Debate contributions by Rody TOLASSY

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are not debating a simple legal arrangement. We are debating an ultimate power, that of withdrawing life. A power that says everything, that reveals its conception of man, justice and freedom. Let us be clear from the outset that criminal law is the sovereignty of States. This is a fundamental principle of international law. To deny it would be to open the door to all interference. But this sovereignty is neither a white-single nor a license to kill. It ends where arbitrariness, political repression and the denial of fundamental rights begin. But the reality is brutal. In 2024, according to Amnesty International, 1,518 people were executed worldwide. An increase of 32%. The highest figures in nearly a decade. And again, these data voluntarily exclude states where the death penalty is a state secret, China, Vietnam, North Korea, where opacity conceals the true extent of barbarism. The main executing countries are known. Iran alone carried out more than 970 executions, often after unfair trials, often against political opponents, women, minorities and citizens, guilty or not of crimes, but of ideological disobedience. In these regimes, the death penalty is not justice. It is an instrument of fear, a tool of control, a staging of the omnipotence of the State on bodies and consciences. But make no mistake, this barbarism is not state, it is ideological. Islamist terrorism, for example, also applies the death penalty without trial, without defence, in the name of a totalitarian ideology. I am thinking of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard in France, who were not murdered by chance. They were executed because they embody freedom of thought, freedom to teach, freedom at all. Violations of international law are on the rise everywhere: executions of women who would not submit to Sharia law, sentencing of minors, methods of extreme cruelty. All this fundamentally offends human dignity. Our responsibility as Members of the European Parliament is neither to give lessons nor to look away. It is to draw clear, firm and consistent lines. Human life can never be confiscated by arbitrariness, be it state or ideological. Europe must remain an area of security, an area of justice.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, let us not import food that we do not want. We cannot, on the one hand, ban our farmers from using certain substances, impose ever higher standards and, on the other hand, open our borders wide to products that flout these same requirements. The CETA agreement with Canada is the perfect example of this hypocrisy. It makes it possible to import lentils treated with diquat, a pesticide banned throughout Europe; and tomorrow, with Mercosur, it will be the turn of Brazilian sugar, treated with Fipronil, also banned in Europe. And the list is long! Where's the consistency? Where is the justice when, in addition to removing tariffs, you increase the residual maximum limits in order to facilitate their entry? This Europe, which claims to defend the climate, health and our territories, betrays its own principles. It poisons our fellow citizens and, at the same time, our farmers. To protect our producers and put an end to unfair competition, we must impose mirror clauses and guarantee food sovereignty.

Madam President, I have heard several speakers here discover a disease, discover the mosquito. However, I am a witness myself: 25 years ago, I had dengue. 10 years ago, I had chikungunya, and I am a European citizen. It took a misfortune for us to finally talk a little bit about this disease, this problem, which has been affecting nearly four million of our ultramarine fellow citizens in the European Union for some time. In this Parliament, they are forgotten; we do not talk about it, and it takes a misfortune to talk about it. We can therefore rejoice. I thought I heard some people on the far left or on the left decaying. I'm advocating one thing: the decline of stupidity and the growth of common sense and intelligence. Because, in our territories, we need growth, we need infrastructure. This will not solve the problem.

Madam President, historically, Haiti is in this situation. Currently, gangs are plundering society, life, the economy and killing an entire country. But there are others responsible for the catastrophic situation in this country, and this is not the case today. Following the economic decline of the 1950s to the 1980s, due to corruption and repression by the Duvalier dictators, father and son, some on the left saw fit to respond to the country’s plight by offering immigration as the only solution. In the same way as they do with African countries, they have fostered immigration that, like gangs, plunders society and the economy. You have plundered the men, the living forces, everything that makes Haiti and its inhabitants. You have contributed greatly to the destabilization of this country. Haiti needs help to find peace, to keep its strengths alive and a genuine policy of co-development where every Haitian will find his place in his country.

You know my position very well. I am a patriot, and everything about diplomacy is the responsibility of nation states, not the European Union.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what is happening today in Afghanistan goes beyond the humanitarian tragedy. This is a crime against humanity. Women, mothers, girls – more than half of the victims – are sentenced to die twice: under the rubble, then under the weight of the unfair laws imposed by an Islamist regime that denies even their right to exist. They can neither study, nor work, nor even ask for help to survive without water, without care, without dignity, while their executioners, in the name of an ideology, forbid a man to reach out to them. It is not the culture that must be respected, it is life. It is not the tradition that must be protected, it is humanity. As Simone Veil said, Europe must support these women and give them back their voice, their knowledge, their freedom. For where the woman is humiliated, it is all humanity that collapses, and where the woman rises, it is civilization that is reborn. With us, overseas, the woman is sacred, she is life. It is the pillar of the family, the home and the path to change. May Afghan women get rid of the Taliban yoke and regain that central place in society.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Commission has once again demonstrated its inability to meet the specific needs of the outermost regions. Despite promises of cohesion and equality, the Overseas Territories remain Europe's forgotten. Rigid and uniform European rules ignore our geographical, economic and cultural realities. Where are the concrete adaptations of the Structural Funds to compensate for their remoteness? Where is the specific support to preserve their unique identity in the face of globalisation? The Commission is satisfied with fine words, but the figures speak: endemic unemployment, economic dependence and chronic underfunding. It is time for Brussels to stop treating these regions as margins and to propose bold, tailor-made measures for their development and dignity. It took the citizens’ initiative and the commitment of the Members of the Patriots Group to assert this right: adaptation. I am therefore asking the Commission, among other things, to step up the Archipel.eu system to support an ambitious regional policy for culture and creativity. Europe must be that of all its regions, not just capitals.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, what has happened in Colombia is not just an attack on Miguel Uribe, it is a brutal attack on democracy. A bullet fired against peace, an attempt to assassinate hope. And make no mistake, this violence has no borders. She is already lurking with us, in silence, sometimes with complicity and voluntary blindness. Remember, in 2022, presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was violently assaulted. No outcry, no media outrage. Nothing. The deafening silence of the well-thinking. But these attacks, whether here or elsewhere, are symptoms of the same poison. Political terrorism, the one that aims to silence, to scare, to subdue. To let it happen is to betray, it is to light a fire that tomorrow will consume even those who believe themselves to be safe. Democracy is a struggle. It belongs to the whole people. And this people has a sacred duty to forcefully condemn all acts of violence, wherever they come from, whatever their origin.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a few days ago the United Nations Ocean Conference was held in Nice. Mme von der Leyen presented the European Ocean Pact. Very well. But while we are working here, our children in the West Indies continue to breathe the toxic fumes of the sargassum. For fourteen years, Europe has watched these seaweeds fail on our shores, with no reaction. Yet the science is clear: this scourge is not only a consequence of climate change, it is also the result of structural imbalances. Meanwhile, we live every season in urgency, silence and oblivion. So no, this pact cannot be a future text if it does not look to its ocean outposts, the outermost regions. It is time for Europe to speak Caribbean as well. When it says "ocean", it is time for it to finance a real plan to valorize the sargassum so that this proliferation ceases to be an inconvenience suffered and becomes a controlled resource, managed directly at sea. Otherwise, this pact will be an empty parchment, carried away by the same currents that have already carried the poison to our shores.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are discussing a crucial report: strengthening rural areas through cohesion policy. These territories, which cover 91% of the territory of the European Union, are home to more than half of our population. In France, 11 million of our citizens live in rural areas, including the outermost regions, all too often forgotten in this European dynamic. Yet these territories are treasures, treasures of know-how, resilience, social ties, but also sometimes abandoned lands, always lands of struggle. Here I would like to recall the example of the "Future Mountains" programme. It shows that with a strong political will, a human support of proximity and adapted financial levers, we can transform the situation. Sustainable mobility, local engineering, refurbished infrastructure, redesigned tourism: this model has inspired a genuinely solidarity-based cohesion policy, especially for the overseas countries. In our territories, rurality represents specificities. Unlike other regions, the population remains large, the countryside is not depopulated. It therefore needs not a winback, but more connectivity, public services and targeted investment. So let us no longer leave our countryside, our mountains, our islands, our rural areas on the edge of the European road, let us strengthen rural areas, it is to keep the promise of the Union, that of equal opportunities, everywhere, for all.

Dear colleague, I have heard your speech, which concerns me, because for decades, where I come from – the Antilles, a French region, more precisely Guadeloupe – prices have been 40 to 60% higher than in France. We've been starving there for years, we can't buy, we can't feed ourselves decently. I note that this is not the priority of the European Parliament. There are issues on which we can join, including the issue of POSEI, transport, which could solve the price difference that exists with the continent.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, behind the announcement effects is a smoke curtain that masks inaction, contradictions and total disconnection from the realities experienced by ultramarines, whose access to water remains a trampled right. While some make great speeches, in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte shattered by a cyclone, families open the tap and nothing flows. Not a drop, just silence and contempt. The right to water, proclaimed a human right by the UN in 2010, here becomes a mirage. At the same time, the charlatans of unsubmissive France and the socialists voted against the amendments in favour of the Overseas Territories. They prefer to vote for aid on water networks in Gaza, hand in hand with the Macron government, which discards all responsibility. My question is simple: Are we French? Are we Europeans? I therefore ask that the water emergency in the ORs be finally recognised and treated as a top priority.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Europe is going through a period of economic stagnation and growing security threats. In this context, trans-European transport infrastructure is not only a lever for competitiveness, but also a strategic imperative for the resilience of our territories. Investment in this infrastructure is necessary, but must be correlated with strong support to ensure territorial continuity, especially in our regions. For these regions, insularity, difficult topography and dependence on fluctuations in energy costs make mobility precarious and costly. If we have managed to set up a POSEI for agriculture, guaranteeing the resilience of our sectors, it is now imperative to go further with a POSEI for transport. This programme would make it possible to strengthen the connection with continental Europe, but also to ensure genuine integration within the regional basin, as part of an ambitious neighbourhood policy. This programme must not only respond to the challenges of today, but also anticipate those of tomorrow.

Madam President, first of all, before I speak, I would like to give my sincere support to Marine Le Pen in the face of the undemocratic attack on our entire country. Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Europe likes to boast of its cohesion, but in reality it is abandoning part of its own territory. Our regions are not just exotic outposts: they are strategic, they are European, and yet they are treated at the margins. How dare you talk about cohesion when these territories are deprived of full access to the Cohesion Fund? Our outermost regions – our ORs – suffer from fundamental problems, such as those related to water supply, a crucial resource in everyday life. The mid-term review must mark a break. We demand a tailor-made European competitiveness programme, with funding and rules adapted to genuine support for businesses and local authorities. Europe knows how to act when it wants to. It has demonstrated this in Greece. Why therefore refuse this same commitment to our ORs, whose island economy is fragile but full of potential? Let’s stop European hypocrisy! Our ORs can no longer be ignored or treated as second-class territories. Europe must make a firm commitment to give these territories full and direct access to the Cohesion Fund.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Haiti is sinking into absolute chaos. Five thousand dead in a year, bodies mutilated, burned, massacres targeted, a state in ruins, delivered to the gangs, who control 80% of Port-au-Prince. And yet, billions of euros have been invested over decades of cooperation. For what result? Education in tatters, food insecurity, human dignity trampled. Total failure. This chaos is overflowing. A migratory bomb threatens our territories and the entire Caribbean basin. The pressure is becoming unsustainable. Can the European Union condone, continue to hide behind empty rhetoric and ineffective programmes? Where are the results? What concrete actions will we take to ensure the safety and survival of the Haitian people? We must break with this logic of failure. Let us demand immediate results from the multinational mission and take action. An immediate co-development mission is essential to stabilize Haiti and offer it a future. It's time for action, not for observation.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, last May a committee of inquiry into the management of major risks in the overseas departments mentioned Mayotte 104 times, revealing a flagrant lack of anticipation. This finding takes on a particular resonance as Mayotte, 101st department, faces an unprecedented crisis. Chido has left thousands of families homeless and deprived of water and food, a population fearing a major health crisis. With French soil bruised, what is the state doing? Its inability to anticipate, protect and build is evidence of an institutional failure that jeopardises not only the dignity of the Mahorais, but also the integrity of the Republic. Added to this is a glaring injustice. Mayotte is an outermost region benefiting from a fund intended to make up for structural deficits. How can we explain the poor infrastructure, the lack of prevention and the incompetence of those who govern us? In the face of this tragedy, do you intend at last to set up a High Commission responsible for the outermost regions, which would be a direct interface? The survival and dignity of these French people, forgotten by both Paris and Brussels, is at stake. Mayotte does not need promises, she needs deeds!

I would like to ask my colleague about the reality of Mayotte, which has not been able to have a development, a real development, because of an important element, which the left, in particular, has never been able to recognize: it was massive immigration that overwhelmed this island and prevented this development. If we have so many victims, so many problems in Mayotte, it is because there was this immigration, which nobody wanted to recognise. Today, I think we will have to roll up our sleeves and also talk about this issue in Mayotte, which led us to this disaster.

Mr President, Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to see our Chamber debate the issue of water for the tenth time! Mayotte, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana – more than 1 million of our citizens – do not have regular access to this vital resource. Have any of you ever had to leave your home to buy drinking water to brush your teeth or even take a shower? Originally from Guadeloupe, I am 37 years old: so many years of experiencing water shortages on a daily basis. What are you waiting for? What are we waiting for to reform the rules for allocating cohesion funds, which prevent the French outermost regions from benefiting from them under the pretext of France’s high GDP? Understand that water shortages are not just a debate on the agenda: it is an emergency, a crisis that strikes our compatriots every year, with the same brutality. Today, I take the liberty of speaking out on their behalf! We've had enough of nice words and empty promises. Every year, we pay around €26 billion to the European Union, which gives us back €15 billion. With this surplus of EUR 11 billion, the European Union must, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, support its overseas citizens by guaranteeing them vital access to water.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are voting on an amendment to the ERDF and ESF+ regulation in order to respond to natural disasters affecting Europe. While these adjustments are aimed at the countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, it is crucial to recall that the French outermost regions are also suffering from such tragedies, which are amplified by climate change. Currently, the territory of Mayotte is facing an unprecedented hurricane crisis. Faced with cyclones and floods, this territory embodies the climate vulnerability recognized by the Paris Agreements. It is time to move from a repair logic to a proactive approach by sustainably supporting these regions and creating climate labs of excellence. These research hubs dedicated to understanding and innovation would offer concrete solutions to global challenges. I call on the Commission to recognise the ORs as laboratories for climate solutions for the future.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, food autonomy overseas must no longer be a vain word, but a vital necessity. The European Farm to Fork Strategy is not adapted to our island realities. It would rather assume that people are fed while starving those who cultivate. We cannot continue to import 80% of our food while being subject to standards that suffocate our local producers. We must develop a sustainable agriculture, rooted in our terroirs, responding to our needs, like the localism that we have been defending for years. Europe must allow us to value our local resources and support food self-sufficiency instead of imposing a model that condemns us to dependence. It is the fundamental principle of all moral laws and duties of a society. Our fertile overseas lands could also make us sovereign and self-sufficient. It is time to transform our vision of food autonomy into concrete actions for our territories.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to an initiative that could not only transform Guadeloupe, but also serve as a model for many European regions in the context of territorial social innovation. Since 1946, departmentalisation has made it possible to assimilate, but policies that have simply been transposed from the national level have not been successful. It is crucial to adopt a new approach, more in line with the sociological reality and the needs of our societies. I propose that the Commission support the development of an experimental pilot project in Guadeloupe, based on innovative strategies for blue, green and orange cities. This initiative would be based on concrete tools for cities, such as the ‘Zero Unemployed Territory’ scheme, third-places or territorial economic cooperation hubs, in order to promote job creation while addressing the ecological and economic challenges facing our territories. This model could then be extended to other cities within the euro area, providing a concrete response to the global challenges we face. Let us live up to our ambitions.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, living dearly overseas is a glaring injustice that has plagued our regions for decades. Do you not currently see the cry of pain of the Martiniquais, who simply claim to be able to feed themselves? These events are the result of unfinished development and EU-imposed dependency. In a Europe that advocates social justice, 900 000 ultramarines live below the poverty line and with up to 60% higher prices for food. More than 55% of our citizens are forced to give up eating properly. How can we accept this in a Union that prides itself on social progress? Because of you, our territories are trapped in an expensive and unequal import system that you impose and which weighs heavily on the most vulnerable populations. Understand the feeling of discrimination suffered by our compatriots. We do not need charity but justice and equality. It is time to support economic strategies that are adapted to our territories.