Speeches

Madam President, President Zelenskyy, ladies and gentlemen, four years ago, almost to the day, Europe woke up with a crash. On our continent, which we thought was definitely reconciled with itself, the war of invasion became a reality again. In deciding to attack Ukraine, Vladimir Putin not only violated borders, he defied a founding principle of the European order, that no nation can be subjected by force to the will of another. For four years, the Ukrainian people have endured the test of fire: cities bombed, families dispersed, children torn from their daily lives, infrastructure methodically destroyed. But in the face of this negation enterprise, Ukraine has opposed something that no missile can break, the consciousness of being a free nation. To those who questioned its identity, Ukraine responded with courage; To those who predicted its collapse, she responded with tenacity. European history is punctuated by those moments when peoples had to wrest their freedom from imperial ambitions. Our continent knows the price of independence and that is why the Ukrainian cause is no stranger to Europe. It touches the heart of who we are. Yes, Ukraine must be able to hold and negotiate in a position of strength. Yes, Europe must contribute to its resilience through logistical and humanitarian support. But our duty is twofold: support Ukraine without permanently weakening our own nations, because weakening European nations would do no service to anyone, to themselves or to Ukraine. The financial mechanisms involved without European exclusivity in arms purchases, the guaranteed loans which, as we know, will never be repaid and the prospects for accelerated enlargement raise legitimate questions in public opinion. In France in particular, many farmers, already facing a deep crisis, fear yet another unfair competition and, ultimately, a new risk of disappearing. To say that is not to turn away. To say that is not to weaken. To say this is to assume a democratic demand. We have been saying this since day one: There can be no other way out of this war than peace, negotiated peace, peace to silence arms, peace to allow Ukraine to guarantee its security tomorrow. The peace we call for will not be the abandonment of Ukraine, nor the indefinite perpetuation of a conflict of attrition. This peace presupposes stronger European nations, able to assume their own defense, to weigh diplomatically against Putin without depending on Washington's moods. It presupposes a Europe of nations capable of protecting its borders, its agriculture, its industry. The stakes of the period we are living through go beyond the war itself. It is a question of whether the 21st European ᵉ will be that of servitude to empires or that of the power of nations – a power in the service of peace, stability and the service of peoples. Mr President of Ukraine, through you, I want to reiterate to the Ukrainian people that your struggle is not ignored and that it will never be trivialized or forgotten. But I also want to say here that true solidarity is not about applause or outrage. It consists in taking responsibility over the long term for the actions that are taken and their consequences. It is to this new European architecture that we will have to work and it is to this peace that we will have to work.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, today there is a truth that no one can deny anymore: Europe speaks as a power, but lives as a declining continent. While Brussels makes summits, strategies and slogans, our factories close, our engineers leave and our production lines relocate. Europe is no longer preparing for the future, it is organising its own exit from industrial history. In the name of a climate virtue that has become religion, you have increased the cost of energy, asphyxiated companies under the weight of standards, opened wide the doors of our markets to powers that fiercely protect their industry. The Green Deal has become a symbol of organised decommissioning for millions of Europeans: fewer factories, more imports; fewer industrial jobs, more dependence; less European production, more Chinese products. The result is as follows: Every year, nearly 300 billion euros leave our continent to finance Chinese industry. Europe is now at a standstill: in the west, a technological dependence on the United States; in the east, industrial dependence on China; and at the centre, a bureaucratic European Union that persists in the same recipes that have led us to the impasse. Omnibus procedures are presented as corrections; They are actually confessions. The admission that you have imposed untenable rules on our industry. The admission that your policy has accelerated the continent's economic stall. The Draghi report makes this clear: Europe is becoming a simple open market with no capacity for innovation or autonomy. Clearly, a Europe that depends on what others decide. This is the true face of the model you have built. If Europe is to survive in the world to come, a clear and immediate change of course is needed: suspend the Green Deal to give freedom back to businesses, protect our strategic markets with economic patriotism, and finance our strategic independence without complexities. In the real world that you ignore, there is no power without production, no sovereignty without growth and no future in submission, servitude and bankruptcy.

Madam President, Madam President of the European Central Bank, ladies and gentlemen, Madam President, your mandate is clear: ensuring price stability. But no monetary policy can permanently ignore the economic reality that is unfolding before our eyes. This reality is one of Europe's gradual stalling in world competition. While China and Japan maintain structurally undervalued currencies to support their exports, our companies are facing more than just tough competition: it is increasingly unfair. In international markets, they are losing market share. Within the single market itself, they are now struggling to maintain their rank, burdened with an obsolete normative burden. The recent appreciation of the euro against the dollar above the symbolic threshold of 1.20 is not just a financial indicator, it is a wake-up call for our productive apparatus. Coupled with trade agreements that accentuate our dependence, this evolution could accelerate Europe's transformation into a vast consumer market, rather than a power of production and innovation. Ultimately, the very prosperity of our nations and economies is threatened. In this context, monetary immobility is worrying. Since mid-2025, policy rates have not been cut and quantitative tightening continues, even though growth remains fragile and inflation is slowing in several Member States, notably in France. The European Central Bank cannot afford to act too late. The continent's economic history is marked by missed opportunities, often due to lack of anticipation. So my question is simple, but essential for our economies: Does the European Central Bank intend to adapt its policy to support activity, preserve the competitiveness of our businesses and enable our nations to return to growth and power? These should be our obsessions.

Madam President, Madam President of the European Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, today I want to tell you about our farmers who you drive to the slaughterhouse. Mrs von der Leyen, you have just returned from Paraguay, where you have, this Saturday, planted a new nail in the coffin of our farmers by signing the trade agreement with the Mercosur countries. This deeply unfair agreement will open our markets to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of meat produced in countries that do not meet our health, environmental or social standards. And you know that. In this betrayal of the rural world, President Macron has been your hypocritical accomplice for all these years. He feigned opposition to calm the anger of farmers, knowing full well that the blocking minority was no longer acquired. What a cynical duplicity! Like you, President Macron, on behalf of France, has always been in favour of this agreement. And the evidence is overwhelming. In this hemicycle, its MEPs voted only thirteen times against Mercosur, while those of the National Rally voted 52 times, the highest opposition rate to this agreement. As the signing approached, you and President Macron attempted to pass the pill through two announcement effects. First, temporary cosmetic safeguard clauses, which will jump no matter what happens within ten years, and which the Mercosur countries themselves do not recognize. Secondly, maintaining the budget for the common agricultural policy, despite your ambition to reduce it. Extensive smoking since accompanied by an alleged extension of 45 billion euros. This is obviously only a simple advance and not an extension as indicated. Then the promises are decidedly committed only to those who make them. Madam President von der Leyen, once again you have favoured German industry and sacrificed French farmers. Clearly, we will always oppose the dismantling of our food sovereignty. The fate of farmers, their ability to live with dignity from their work, depends on our freedom, our sovereignty in an increasingly uncertain world. Agriculture must be removed from free trade agreements. Economic patriotism must be assumed. The standards of our companies need to be simplified. And for our economy, a watchword: produce, produce and produce.

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, the situation in Iran reveals a simple and serious truth: that of a regime that stands only by repression and fear. For months, the Iranian government has been responding to the legitimate aspirations of its people through arbitrary arrests, torture and executions. Women, students, political opponents are persecuted, not for crimes, but for demanding what should never be denied to a people: freedom and dignity. This theocratic and liberticide regime has not only made violence a serious drift, but also a method of government no longer seeking to convince anyone, but to intimidate and sow terror. The mullahs are not only the executioners of the Iranian people; They are one of the main supporters of international terrorism, financing and arming Islamist organizations that sow death, barbarism and disorder in the world. France paid the price: yesterday, by attacks that struck her in the heart; today, through direct threats, diplomatic pressure and the arbitrary detention of our nationals. This reality must not be forgotten or minimized. Iran also plays a central role in destabilizing the Middle East. In Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, its action fuels conflicts, weakens states and plunges people into suffering. Faced with this observation, complacency is not acceptable, lucidity is a requirement, firmness is our responsibility. For it would be wrong to see Iran as a regime. Beyond this oppressive power, there is a millennial people, a people whose history far precedes the regime that oppresses it today, a people that, despite repression, continues to resist, a people that aspires to freedom, dignity and a democratic future. This future is neither naive nor abstract; It is now possible. And we must, with constancy and clarity, stand with those who demand it. This is fidelity to our values. This is the responsibility of free nations.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, what is being played out around Greenland today goes far beyond a one-off diplomatic disagreement. It is a test of power and truth for Europe. The President of the United States puts the European Union before a clear choice: accept vassalization under the guise of a transatlantic partnership or become sovereign actors again, capable of defending our interests and integrity. The moment we live in is not an accident of history; it is the culmination of decades of strategic blindness, nourished by the illusion of a pacified globalization and by the gradual abandonment of our autonomy in favor of a very comfortable dependence. When a US president openly threatens a European state, when he combines assumed territorial pressure with explicit commercial blackmail, it is not just a partner who speaks out; it is a balance of power that is required and it is our credibility that is then put to the test. Greenland, a territory four times larger than France, has become a global strategic pivot at the heart of new rivalries between major powers that reconnect with imperial logics. We say it here: What is at stake today foreshadows the conflicts of tomorrow. To cede would create a serious precedent, a precedent that would concern tomorrow other European territories and perhaps the day after tomorrow, French overseas territories that could, in turn, be subjected to comparable pressures. In matters of sovereignty, each renunciation calls for the next. Faced with this situation, the European Union is at the foot of the wall, but has no right to remain silent in the face of provocations that threaten its prosperity and integrity. The agreement negotiated last summer by President von der Leyen should be suspended immediately in return. The European Union must immediately activate its anti-coercion instruments and take targeted measures on US services and exports to Europe. It must implement European preference in defence markets. This is not an escalation; It's about our sovereignty. Basically, ladies and gentlemen, the choice is simple: accept, once again, dependence or regain control of our destiny. Our submission would be a historic mistake. Behind this ordeal is our political freedom. So we make a clear choice: that of sovereign peoples, free nations, standing up, capable of assuming their destiny.

Madam President, no one can ignore the distress and suffering of the rural world. Listen to the anger of farmers in France: They no longer fight to live, but to survive. As you prepare to sign the death warrant for French agriculture by signing the free trade agreement with Mercosur, the epidemic of nodular dermatosis is spreading, giving rise to unbearable images of tearful farmers watching, helpless, the fruit of a lifetime of work go up in smoke. Everyone agrees, our farmers first: everything must be done to vaccinate and contain the disease – fortunately not transmissible to humans. We would like to see a debate on the health protocol governing measures to combat the epidemic in Europe: firstly on the method, secondly on the rules for exporting vaccinated livestock, and secondly on the compensation that our institution must provide for those who feed us. The images of police and gendarmes confronting farmers in distress are heartbreaking for millions of citizens. So let’s not abandon our farmers!

Madam President, history will judge the Green Deal very harshly, of which Ms von der Leyen was the architect. It will be judged not as an alleged ‘ecological ambition’, but as one of the biggest industrial mistakes in the economic history of our continent, as a degrowth pact imposed on our sectors of excellence, as a strategy of economic disarmament – at the very moment when, from Washington to Beijing, our competitors are protecting themselves, rearming themselves and investing massively. By banning the sale of combustion engines from 2035, you pushed Europe’s leading industry, with 14 million jobs, into an economic stalemate. You have swept away more than a century of engineering and know-how, without even wondering if Europe had the industrial, energy or mining capacities to succeed in the impossible. The result was run in advance: cascading relocations; Centenary flagships, such as Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Mercedes and many others, which have been permanently weakened; increased dependence on China; worried employees and disoriented motorists. By imposing all-electric as the only solution, while 97% of the European car fleet is still thermal, you have deliberately sacrificed industrial reason on the altar of climate virtue. In the coming weeks, my group, Patriots for Europe, will continue to defend technological neutrality, local content for our automotive industry and, above all, the protection of our flagships as well as growth in the face of global competition. The future of Europe will not be built by forbidding or coercion, but in our factories and SMEs, with those who produce and innovate every day, with all those who still believe in the prosperity of the European continent.

Madam President, ten years ago, on 13 November 2015, Paris was bleeding, struck in the heart by Islamist barbarism. Ten years have passed, but for the bereaved families, for the battered France, it was yesterday. No Frenchman will ever forget the cries, the tears, the terror of a night when 132 lives were taken. No Frenchman will ever forget those faces, those looks, those destinies shattered because they were France, its joy, its freedom, its identity and its civilisation. Ten years later, we have a question: Are we better protected today than we were yesterday? The answer is there. Every one of us knows her. Islamism has not receded, it has taken root. He thrives in our neighbourhoods, gangrenes our schools, infiltrates our institutions – even so far, where he holds zealous spokesmen on the far left. Associations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood still receive public funding, sometimes with a complacent ear, right here in Brussels. Ladies and gentlemen, we do not fight against what we refuse to name. Islamism is not an opinion, it is a war against our civilisation, which hates our roots, our values and our way of life. We must fight it with the same energy, the same determination as that of our elders in the face of the perils of the past century. In tribute to the victims, for France and for Europe as a whole, the time has come for a start. Now more than ever, let’s remember! Let us remember the police and the military, the caregivers, the firefighters, the anonymous ones who braved the chaos to save and protect. Let us remember all those who, that evening, faced with the enemy, embodied the most beautiful part of France, that of courage and fraternity. Let them know that the French nation will never forget them. By standing up against barbarism, they reminded each of us of what it means to be French.

Madam President, Madam Minister, Madam President von der Leyen, 15 hours a week is the time a farmer spends filling out papers rather than cultivating his land. 130 days a year is what a small and medium-sized business leader spends facing bureaucracy rather than growing their business. 200 million euros each year, this is what the regulatory chatter of the Green Deal costs Michelin, the French and European industrial flagship. To all business leaders, artisans, traders, all workers, today I want to talk about another type of taxation, an invisible tax that does not say its name, that of the standards imposed on you by the thousands. This paper tax is the weapon of a faceless bureaucracy that complicates the lives of those who produce, that immobilizes them behind a desk for hours. This normative burden, manufactured in Brussels and then over-transposed in our capitals, costs nearly 7% of the wealth created in Europe, or 1,200 billion euros each year. These lengthening texts kill the competitiveness of our companies and producers, undermine the purchasing power of families and disincentives everyone to invest and innovate. Let's say it, Europe has become a normative burden: CSRD, CS3D, RED, REACH, GSR, IED, DSA and so on. All our factories are leaving. But the industry of standards, on the other hand, does not know the crisis. In Ursula von der Leyen's Europe, in Macron's Europe, growth has become taboo and decay is on everyone's lips. Our entrepreneurs, our farmers, our artisans, our industrialists are wrongly considered suspects by a technocracy that intends to put our future back into dependence on foreign powers. By putting locks on national production, you take the risk of taking us out of history. While the United States, China or India are moving forward, Europe is watching the train pass. It is time to rearm our continent and our nations in the global economic war. It is time to liberate our businesses, to liberate our productive forces, to suspend the Green Deal without delay, to simplify the national economy, to proudly restore to our entrepreneurs the conditions for success, growth and success. Living free or disappearing is the existential challenge facing Europe. The Patriots have already made their choice.

Madam President, in the burning stones of Jerusalem are the roots of the three great monotheisms. On this earth where heaven has been rubbing shoulders with war for centuries, peace remains as a fragile and precious hope. The recent agreement between Israelis and Palestinians under President Trump is not a miracle, but a political courage that has become a reality. It marks a step, perhaps hesitant, but essential, towards that peace that so many men and women hardly dare to hope for. The release of the last hostages, those lives torn from hell since 7 October 2023, is a deep relief for all the families affected by this conflict. But make no mistake, peace is not decreed. It is built every minute, every second. This fragile process, as well as the total disarmament of Hamas, requires constant international support, far beyond the diplomatic postures without a future. Here I want to salute the courage of the American President. He accomplished what many considered impossible in this complicated East. He's reopened the field of possibility. We, the French, heirs of an age-old nation that was both a beacon and a balance of the world, cannot accept being relegated to the margins of history, nor to see our voice confused in that of a European Union that some here would like to erect as a super-state, capable of speaking on behalf of nations. France must regain the strength of a singular, free and fully autonomous voice. With his volte-faces and diplomatic narcissism, the French president has made our nation illegible. President Macron will have succeeded in the sad feat of offending Israel without convincing the Arab world, of having wanted to embody everything and its opposite, and of being nothing in the end. As General de Gaulle said, there is only one policy of reality. It is in this fidelity that we must work, not to please, but to weigh, to restore to the French word its constancy, to regain the nobility of a diplomacy made of dialogue, balance and greatness.

Madam President, Madam President von der Leyen, it has been six long years since the European Union, under your presidency, embarked on a dizzying leap forward. A commercial leak first, of which the agreements with Mercosur and the United States are the sad symbol. In the face of Trump's America, you have not only agreed to an agreement without compensation, you have signed the trade surrender of Europe while the other powers defend their interests tooth and nail. You have sold everything to our competitors: our farms, our factories and, of course, our jobs. A financial leak then. You are proposing an 86% increase in the European budget, while our peoples are being called upon everywhere to tighten their belts. At the same time, you are sabotaging the common agricultural policy by depriving our farmers of 24% of their means of survival. If there was any doubt about your consideration of our farmers, it is now lifted. A bureaucratic leap forward as well. 22,000 additional standard texts in five years, or 11 new texts a day, making Europe the world champion in paperwork. You punish our companies by forcing them to a decline that will eventually sign their disappearance. History will remember, Madam, that for the first time in fifty years, the French agricultural balance will be in deficit and that you will have killed the European car industry for many years. A migratory flight forward also, with the pact on migration and asylum, which forces nations, under penalty of financial sanctions, to welcome more and more migrants in our municipalities. A political leap forward, finally, with ever more senseless enlargement. Tomorrow, at this rate, Turkey, foreign to our civilization, will take its place at this table. On that day, there will be nothing left of the European idea, except a soulless flag and a border extended to Syria, Iran and Iraq. You want to put an end to unanimity. You dream of a Europe without people or government, with just you, Madam, your commissioners paid €28,000 a month and your administration plethoric. Europe, we say, is not an administrative machine, it is a civilization. And a civilization is governed not by norms, but by the consent of the free peoples and the nations that compose it. To my French colleagues from the Republicans and the EPP, I want to say that this motion of censure is a moment of truth. You cannot soft-eye our farmers in Paris, but refuse censorship in Strasbourg. To vote for the censorship of this European Commission is not to destroy Europe, it is to save it. So, for us patriots, one thing is certain: We will vote in our soul and conscience for censorship, out of duty, against Macron's Europe, against Ursula von der Leyen's Europe, but above all, for a Europe of free nations to live.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam President von der Leyen, on behalf of millions of French people, today I ask you a simple question: What interests are you really defending? What interests do you defend, Madam, when you impose, against the opinion of France, the second largest European economy, a free trade agreement with Mercosur that will aggravate unfair competition against our farmers and lead to the import into our plates of products that do not comply with any of the drastic standards that you impose on our farmers? What interests do you defend, Madam, when you propose that Europe reduce its tariffs on Chinese vehicles and, at the same time, prohibit our manufacturers from selling thermal and hybrid vehicles by 2035, while regularly threatening them with financial penalties? What interests do you defend, Madam, when you persevere in defending the European rules of the energy market, which deprive France of the historically low production costs of its nuclear industry, thus destroying the competitiveness of our industry and our companies, and the purchasing power of our most modest citizens? What interests do you defend, Madam, when you sign on our behalf a trade agreement with the United States that endorses the surrender and economic vassalage of Europe? While our exports will continue to be subject to 15% tariffs, U.S. industrial products will enter our country without any tariff barriers. And, as if that were not enough, you commit the Member States to pay a massive tribute: $750 billion in overpriced U.S. energy imports, $600 billion in investments imposed at the expense of our countries and our own territories. While France has, for Europe, an exceptional military industry, you act American preference at the expense of sovereignty and economic patriotism. Defense, wines, spirits, cosmetics, luxury or pharmaceutical productions, our sectors of excellence are thus sacrificed. Meanwhile, around us, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan or South Korea have concluded much better agreements than we have. In other words, even the smallest countries defend their interests far better than you did yourself in the United States a few weeks ago. The European Union promised the people that unity would be strength. We are one of the first economic zones in the world and our market represents 450 million consumers, and yet you have given in on almost everything. When it comes to defending German interests, you know how to defend the national interest. No responsible business leader, woman or statesman concerned with the common good would have signed such an agreement. And yet, you, madam, did it on our behalf. I am speaking today on behalf of millions of French people and on behalf of millions of Europeans who rightly believe that the European Union is no longer defending Europe. As the world around us reconnects with power, growth and conquest, you commit our peoples to the path of disappearance and decline. History shows us that another way is possible. And this story will judge you severely. And so do our people.

Madam President,me Hassan has just demonstrated once again that she was not, in this Chamber, a French Member of the European Parliament, but the ambassador of Hamas to the European Union. I would therefore like to make a reminder of the Rules of Procedure, please, on the basis of Rule 10(7). On the occasion of the European Youth Meetings held in these walls last weekend, Parliament once again received, Madam President, the association Femyso. This practice has been illustrated on many occasions by communitarian positions, by campaigns to promote the Islamic veil, all with public funding and European taxpayers' money. A few weeks ago, a report by the French Ministry of the Interior identified this association as a proxy for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, describing this organisation as - I quote - a "structure for the training of high-potential executives of the movement". We keep alerting you, Madam President, to the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood within the European institutions. So my question is simple: How long are we going to tolerate, finance and legitimise the enemies of European civilisation?

Madam President, the new leader of the Syrian regime has worked for several years within Al-Qaida and Daesh, whose fanatics have shed the blood and tears of our compatriots. It is absolutely implausible that Emmanuel Macron will receive him today for his first visit to European soil, in a capital that has been bereaved several times by Islamist barbarism. It is a betrayal of our values and the memory of our victims. I therefore propose that the following oral amendment be included at the beginning of paragraph 36: condemns in this respect the legitimacy offered by the French president to the new Syrian regime by inviting former jihadist Ahmed Al-Charaa to Paris;

Mr President, the European Union, through the Green Deal, has imposed on car manufacturers a forced transition completely disconnected from Europe's industrial and strategic realities. For years, you have been following the constraints on our manufacturers without ever measuring the consequences of such constraints on growth. And now you discover with confounding naivety that you have brought our automotive industry to its knees by offering China the monopoly of electric vehicles in Europe. The three-year moratorium you are proposing will not fix anything. He acts only one thing: the failure of an above-ground industrial policy based on degrowth. Persisting in this approach by forgetting the will of consumers will lead to an industrial impasse and historical failure with irreversible consequences on our soil. So yes, we will vote for this report, but reconnecting with the path of power will require a break with this ideology of degrowth imposed on our states by Brussels. It will be a question of regaining control of our industrial choices, our jobs and our future and, finally, of reaffirming a simple and clear economic vision, which is ours: produce, produce and produce.

Mr President, Commissioner, nothing has been anticipated, and yet Europe seems to be discovering what has been announced for a long time: In line with his plan, Donald Trump uses tariffs as a weapon to bend his partners as well as his competitors. By striking almost every sector and state indiscriminately, the U.S. president is creating additional uncertainty and fragility for our entrepreneurs. The time is not, however, to deplore; The time has come to respond, respond and defend our economic interests. In the short term, it is our right to retaliate with graduated tariffs, which will be a means of pressure to negotiate and get back to normal. Europe is a market of 450 million consumers and it would be incomprehensible if it were to stand by. The real response is a clear break with at least three decades of wandering, a break with the choices of the European Commission. As we enter the era of clashes, Europe can no longer be the only power to respect international rules of decency that no one enforces anymore. Faced with the fierce competition of powers, and especially emerging powers, in the adversity of a harder and more uncertain world, I beg you, wake up! Wake up or our agriculture will disappear. Wake up, or our automotive industry will shut down, our metallurgy will suffer an even more terrible bleed – I am obviously thinking here of ArcelorMittal employees, condemned by guilty inaction and absurd rules. Wake up by building the strategic autonomy of nations and the continent, with the goal of depending as little as possible on the outside for our vital needs, starting with that of our defense. All binding Green Deal rules inspired by punitive ecology must be lifted to allow our businesses and farmers, in particular, to produce without hindrance. The rules of the European electricity market must be reformed and nuclear power must take its full place in our energy mix. A genuine national and European preference in public procurement must apply, particularly in the field of defence, but not only. Wake up! Wake up and come out of naivety, or Europe and all its nations will come out of history.

Madam President, President von der Leyen, you are caught up in the history and reality of a world you have always rejected – a world in which you thought it right and just to delegate our security to the United States, our industries to China and our energy policy to Russia. The lesson of the last ten days is that of all humanity: A nation that does not master its weapons, its economy or its destiny is a nation condemned to endure history rather than to write it down. So we are immersed in a world of interests and ambitions, a hard, dangerous and moving world, where appetites are sharpening. Faced with the stalemate in the conflict in Ukraine and the risk of prolonging a war with no clear prospect of victory, in the face of the horizon of US disengagement, we must have two top priorities: peace and independence. The first, the most urgent, will be built by diplomacy. The organisation of a Western Family Summit, an idea put forward by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, should allow us to clearly define our objectives for Ukraine’s sovereignty, the demands we must put on the table and the security guarantees to be offered to this allied country, so that it never again suffers the assaults of the Russian aggressor. The second compass, in the longer term, is to build the autonomy of the nations of Europe, to ensure that no one but us determines our interests and the conditions for our security. If it is able to rethink free and independent diplomacy, France can once again become the continent’s training force and the obvious and natural interlocutor of this new world, because France is endowed with a recognised professional army, an exceptional industrial base, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, nuclear deterrence and, of course, because it is the heir to a twenty-year-old pact between the greatness of a nation and the freedom of the world. Mrs von der Leyen, let me tell you that all your political choices have, alas, smashed on the wall of reality. With the Green Deal, you opted for degrowth, when you had to produce without hindrance. You have disavowed nuclear power, opted for inflation of standards and taxes, and encouraged purchases of US equipment rather than applying European defence preference. Only at the cost of profound changes in direction will Europe remain an actor of history, deter threats and impose respect on empires.

Madam President, Commissioner, why do you hate those who create wealth so much? For the past five years, you have been working with the Commission to make Europe a living hell for our companies. Today, at the foot of the wall, Ursula von der Leyen believes it is good to offer us shock therapy. After decades of mind-boggling commercial naivety, suffocating our business leaders and farmers under a delusional bureaucratic burden, and setting conflicting goals for our industries, the result is: our growth is almost at a standstill, factories are leaving, the energy bill is soaring, purchasing power is falling and our talents are emigrating to where they are being offered the conditions they deserve. Craftsmen, traders, VSE managers, SMEs and now up to Bernard Arnault, the alarm cry of those who create value on our continent is now the same everywhere. CSRD, CS3D, regulation on AI, so many acronyms that today arouse the legitimate confusion of entrepreneurs left to their own fate. Despite our warnings, you have led Europe to be a bureaucratic hell in which it is now nightmarish to invest. The suspension of the Green Deal is now the necessary precondition for unlocking the constraints on growth. In the automotive, agriculture, aeronautics, construction, digital or energy sectors, no sector is spared by your degrowth project. To exist in the face of the great powers, we must renew with an ambition of power, freedom for business and economic patriotism. The ambition of the Patriots is the noblest: do not disappear and give back to our nations the place that has always been theirs in world competition.