Speeches

Madam President, only France can decide to amend its own Labour Code. Here is a statement that may no longer be a truth tomorrow. This is evidenced by this report on platform workers. The appalling working conditions and precariousness of the bicycle delivery workers who travel the streets of our cities are all the more signs that wild globalisation is producing a veritable economic jungle that we must fight. Here, neither one nor two, the European Union, affected by the Savior’s Syndrome, runs to their bedside. In vain. Indeed, as always, the Brussels bureaucracy, whose slowness of action is no longer to be demonstrated, is again outdated: Spain, France, but above all Switzerland and the United Kingdom, outside the EU, are already working to address the problems of bogus self-employed. Our nations do this by promulgating decrees or letting the courts act sovereignly. The reclassification of contracts is ongoing and that is a good thing. Therefore, let us not allow the European Union to take advantage of people’s misfortune to interfere in matters for which it does not have competence. France is acting and must do more to pay those who need to be. We must also put an end to the scandalous use of illegals in the platform economy. We reject immigration that causes social dumping. Our jobs must be reserved for ours first and foremost. If globalization rhymes with precariousness, let us make the nation the lever that will make it possible to fight effectively against these unworthy practices.

Madam President, we all agree here that the case before us today is a reminder of Iran’s propensity to fire all the woods to extract some concessions from the West, such as the release of its own nationals. One would be tempted to see this as a link with the trial in Belgium of Assadollah Assadi, for a planned attack in France. In addition to the tragic case of that academic sentenced to death in Iran on the basis of specious allegations, that resolution rightly denounces a judicial and prison system of another age which applies, inter alia, the worst corporal punishment, from amputation to flogging, or the death penalty in its most degrading form, that of public execution. I regret, however, that the fate of the Christian minority has been completely overshadowed, in particular that of the converts, like the man who was sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. This cause should be at the heart of the Europeans’ dialogue with Iran, which must continue.

Mr President, the likely graduation of Bangladesh from the category of least developed countries requires a review of our generous trade policy towards it, all the more so in view of the meagre progress made in the area of labour law. In the textile sector, the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013 certainly led to some safety improvements. But in the clothing and leather industry for the local market, for example, 58% of workers are said to be under the age of 18. Women employed in the textile sector suffer serious abuses there, in a country that has also been won over by Islamist fever – the Charlie Hebdo case proved this. Moreover, how can the European Union, which has never been greedy for moral lessons on the plight of migrants, evade Bangladesh’s track record in combating international trafficking in human beings? Thus, the authorities sometimes bring legal proceedings against their own citizens who have returned from a period of work emigration, on the aberrant ground that they would have damaged the national image. This is particularly the case for those who have been victims of kafala, a form of modern quasi-slavery, in some Islamist countries. The US has excluded Bangladesh both from its trade preferences and, it seems, from a possible free trade agreement. That decision recalls that the grant of such advantages is not a right, but a privilege.