Debate contributions by Emma RAFOWICZ

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I hear the extreme right here say that to fight discrimination would be to fight against Europe, against European civilisation. I have even heard some talk about fighting Christmas. As if they themselves represented the European identity here; as if, even, they were the embodiment of the spirit of Christmas. It must be said: You are not Europe, you hate it. The identity of Europe is democracy. Europe’s identity is peace, it is diversity, it is universalism. You claim to be "patriots"; you are just the little puppies of the fascist international. Today, discrimination in Europe is exploding and becoming commonplace. How dare you call yourself "patriots" when you are the ones who encourage discrimination against Europeans? You think you're allowed to: You finance anti-gender movements, masculinist movements, racist movements. Our answer must be clear: Universalism, everywhere in Europe; and we have to act. The Horizontal Anti-Discrimination Directive is a concrete tool that needs to be implemented. What the far right wants, Europe – the Commission – could ultimately allow through its inaction. Then we must act: anti-racism, universalism, it’s now!

Mr President, Commissioner, Boualem Sansal has been languishing in an Algerian prison for one hundred and thirty-seven days now. One hundred and thirty-seven days. Last Thursday, he was sentenced to five years in prison by an Algerian court. His crime, in the eyes of the military regime? To have wielded his pen, acidic and impertinent, to have exercised his fundamental right to freedom of expression. It is impossible for us to remain deaf in the face of arbitrariness, censorship and the muzzling of creation. No, Boualem Sansal’s place is not in the jails of a dictatorship. I make my own the famous sentence that General de Gaulle uttered after the signing by Jean-Paul Sartre of the Manifesto of the 121, during the Algerian War: ‘Voltaire shall not be imprisoned.’ Like many of my colleagues in Parliament, I am not fooled either. On the far right of this Chamber, you have nothing to do with the situation of Boualem Sansal. You are cynically exploiting freedom of expression to serve your racist and xenophobic agenda. When you're in power, you muzzle writers. In Meloni’s Italy, Roberto Saviano is intimidated, sentenced and silenced. In Viktor Orbán's Hungary, writers are censored in the name of protecting minors. So, ladies and gentlemen, let us demand without detour or compromise the immediate release of Boualem Sansal! As authoritarians progress, words or books are now banned in a world that was hoped to be free, the left and republicans must always be on the side of artists, of their freedom of creation, of freedom of expression. No voice should be missing, otherwise the left despairs and dishonors itself. Boualem Sansal needs sincere and frank support. Silence is impossible. Our action is a total requirement.

Madam President, everywhere the reactionary shadow is spreading, and with it the backsliding of many rights for women. Europe must wake up and our awakening must be feminist. The Commission had a major opportunity to stand up to the reactionaries and reaffirm its commitment to equality. This roadmap includes important steps that the Socialists, together with Mrs Mînzatu, have taken away from the Commission: fight against gender-based and sexual violence, equal pay, political participation, fight against sexism in the media... Yet, once again, the European Commission is disappointing. Ursula von der Leyen gave in to the Conservatives. It gives us a communication operation worthy of the CSR policy of a large private group, where gender equality is defended solely through the prism of economic benefits. I therefore welcome this text with lucidity. This is a first step, but it is insufficient. We cannot be satisfied with declarations of intent. We need clear commitments, commensurate with the stakes. At a time when Putin, but also all the imperialists and religious fundamentalists we are fighting, are not only attacking our European borders, but are waging a war against women, we must assume a European feminist diplomacy and oppose them with our ambitious, universalist and combative European feminist model.

Madam President, seven years ago, on 21 February 2018, Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová were coldly murdered. A double gunshot murder at their home. Their crime? Doing their job as a journalist: Investigate, inform. Seven years later, not only has justice not been fully served, but even worse, Robert Fico, who had to resign under the pressure of the scandal, is back in power. A slap in the face for democracy, a chilling message for press freedom. This commemoration should not be a mere reminder of the facts, it should be an electroshock. The European Union can no longer remain a spectator in the face of rising threats against journalists: intimidation, surveillance, physical and psychological violence, judicial and economic harassment. Every day, the freedom of the press recedes a little more. The European Union must act firmly to strengthen the safety of journalists and ensure a free and independent media environment. This fight is not only that of journalists, it is that of every European citizen who refuses to live in a society muzzled by fear and corruption, citizens who want a democracy of struggle and not illiberal democracies, plagued by media concentration.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, I know that we are looking with great demand at the immense women who have left their mark on this institution, such as Gisèle Halimi and Simone Veil, women who would not let us regress and fall into the vile traps set for us by the extreme right in this Chamber. We will not fall into any of your traps because we know who you are. You claim to be the allies of women in the face of violence, injunctions, commodifications. You claim to be the allies of women in their quest for emancipation, but we are not fooled! We know who you truly are as allies. You are the allies of billionaires building media empires to fight equality. You are the allies of religious fundamentalists who want to control our bodies, and we will not fall into your traps. We will continue to work patiently, courageously for equality, despite your attempts to pollute our feminist struggles with transphobia and racism. As the trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists ends today and shame has changed sides, we have a duty to act without ever trembling. Our diplomacy, our budget, our future projects: all this must be under the sign of feminism, and that is the meaning of the text we need to adopt today.

Mr President, in 2006, in a letter to his Algerian compatriots, Boualem Sansal already denounced the violence of censors: You have no right to think that. You're not an Algerian, you don't deserve to exist. In another life, they must have been the Holy Inquisition. This same violence of censors, he is today the victim. It is now seven days, seven days that the Franco-Algerian writer is detained after his arrest by the Algerian authorities. But what crime motivated this arrest? What crimes justify his detention? Nothing more than his creative freedom, his impertinence, his acid, ferocious, scathing feather. We cannot remain deaf in the face of arbitrariness. No, Boualem Sansal's place is not in the jails of a dictatorship. It is the honor of France and Europe to have been built in opposition to letters of stamp and embalming. The French and European spirit, it is the Enlightenment and freedom of expression, it is Voltaire who attacks the absolute monarchy, it is Alexander Solzhenitsyn who denounces the Gulag archipelago in his book published in Paris, it is Charlie Hebdo who carries the caricature in the wound. The European Union must affirm with one voice the arbitrary and intolerable nature of such an arrest. We MEPs must demand the immediate release of Boualem Sansal.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 'abortion is the leading cause of death in the world'. This is the lie that CNews broadcast on February 25, 2024. A false information, one more, which is part of a real cultural battle, orchestrated by the media empire of Vincent Bolloré in France, at the service of the extreme right. Offensives that can be found elsewhere in Europe, in Hungary with Orban, in the Czech Republic with Babiš. Will we accept these Trumpist methods that smear the democratic debate? We assume that fighting against the concentration of the media, for the plurality of expressions, for a strong public service of the audiovisual sector, for the independence of journalists, is fighting for our democracies. This year, ambitious texts have been adopted within the European Union. But it is now necessary to act and ensure the implementation of these texts. We are at a crossroads: Will Europe be powerful or servile? Does the Commission intend to go further? Does it intend to impose full shareholder transparency and a unified European database, and really punish disinformation? Let's protect Europe and democracy, let's act!