Speeches

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, after two fratricidal world wars, we have managed to build the European Union, to live in peace and to work for the prosperity of our peoples. But out of naivety, by draping ourselves in our ideals, our rulers failed and failed to protect our way of life, our identity, our culture, our territory. Strangers, often breaking into our soil, hostile to our civilization, have come to assassinate our compatriots. In France, mad Islamists have carried out their project of barbarism by murdering children, families, young people, priests, police, teachers. In less than a week, Islamist barbarism has repeatedly hit an unarmed Europe in the face of this sneaky phenomenon. First in Arras, where Dominique Bernard, a professor, three years after the murder of Samuel Paty, was cowardly killed by a foreigner denied asylum, who should have been expelled from our territory almost ten years ago. I note, moreover, that since 1989 and the first demands in Creil to wear the veil at school, and despite our law banning ostentatious religious symbols at school, the rise of Islamism in society has never really been hindered. The day before yesterday, with the cry ofAllahu Akbar!A Tunisian illegal, who arrived by boat in Lampedusa in 2011, denied the right to asylum, and who also had nothing to do on our European soil, killed two Europeans of Swedish nationality in Brussels on a game night. When will the European Union understand that illegal immigration kills, that it kills more and more, and that it will kill even more if we do not act? When will Europe finally draw the consequences in order to protect our citizens, our children and our schools, rather than co-fund campaigns that promote the wearing of the hijab or events in the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood – and therefore radical Islam? The left and the far left are constantly bringing in more and more immigration; they concern themselves exclusively with migrants, without ever taking into account the security of our European citizens. Our priority in the EPP is to enforce our territory, to deny access to those who do not share our way of life and who want to destroy us, and to protect us and our fellow citizens.

Mr. Speaker, "the morgue is saturated, the cemetery is saturated. We cannot cope. Let the European Union act. And how many delegations come here and leave without anything changing?" I will never forget the angry cry of the mayor of Lampedusa, heard last June when I was there on a parliamentary mission. This mayor is facing a daily flood of migrants from Africa. Since the beginning of the year, more than 75 000 illegal migrant boats have docked in Italy, a figure that has doubled in one year. Essentially men. More than half left Tunisia and in particular Sfax, which in spite of itself has become a hub for irregular immigration. So yes, the migration component of the EU-Tunisia agreement is an important step in the strategic and comprehensive partnership with this friendly country. Finally, we will condition the disbursement of European funds by giving more to an African state that is part of a massive economic development plan and that decides to cooperate better with us on migration. This is the vision that Republicans are advocating in this Chamber. Unlike the left, the far left, the greens and Mr Macron’s friends, our priority is not to distribute migrants in our Member States, but to stop illegal immigration and protect our external borders.

Madam President, Commissioner, I am happy today because I am returning from Denmark, where I spent three days of intensive work, where I went to see the return centres and this firm policy, decided by a social democratic government, but in a national and political cohesion that should make the whole of our Chamber dream. I would also like to invite the Socialists and the Greens to take part in a small training course. I note, moreover, that the Danish Socialist Members are voting against the Socialists in this European Parliament, in particular against Mr López Aguilar, and that they are voting with Nadine Morano. So yes, I think asylum applications need to be outsourced. Yes, I think that our aid for the development of the African continent must be conditional on the control of their migration policies, and that we must even give a premium to those who contribute to it.

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, do you really want to save lives? So let us not only talk about the need for European solidarity to save lives in the Mediterranean, but also call for action on the part of the African Union, some of whose member states share the other side of the Mediterranean and also have safe ports that they systematically refuse to open. Since 2014, more than 20,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean. A few days ago, 29 migrants drowned off Tunisia, as always mostly young men. These tragedies are unacceptable. Then it's time to be firm. And to remind African states of their duty to their youth, rather than overwhelm Europeans who already show immense solidarity by contributing more than €20 billion in development aid to Africa each year. Italy, overwhelmed by massive arrivals on its coasts, has just rightly declared a state of migratory emergency. The whole of Europe should do the same, because we must break the deadly spiral of incitement to illegal immigration. Break the economic model of smugglers who take advantage of our flaws and weaknesses to thrive on the misery of those who dream of a better destiny, helped by the complicit and irresponsible action of certain NGOs. Give Frontex the human and material resources it needs rather than freezing its budget and turning it into an agency for the protection of fundamental rights, rather than protecting our borders. Outsource the asylum process to countries far from the EU. Finally, make our aid conditional on results in the field of migration. Put in place an effective European return policy. A firm and humane migration pact in line with our values is what Europeans expect. It is only by these means that we will truly and sustainably save lives in the Mediterranean, which is not intended to be a cemetery.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I wholeheartedly support Iranian women, their courage, their heroism, those who are fighting to free themselves from the veil that is a prison. They risk their lives every day, and we in Europe, while the veil is not a simple garment, it is the political instrument of a radical Islam that subjugates women, the veil is not in accordance with our European way of life, our ideal of freedom to the principle of equality between men and women that we defend, I cannot accept this permanent proselytism that is done by the European Commission through its communication campaigns towards our youth, this Islamist entrism that plagues our institutions. I call on the Commission to conduct an internal investigation in order to unmask those responsible who have repeatedly allowed real propaganda to be produced for the veil.