because unfortunately, savagery is raging in my country. Gangs that were terrorizing the streets were neutralized. Millions of Salvadorans now live in rediscovered security. More than 93% are satisfied with President Bukele's security record. Forty thousand prison places were created in seven months. In my country, it took almost eight years to create just 7,000 of the 15,000 that Mr Macron had promised. Can you imagine? So I ask a simple question: Why are we talking about El Salvador today, now that violence has receded? I do not remember any urgent debate here, any widespread indignation in this House. Yet, at the time, the victims already existed, the victims we never talk about, who are so often forgotten. Who was talking about the terror of gangs, bereaved mothers, threatened children, neighborhoods taken hostage? This "double standard" questions. Does Bukele's government bother because it succeeds so much where others have failed? I stress that security is a fundamental right, as is freedom. Maintaining good relations with our Latin American partners is essential, and it is not with injunctions, neither through an ideological prism, nor through hatred of this country that we will succeed.

Mr President, while the country is still recovering from a twenty-year war between the Taliban, Daesh and democratic power, Afghanistan is hit by an unprecedented and deadly earthquake. Like many, I appreciated that this debate put women at the heart of the humanitarian issue; These women, victims on the same footing as all civilians, but sometimes refused to be touched by religious dogmatism. But in this country, as in so many others, women were victims long before natural disasters and will unfortunately remain so afterwards. Indeed, the real earthquake is happening right here. It is Europe's complicit abandonment of entire regions of the world, or worse, of regions handed over to Islamists. This is the outspoken, uninhibited support, as in Syria, for terrorist leaders who once hit France in the heart, like other countries in Europe – notably Spain and, once, the United Kingdom. Let us not wait for natural phenomena to revolt. Women, like many other minorities - especially Eastern Christians - are systematically the victims of all these new regimes that profit from your political cowardice, from the hypocrisy that reigns in this Parliament and in our institutions. In conclusion, allow me to salute the memory of our soldiers, our French soldiers, but also European soldiers, who lost their lives in Afghanistan to fight to the end of their forces against this Islamism.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, it has been more than six months since Bashar al-Assad fell, replaced by a government based on jihad and radical Islamism. After many months, Parliament is finally considering the fate of Christians, who are logically persecuted. For the past six months, religious minorities, especially Christians, have been in danger of death. Their number has increased from 1.5 million to around 400 000 since last year. And what is the European Union doing? It supports a power that, under the guise of alternation, leaves the hands free to the Islamists. Syrian President Ahmed al-Charaa’s three-piece suit does not replace his jihadist side, which he has never left. This also applies when he is received, with a red carpet, at the Élysée by Emmanuel Macron – this was on 7 May. Although he managed to blind the French President, his troops on the ground are still perpetuating their deadly project: persecution, looting, murder. We warned of the deadly danger of European support for the al-Nusra Front – i.e. Al-Qaida. By what miracle did jihadism become politically correct in your eyes? At a time when, in France, a commission of inquiry and a campaign on Islamist entrism is finally opening – yes, I know, it makes the ears of the gauchos bleed – it is time for Europe to carry out its examination of conscience. It is a former police officer who saw his compatriots executed by armed Islamists from Kalashnikov on the evening of 13 November 2015 who speaks to you, and it hurt me to see my president receive a jihadist at the Elysee.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I do not understand. While my country, France, is plagued by ‘narcoracailles’, narco-traffickers, narco-terrorists and narco-banditism, you persist in maintaining the process of Albania’s accession to the European Union. However, Albania is not a reliable partner. It remains undermined by corruption, by foreign influences – notably Turkish – and by criminal networks firmly established throughout Europe. I do not know, however, if you read the reports from Europol, the European Police Cooperation Agency, but they are very clear: Albanian criminal groups are among the most threatening to our security. They are deeply involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering and the illicit arms trade. Moreover, let us recall that the weapons used in the 2015 Bataclan attacks in my country – which killed 131 people – came largely from the Balkans. They had transited through smuggling routes, in respect of which Albanian networks played a decisive role. This reality persists. Read the reports, ma'am. Europol is still alerting in 2025 about the persistence of this traffic from the Western Balkans to the EU. Finally, Albania remains a major producer of cannabis, an entry point for heroin trafficking from Afghanistan and another key player in cocaine networks. The Albanian mafia is ubiquitous in these criminal circuits. In these circumstances, bringing this country closer to the European Union would be a serious political mistake and would directly jeopardise the security of Europeans, particularly the French.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as coordinator of the Patriots for Europe Group in the Subcommittee on Human Rights, I propose to add an oral amendment to the resolution on Mali, the text of which, in our view, does not denounce Islamist terrorism with sufficient clarity. This amendment aims to pay tribute and honour the bloodshed of our 58 French soldiers, as well as that of our European partners who fell in the fight against Islamist terrorists in Mali and for the freedom we all defend here in this Parliament. I therefore propose the following wording: "Whereas the European Union and several Member States have made efforts and lost lives in the fight against jihadism, at the request of the former Malian authorities, including 58 French soldiers, five Dutch soldiers, two German soldiers, a Spanish soldier and a Portuguese soldier". Thank you. This will be a strong signal to our soldiers who, often so young, are committed to our freedoms and fall to defend democracies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as far as I am concerned, this report calling for Montenegro's accession to the European Union is no. First of all, the European Union is not a big braderie where we are going to welcome Turkey, Ukraine, Kosovo, all those countries that are not ready and where we are already struggling to operate at 27 in this difficult colocation. And I'll explain it to myself. In terms of security, Montenegro remains the home of powerful criminal networks, drug trafficking, smuggling and money laundering. Its judicial and police institutions remain largely exposed to political pressure, corruption and foreign interference, including from Russia and China. Arms trafficking and the illegal possession of weapons per capita are a serious threat that we will not be able to contain in our continent, which is already highly exposed, as in my country, to arms trafficking, which causes deaths, in particular through drug trafficking. Economically, the situation is equally worrying. Montenegro is heavily dependent on non-European external investment, particularly from China, and its public debt exceeds 70% of GDP. Its productive fabric is fragile and its strong dependence on tourism makes it vulnerable to external shocks. In these circumstances, integrating this country into the single market would only exacerbate economic distortions and endanger our businesses. And that would be of no service to us or to the European Union. We have to be serious.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at this very late hour, the report we are debating here makes a clear observation: Kosovo is facing serious structural problems, endemic corruption, pervasive organised crime and continued strained bilateral relations with Serbia. However, let me tell you that he is turning a blind eye to major security issues. Reported to its population, Kosovo has sent a disproportionate number of jihadists to join Daesh and more than 250,000 illegal weapons are freely circulating in the country. These weapons are already circulating freely in our streets, in France, my country of election, which paid a high price for them, since some of the weapons used in Kosovo were also used in the attacks on the Bataclan, committed with weapons from the Balkans. So there is a real subject when it comes to weapons. Despite this alarming reality, you wish to continue to push the integration process with Kosovo ever further. Worse still, the European Union, with the consent of Parliament, has liberalised the visa regime with the Kosovars, even though five Member States still do not recognise its sovereignty. Parliament therefore adopted a report setting out Kosovo's deep fragilities, showing how far it is from the criteria of stability and the rule of law, while pushing for its accelerated integration. What I want to tell you is that we are already struggling to do colocation at 27: If we welcome Member States that do not meet our criteria for the rule of law or our criteria for European standards, we will not be able to continue to have a European Union with the values we hold.

Mr President, since 2016, European taxpayers have paid almost EUR 9 billion to Turkey under a migration agreement. 9 billion, for what result? A dangerous strategic dependence, a de facto submission to an increasingly authoritarian regime that threatens our interests, our security, our political stability and even locks up its political opponents, such as the mayor of Istanbul. President Erdogan uses migrants as a lever to blackmail Europe while pursuing a policy of re-Islamisation - when he made it appear that he had left the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood - and, moreover, interference in our neighbourhoods. This country does not share our vision of democracy or our civilizational project. Stop shining a light on this country's membership since 1987. Have the courage to tell Turkey that it will never return to the European Union. It is time to return the money to the Europeans. These billions can and should be used to protect our borders, to support our carers, to support our security forces that are on the front line in our countries of election, including my country, France, and also to help our farmers, not to finance a regime that turns its back on us. Today, Europe is the only continent in the world that pays for its own weakening, which leaves the island of Cyprus, which is part of the European Union, illegally occupied by the Turks. This slow political suicide must finally stop. Europe must protect its interests.

Madam President, my reminder is based on Rule 188 of our Rules of Procedure. You ruled our amendment number 5 to the resolution on Iran inadmissible on the grounds that it was irrelevant. Yet, as part of this resolution, we denounce the persecution of women in this country, which is linked to the strict application of Sharia law. My group's amendment is intended to alert people to the fact that this Islamic law is now supported by certain communities, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in Europe, which advocate political Islam to replace the law of the people. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy are now at the forefront of this radical Islamism carried by these communities. Madam President, are you so afraid of fundamentalists to dissuade people’s representatives in this Parliament from speaking out democratically on this important issue with this amendment?

Mr President, nothing new under the sun. Regimes held by rigorous Islamism reduce women to pets, persecute religious minorities, execute opponents and turn millennia-old civilizations into gloomy societies. Again, logically, this European Parliament is outraged, and Brussels condemns. But what are they doing? Great hypocrisy, because while, rightly, our institutions mourn the fate of young Iranians sentenced to death for a song, a tweet or a strand of hair poorly covered, this same European Union opens all doors to those of our old nations who take this same path. In France, of which I am an elected representative, Islamism is taking an increasingly serious turn. In Trappes, Roubaix and Marseille, radicalised mosques with preachers from abroad are invading our territory, and France is having a hard time expelling them. Worse, today, this assembly finances masked Islamist organisations such as Femyso, which is nothing less than a showcase for the Muslim Brotherhood. Those who, in France, invented the term Islamophobia, as reported by our intelligence services. That is why I am afraid that Europe will wake up late. And in the absence of a revival, it will be necessary to combat this radical Islamism, which unfortunately has made France the country most affected by Islamist terrorists and which has its source today in countries such as Iran, which advocates this Islamism in place of democracy as we see it.

Mr President, once again we deplore and condemn Azerbaijan's hostile actions against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Unfortunately, we know in advance that this debate and the resolution that will follow will fall into a deaf ear, because the gas agreement signed by the European Commission will in no way be called into question, despite our repeated requests. It is incomprehensible that the European Union is cutting off gas flows from Russia, but keeping a deafening silence in the face of the ethnic cleansing taking place in Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, what is the European Union waiting for to condemn Azerbaijan's aggressive stance towards France, a Member State, when it sees its territorial integrity threatened by that country, which supports violent independence movements and spreads disinformation in New Caledonia? On this occasion, I would like to thank our police, gendarmes, soldiers and firefighters who, in New Caledonia, by their bravery and courage, testify to an unwavering commitment to the defence of this European territory. It is of paramount and strategic importance to defend the French sovereignty of these Indo-Pacific territories. Indeed, what would the European Union be without this maritime area of paramount importance and capital in the fields of fisheries, science, defence and energy of the European Union in the world?

Mr President, class council time has come. It is therefore up to us, as elected representatives of the people, to give the European Commission the first marks. I tell you, they are already catastrophic after 100 days. First, Ms von der Leyen must stop her disastrous plan to destroy our agriculture. To complete it, the President of the European Commission took out the heavy artillery: Mercosur and the Green Deal. These weapons of mass destruction aim to bring our farmers to their knees, who in France see one of their farmers commit suicide every three days. Then she talks about European defence. Marketing level, very good; level patriotism, zero. Does Mrs von der Leyen know that thirteen European countries have bought American F-35 military aircraft, against only three European countries for the French Rafale? If it really defended France, and therefore Europe, it would encourage the whole European Union to buy ‘made in France’. Finally, on Algeria, while President Tebboune lets our compatriot Boualem Sansal, who has been a political prisoner for four months, rot, Ms von der Leyen sleeps quietly in Brussels. The resolution of 23 June in this Parliament did not change that. Worse still, this country continues to humiliate France, my country, as shown by the recent Islamist attack in Mulhouse. So I say to the European Commission and its President: Take it back, or you'll risk the Disciplinary Board.

Madam President, since last November, Boualem Sansal, one of the greatest French writers, has been held as a political hostage by Algeria. Despite the efforts of French diplomacy, not only does Algeria refuse to return to us a national we want to recover, but worse: from now on, it refuses to recover its own nationals and delinquents whom we no longer want in France. In five years, France and the European Union have paid almost EUR 1 billion to Algeria. Let us not have our hands trembling in the face of an Algerian government – and I say ‘government’ – which humiliates one of the Member States of Europe – my beautiful country, France! My question is therefore simple, Commissioner: in the resolution, I felt that some political parties were afraid to wrestle with the Algerian government, in particular by making financial aid conditional on Boualem Sansal’s release. Is our money worth more than a man's life? Why would the official voice of Europe, quick to make urgent resolutions to denounce violations of fundamental rights around the world, tremble to make Algeria bend and recover this national who is sick and in need and of Europe and France?

Mr. President, Donald Trump is now the 47th President of the United States, and his agenda is clear: everything for Americans, just for Americans and proud to be American. State of emergency at its borders, war on wokism and expulsion of foreign offenders, all in one evening. It has been done. What about us? At the last European elections, my country, France, sent its largest delegation to this European Parliament, embodied by my party, the Rassemblement national, with a clear message: We are proud to be French, and the patriots are finally back in Europe. To do what? Our compatriots want to decide who returns and who leaves our country, our continent. They want the illegals to be... (The President interrupted the speaker) ... in their port of origin. They want us to eat French in our canteens. They want European and French companies to have priority in public procurement. They want their vote respected. Yes, respected. So before teaching Elon Musk about freedom of expression, start by cutting this cordon sanitaire, which is a cordon of shame, an undemocratic cordon. No one is sick in my group. On the other hand, your Europe is sick. If you don't, be afraid, be afraid. For if, for you, patriotism rhymes with racism, for us, patriotism rhymes with national pride, European pride. Finally, we are not afraid of this new America because we have not finished being French and making France love this Europe and the whole world.

Madam President, Mayotte ravaged, Mamoudzou shaved, but Mayotte standing. Standing up thanks to our police, our gendarmes, our firefighters, who, hand in hand, saved lives from the first minutes following the passage of Cyclone Chido. Today, thanks to my fellow police officers and my comrades in the gendarmerie, the island is protected from looting and violence. Yet many of them have lost everything, but they remain mobilised for the population. I have a thought for the police chief of Mayotte, fellow police officer Patrick Longuet, whom I know well. Its troops, including RAID, were engaged from the beginning of operations, and they are applauded by the population. Yet they are quite alone. Wuambushu 1, Wuambushu 2: No, ladies and gentlemen, this is not Star Wars, but the only answer, very meager, of the State to defend our children mahorais. Despite the commitment of the courageous and valiant CRS 8, which almost lost comrades en route, these operations were unsuccessful. Why? Out of political cowardice in the face of illegal Comorian immigration, which today makes half of the island of foreign origin. And what about the NGOs, who are allowed to do everything? Of those judges who blocked the destruction of the bangas – slums for those who do not know Mayotte? Where are they, at a time when Mayotte is dying? If, today, Mayotte remains France, it is only thanks to our guardian angels, these police officers, these gendarmes, these firefighters, these soldiers, who give everything despite the little they have left on this island. Long live Mayotte! Long live France! Long live our internal security forces and our relief forces, which are the pride of our country!