Speeches

Mr President, as usual, the EU opens files, organises debates but does nothing useful, especially for the French. The promotion of quality jobs is a striking example of this. 95 million people, or one in five Europeans, are currently at risk of extreme poverty. The desperation of the population is such that shoplifting is constantly on the rise, to the point that anti-theft devices are now found on pieces of meat in stores. This debate shows your total disconnection from reality. 10% of European workers are working poor. Yet they have a stable job, are often paid more than the SMIC and have received training. In spite of this, they can neither stay, nor feed properly, or even stay at all. A quality label according to European criteria will not change anything. The resilience of our jobs and societies can only be envisaged at national level, with our own legislation, and certainly not in this Chamber.

Mr President, it is gratifying that this text makes a strong point of putting some order in the mask of the obscure operations of NGOs funded by the European Commission, and that it rightly denounces any support given to organisations linked to religious fundamentalism. These NGOs, which are supposed to be the torchbearers of European values, operate with billions of our budget. But where is transparency? Where is the responsibility? It's time to lift the veil. These NGOs, which thrive on the Commission's lax oversight, are not just financial black holes, but potential threats to our way of life. They claim to represent civil society, but what are they really for? The Commission has failed to effectively monitor these groups, which has allowed funds to be channelled to causes that do not correspond to the interests of the citizens of the Member States. And the situation of our Member States, their competences are overshadowed by the shady activities of these NGOs. We must defend the sovereignty of our nations, including their ability to impose stricter rules in the name, for example, of the fight against corruption. I tabled an alternative resolution with the ID Group. We demand immediate action by the European Commission for more scrutiny, strict guidelines and a clear and unambiguous policy on the funding of NGOs, as well as an immediate halt to the funding of those NGOs that contribute to illegal immigration or promote values contrary to those of freedom and democracy. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, being a Member of the European Parliament means attending every meeting with scenes of such surrealism that it would almost make you smile if the subjects were not so dramatic. For 30 minutes we have been discussing an EU strategy to help young people face the housing and cost of living crises. What if the EU stopped doing it a little? Every time you pretend to help, you make things worse: housing is expensive, but you have imposed unmanageable punitive environmental standards that now deter landlords from renting or force people to stay in homes they can no longer renovate due to lack of resources. Energy is expensive, but you are the one who set up this energy market, made decisions about our sources of supply and killed our nuclear industry. Life is expensive, but you bring products from the other side of the world, impose your globalist vision on the Member States and take care of citizens only when you need to care for your image. It is you, Members and Commissioners, who, in the name of a supposed Europe that protects, validate ever more deadly texts. You want to help young people? Give them reasons to believe in the future. It is no longer acceptable for one in five young people to live below the poverty line. When 80% of young people have to live with their parents for lack of means, how do you want them to have faith in the future? It is time for the EU to switch software. Stop wanting to meddle in everything. Accept that Member States freely take the measures that young people need to regain a taste for work and success and a desire to project themselves into a serene future. Young people are our future, let them shine.

Mr President, Commissioner, throughout my life, I have put the idea of work well done and professional conscience at the heart of everything. A case can only work if everyone feels good and is involved in securing employment. We cannot deny the new challenges related to digital and teleworking, which became widespread and amplified during the health crisis. This observation led my country, France, to take the bull by the horns in 2016. At that time, the word "COVID" was still confined to laboratories, and yet the "right to disconnect" already appeared in our labor code. It should also be noted that more than half of the Member States already have laws or initiatives on this subject, and most of the others are seriously discussing them. In short, we do not need the Commission to act. As usual, Brussels takes this opportunity to interfere in the life of the states. This is all the more true as the consequences of non-compliance with the right to disconnect (such as overwork, sick leave, or deteriorating mental health) will be borne by national health systems, and thus financed by the States themselves. Let us deal with these issues that concern us in the first place, since it is the States that pay. Make no mistake, the European Union is not the answer to everything. It is high time she understood this.

Madam President, Commissioner, the current situation in the European Union should encourage you to show humility, because the successive crises, inflation, uncertainty and insecurity suffered by our fellow citizens are also, and above all, the result of the European Union’s political choices. Today, we are saddened that children’s rights are no longer respected and that they are affected by poverty. But who has imposed drastic austerity measures on Member States for years? Who blamed the Member States for their spending on health or social services for years? Who, today, still wants to dictate its priorities to the Member States, if not the European Union? Your statements and texts are a series of punctures on the verge of indecency. We did not wait for the EU to wake up and suddenly dream of being a great protector of the social good to be aware of the dramatic situation our fellow citizens, and in particular our children, are going through. What does the European Union propose, if not endless lists of wishful thinking? Of course our children deserve the best. Of course, everyone must have the right to security, education, a healthy environment in which to grow and flourish. But what does the European Union propose, if not contradictory messages, between calls to finance everything and anything, and finally giving priority to all the other subjects? By depriving Member States of their freedom to act serenely according to their needs, by preventing them from returning value to work or strengthening their service through national policies they deem necessary, you are condemning our children to grow up in a world that no longer protects them. The least thing now would be to stop giving lessons and finally take action.

Madam President, Commissioner, no, the people are not doing well. Governments locked up the people of Europe during the health crisis and abandoned them as purchasing power melted like snow in the sun. They have thrown them into precariousness by fiercely competing with workers around the world. Results of the races: our national jewels, our family businesses, which were part of the landscape, shut the door, and the hearts of the villages around them suddenly stopped beating. On top of that, French people live in the anguish of an imminent terrorist attack – in a school, in a train station or on the terrace of a café. The sad thing is that many people no longer believe it is possible to find their country, the one we loved so much, the one in which everyone believed, the one of happy French people, which can only be seen in archive images from the INA. Among young people, suicide attempts are on the rise, taking by surprise an often helpless entourage in the face of these dramatic acts – which tell a lot about young people’s inability to imagine their future. The context of widespread gloom has a very strong impact on the mental health of our compatriots. Our priority must be to act to make sense again. Work well done, pride in know-how, useful employment and, above all, the happiness of starting a family safely are basic elements that many have thought superfluous. However, that is the main point. That is what we must stand for.

Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank the political groups for accepting the proposal from our group, Identity and Democracy, to hold this debate today. I wanted to mention Abbé Pierre, who was a Member of Parliament from my region, France, and who was one of the first to tackle this problem. But the leitmotif of October 17 is that of Father Joseph: “Where men are condemned to live in misery, human rights are violated. Uniting to enforce them is a sacred duty.” There is no room for complacency in the face of the pressure of precariousness, which was once believed. Inflation now affects even household food, which is forced to reduce this vital expenditure. Even among workers, misery is progressing at an insane rate. How could it be otherwise, when Brussels is working hard to unravel our social models and impose unfair competition on us from poorer countries? This week, a summit will again address the enlargement project to the Balkans, a region where low wages and the €300 SMIC push skilled workers onto the roads of exile. Beyond this observation, let us therefore be lucid about the responsibility of European policies in the dramatic impoverishment of our societies.

Madam President, Commissioner, hundreds of thousands of French people sleep outside. Nearly 600 people lose their lives every year. For those who still have a roof over their head, the situation is deteriorating more and more as the housing crisis is in full swing. In addition to the costs of energy, inflation, the explosion of charges and the spike in property taxes, it is now the binding energy renovation standards imposed by the European Commission, which has also failed to manage the energy transition, which, consequently, accelerates the disaster. Out of the market of thousands of apartments because of too low an EPB, the EU is creating conditions for a cataclysm. For homeowners, this expensive work is not feasible. Aid is not enough and it is unacceptable to ask French people who give up heating, treating themselves, and sometimes even eating, to change their doors and windows. I am thinking of the elderly who have sacrificed a lifetime to buy a good that they will have to sell for lack of means to renovate it. To save decent housing. Above all, it is urgent to stop the totally indecent requests made to Europeans who will soon find themselves on the streets if nothing is done to say stop. (The Chair withdrew the floor from the speaker)

Mr President, Commissioner, at a time when the invasion of Lampedusa has taken place before our eyes, the European Union is asking the French to welcome all the misery of the world into their homes. Yet the Brussels commissioners, the technocrats disconnected from reality, are pretending to see the misery that our peoples have been suffering head on for some time now. Our social systems are out of breath. Money is missing for everything. We offer hotel nights to migrants while the French no longer have the means to turn on the heating at home, we treat foreigners, we take care of them, while a majority of our people give up going to the doctor for lack of means, we want to regularise illegals to offer them a job when we should train the French and allow them to live in their own country. For us, it is very simple: Let's defend ours before others. The people of Europe are the majority in favour of this common-sense policy. So let's finally do it.

Madam President, Commissioner, firefighters are increasingly subject to aggression and incivility in their interventions. There is no question of this. In France, we saw a very worrying upsurge in this phenomenon last year. In 2022 alone, 1,505 attacks against firefighters were recorded, including 173 with weapons. It is very simple, far from the smoky explanations of each other, it is actually a refusal of the authority of the State manifested in this explosion of violence against men and women in uniform. Another size problem: More generally, there are also fewer professional firefighters in the European Union, despite a greater risk of fire. There are currently 360,000 across the EU, 5,000 fewer than in 2022. This is all the more worrying as fire starts multiply across the continent and our forests, which are more vulnerable due to severe droughts, burn at the slightest spark – sometimes a criminal spark. Our firefighters are therefore increasingly at risk during their interventions. In short, whether in the face of wildfires or in our cities or villages, governments are endangering those who sacrifice their lives to save the lives of others. It should be noted that this resolution on firefighters is still somewhat part of the initiative of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament. I am therefore very proud to speak for those who die in the flames or under the attacks of the scum. Let's not let this happen again.

Mr President, Commissioner, the number of business failures is skyrocketing. Since the beginning of the year, more than 50 000 legal proceedings have been opened, figures that are dangerously close to those of 2009, in the midst of the financial crisis. Above all, millions of workers are gradually falling into poverty because of fuel prices and inflation caused by the European Union’s delusional energy policy. Working poor, soon poorer and without work. There are, for example, bakers, forced to put their apron back on the place where electricity bills accumulate, leading them to economic death, or farmers, whom the EU persecutes to the point of pushing them to death at all. There is also all the know-how of our French glassmakers and crystal manufacturers, which is condemned by banning them from using lead. At home in Lorraine, our craftsmen are sounding the alarm. But the Commission hears nothing, hidden behind the soulless windows of the Brussels offices. All these situations lift our hearts. The European Union talks to us about SMEs without understanding that it is suffocating them. Economic decommissioning is underway and the EU is playing pyromaniac firefighters by funding high-cost policies to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of its own choices. It is time to put an end to this circus. Rather than promising us plans with our money, the Identity and Democracy Group is calling for an immediate end to your suicidal policy, because the people of Europe do not want to die and they will prove it to you.

On development aid, France announced on Sunday that it was suspending all aid to Burkina Faso until further notice. What about Europe, please?

Mr High Representative, the chaos in Niger is all the more regrettable because Mohamed Bazoum, who had been Minister of the Interior before being elected to the presidency, had shown a willingness to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. I would remind you that this country is an important link in the migratory routes. In a context of a sharp increase in crossings from the Mediterranean to Italy – 87,000 over seven months in 2023, more than twice as high as last year – Frontex is reported to have suspended all activity in Niger. My question is simple: how do you plan to cope with a possible wave of arrivals? Secondly, it is not a question of doing so. It must also be made known. In response to one of my written questions, you mentioned a "task force" against the flood of fake news that feeds, especially on social networks, an unbridled anti-French hatred in Africa. We see that the situation is only getting worse. What is your analysis of this phenomenon, and what response are you preparing? Thank you for your answers.

Mr President, Commissioner, our SMEs and craftsmen are in danger. While the European Union pretends to be concerned about the plight of entrepreneurs suffering from the explosion of costs, inflation and energy prices, the constraints it imposes on the economic sector are delusional. In my region, in addition to all the problems faced by those who get up early to run the economy, our Lorraine know-how and heritage are directly threatened by the new EU lead regulations. Result: Dozens of workshops producing sublime stained-glass windows are in danger of disappearing altogether. This is the dramatic consequence of a dogmatic policy decided by people who do nothing with their hands. That does not stop there. The Brussels firefighter signs free trade agreements with the whole world, the one with New Zealand is the latest. In Brussels, we prefer containers from elsewhere than the fruit of the work of our entrepreneurs. The time for stocktaking is approaching. With us, it is the people responsible for this policy and not our SMEs who will put the key under the door.

Madam President, Commissioner, this report on Albania is clearly inconsistent. The country is therefore knocking on the door of the European Union against ringing and stumbling species, with EUR 758 million allocated to it between 2014 and 2020 under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance alone. Yet between 2010 and 2019, more than 193,000 Albanians applied for asylum in the EU on grounds that were particularly cold in the back – from vendettas to human trafficking – in order to be considered refugees. Last year, the same Albanians increased the ranks of makeshift boats crossing the Channel before Rishi Sunak put it in order. Is this the level of a future Member State? I would add that, with a minimum wage of around EUR 360, Albania represents fierce competition, for example in the clothing sector, at a time when the Commission claims to have a sustainability strategy for this sector and local production is being shyly reborn from the ashes in my region of Lorraine, France. I am therefore fiercely opposed to any enlargement that would be an economic and civilizational aberration.

Madam President, the Sustainable Development Goals are likely to be as relative a success as those of the millennium, and that is deplorable. At least, the first version was limited to primary challenges, such as the fight against infant mortality or maternal health. The SDGs cover 17 broad areas and no fewer than 169 targets, including migration. To this end, the inventory at the Prévert of our two rapporteurs mixes various considerations, relating to the energy performance of buildings or public transport. ‘Vaste programme’, in the famous words of General de Gaulle, but which is hardly in unison with the aspirations of my compatriots in France. More than that, it must be said and repeated, Europe cannot assume eternal responsibility for global development. Members of the Paris Club held only about 11% of the debt of the 73 poorest countries in 2020, up from 29% in 2006. Meanwhile, China holds about 21% in Africa – not to mention hidden debt, which is not officially accounted for. I turn to the relevance and quality of certain infrastructure projects supported under the ‘New Silk Roads’ or to the issue of abusive interest rates. So let’s stop beating our backbone by obsessively evoking a supposed funding gap. New resources are at hand, beyond a single Western public aid, which has been spent at a loss for years. European taxpayers will be grateful.

Madam President, Commissioner, for several years, the leaders of VSEs and SMEs have been alerting us to the difficulties they have in finding the necessary qualifications. These severe labour shortages threaten many French companies, in particular, undermining their development and competitiveness. As usual, the European Commission, in addition to imposing increasingly abusive administrative burdens and standards, would like to put out the fire it has itself lit. Immigration is being sold as a miracle cure, while it is our youth who must spearhead this economic and industrial recovery. Let us first train our own before others, in short, in order to enhance our know-how and talents. As a trader for decades in my region of Lorraine, I found that lack of training was a barrier to recruitment. It is for these reasons that traineeships and apprenticeships in general must remain a national competence. By wanting to affect compensation and traineeship agreements, the European Union is threatening to destabilise the entire system, as it has also tried to do with the European minimum wage. For us, it is very clear: our companies are best placed to identify their needs, unlike the techno-managers in Brussels. Let us therefore listen to the players in the economy and train our youth, also in order to stem the brain drain.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ten years after the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013, which killed more than 1 100 people, mainly from the clothing sector, nothing has changed in Bangladesh, or too little. While improvements have substantially increased security within companies, according to the International Labour Organisation, the typical garment worker is a 23-year-old woman from a rural area who lives with her family in inadequate housing. There's nothing to poppy about. And this is not to mention the persistence of child labour. All this is appalling. But what about a European Union that, on the one hand, takes great note of its new sustainable textiles strategy and, on the other, has so far maintained exorbitant facilities in favour of such a beneficiary. I would also spare you the country’s record in terms of the status of women or the spread of radical Islam, which is the subject of the amendment. In France, the demonstrations relating to the Charlie Hebdo case are, in this regard, a grim memory. Bangladesh still enjoys the most favourable trade regime, even though the United States has withdrawn its equivalent advantages, from which textiles are excluded. Competition from low-cost countries could also kill off any hope of reviving domestic industries. I speak in full knowledge of the facts since my region, Lorraine, in France was historically the spearhead of French textile. Some courageous entrepreneurs are trying to take up the torch by braving the pangs of the energy crisis and inflation. In short, the case of Bangladesh illustrates the gaping gap between speech and action. Let us hope, without any illusions, that the new version of trade preferences will make it possible to reduce it somewhat.

Mr President, in 2021, eleven countries signed a letter, a few days before the Porto Social Summit. Their objective: It is imperative that nations retain control over their social policies. It was simple, it was clear, it was common sense itself. However, the Commission has done the opposite since then, imposing on us directives on the European SMIC, on guaranteed minimum incomes and now on trainees' salaries. States are gradually dispossessed of their democratic right to decide for themselves. The Europeanist offensive is total. By tackling training and our education, unemployment insurance, our salaries and even how to negotiate them through collective agreements, the French find themselves taken care of by the European Union from cradle to grave. Emmanuel Macron had only to take care of our pensions using the same dubious methods as the Commission. This has now been done. In short, the Porto Social Summit is the roadmap for a Europe that gets out of bed and spills over into all aspects of our lives. That is why we say: No. Faced with this, the Identity and Democracy Groups and ECR are jointly advocating another model: respect for sovereignty, the fight against immigration, which weighs on our social budgets, and the end of social dumping and unfair competition. Yes to a real policy for workers. A policy that can only be national.

Mr President, Commissioner, the end of the combustion engine. Liquidation of our nuclear industry. Abusive taxation and punitive ecology. The European Union is sinking the French economy. Worse still, the European Commission is aware of the disaster for which it is responsible. This is the raison d’être of the smoky Social Climate Fund, which is a file I have now been on for almost a year. This new tool, managed by Brussels technocracy, is ultimately just a simple dressing that we try to put on a purulent wound that Europe itself has opened up. In the final analysis, it is the Member States themselves that are asked to pay the price of the compress box, which the Commission also offers itself the right to apply to our devastated economies. As with the recovery plan at the time, it was the French who triaged and the Commission who posed for the photo. Also, we denounce the federalist logic that is turning at full speed. The EU is using and abusing any loophole to engulf itself in our national competences and get everything back on track. By plucking the fruit of our work and pretending to redistribute it generously, the European Union is openly mocking us. Faced with this vision that we refuse, we prefer to say yes to a localist policy that turns its back on free trade, yes to the defense of our nuclear sector, yes to an ingrained ecology and common sense. Yes, three times yes to build a Europe of free, truly free nations.

Mr President, Commissioner, the Bridgetown Agenda is based on an undeniable observation: 60% of low-income countries were at risk of over-indebtedness in 2022, up from 30% in 2015. And small island developing States are at the forefront of this crisis. A situation to which some loans made with China are not foreign. The latter would also be drawn to the ears to participate equitably in a possible global relief effort. Moreover, non-visible Chinese debt, i.e. debt not accounted for by the IMF, weighs heavily on the island developing states that are at the heart of this agenda. In this regard, let us begin by demanding that everyone should take responsibility. Further on, it must be noted that transparency is unfortunately not always there. Barbados, the leading country on the agenda, was on the FATF grey list in February on money laundering and terrorist financing, among others. Same as Jamaica or Haiti. In short, if the agenda contains relevant points, the fundamentals of development are immutable: flawless public management and transparency that inspires confidence among investors and funders. Until these conditions are met, raising the most vulnerable countries to the level of development that is hoped for would, alas, be illusory.

Mr President, Commissioner, our companies can no longer do so. Relocations, opening up markets to unfair competition, destructive free trade and steering our economy by technocrats who know nothing about the business world. In short, France has been suffering for decades from the European Union’s bad choices. The Commission continues to call on France to sell everything. But for what result? The competitive economy you sell us as carpet dealers is a decoy. The Chinese are attacking the car market and jeopardising all our sectors. Americans are subsidizing their industries at the expense of recovery in Europe. To this, you add massive immigration, which is supposed to solve the problem of labour shortages, but which in reality only weighs on the social budget. And you have the picture of total disaster. It is time to stop lying. Your old recipes don't work. Your decisions are made in spite of reality. The real thing is poverty and unemployment, soaring prices and the closure of our businesses. The real thing is the nightmare that people experience, that of the nations that had everything for them and that have only their eyes to cry. In the face of this, we have not changed the line: companies that produce here, borders that produce from there and states that finally act. You say more Europe, more jobs, we say more nation, more reindustrialisation, more economic patriotism. In short, all that you have refused but that the peoples have always demanded.

Mr President, Commissioner, the recent visit of the EU Special Envoy for the Serb-Kosovar Dialogue recalled Pristina’s relentless refusal to implement a provision of the 2013 Brussels Agreement, namely the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. This obstinacy, which has persisted for almost a decade, is symptomatic of the ostracism suffered by Kosovo Serbs. What solution do you propose to break the deadlock? Secondly, some visa agreements, which are one of the causes of the migration crisis in the region, have been rightly denounced. Another aspect of this crisis relates to the large number of Balkan nationals themselves in migratory flows. I am thinking here of Albanian migrants, who are rushing to the United Kingdom or the European Union to seek asylum there. In the context of the negotiations, I believe that there is an urgent need to find a solution to this situation, which is incompatible with Albania’s status as a candidate country. It is also a question of credibility.

Mr President, with an expected investment of EUR 300 billion, the new European Global Gateway programme is competing strongly with China, Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009. But such an ambition implies a departure from a certain naivety. Naivety, first of all, because it is not enough to do, it is necessary to make known: 59% of Africans had a positive view of China’s influence in 2019-2020, down to 46% of Europeans. A disconcerting result in terms of our financial and human investment. I am thinking in particular of the French army in the Sahel. Naïve also when, for example, a public contract in Senegal, co-financed by the European Investment Bank to the tune of EUR 80 million, was won by a Chinese company. On this point, we unfortunately remain the useful idiots of the rest of the world. Westerners are also called to the rescue when it comes to an African debt held at least 21% by Beijing. And while its lending practices are decried, China seems to be evading a possible collective relief effort. In short, Europeans must first and foremost stop working for the King of Prussia or, if I dare say so, for the Emperor of China.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European infernal machine is running at full speed. By ignoring the social urgency and despite common sense, the European Union is asking us to revise the European Works Councils Directive. That's the good deal! All this to add to this technocratic bric-à-brac gender quotas, some unnecessary clarifications and penalties for the most recalcitrant. In short, while Europe, on the one hand, is sinking into the economic crisis and, on the other hand, is being assailed by immigration that is rampant at our borders and does not hesitate to break through the door by entering illegally, now we are paying the luxury of fine-tuning European directives. We do not accept that Brussels allows itself all its whims, as they are indeed whims. Indeed, the feedback on the ground is very clear since stakeholders see no interest in this revision. Worse, while our businesses need oxygen to grow, we refuse to add even more unnecessary bureaucracy. Obliging companies to hold information meetings and set up committees... But we are walking on our heads! For us, it is very clear: national labour law takes precedence over everything else. If a French worker is covered in France, he is subject to French law. It is very simple, very, very simple. However, the European Union complicates everything when the situation is self-evident. We refuse to waste precious time when there are priorities. We have to do our jobs, our businesses, our know-how. That is all that needs to be done. The French expect us – I speak for the French because it is my country – to defend them, not to pretend to play with European officials who change commas in reports and put the directives in the Wokist hour. Let's make it clear. We are fighting for our countries, me, France, and for her alone. This is also why it is simple to understand.