Speeches

Rightly, the overwhelming majority of Council members were outraged by the anti-LGBTQI law introduced by Orbán in Hungary. Orbán has already crossed red lines in the past, but now he has fallen lower than ever. I welcome the reaction of most Heads of State and Government, but that should not end there. The Council must trigger Article 7 against this Hungarian government. All legal means must be implemented in order to show Orbán that he has gone too far. We are a Union of values, whether Orbán likes it or not. He does not want to hear reason, so he must assume the consequences. Hungary's anti-LGBTQI law goes against everything the European Union stands for. When you are a member of the EU, you adhere to our values. This is not an à la carte menu. We must speak out against the deteriorating situation of LGBTQI rights in Hungary. We must act and hold the Hungarian government to account. It is about protecting what is most precious, the freedom of our citizens.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Patriots Group has a lot of time to waste. He chose to prank us by demanding a debate on the European Commission's alleged interference in elections in Europe. Forgive me for telling you, but we're insane. Who brought down Viktor Orbán, your friend, if not the weariness of the Hungarian people in the face of the poverty of the country, the corruption of the government, the stifling of freedoms? Yet your friends in power in Moscow and Washington have not skimped on interference, the real ones, to try to save their ally. But that's not what you're talking about. No, what you are talking about is a report by the MAGAs of the American Congress, as if they were the arbiters of our democratic elegances and it was to them that we had to turn to find out what to think. But to what level of vassality are you going to go down? Interference and attacks against our democracies are one of the worst scourges of our time. This Parliament has understood this, which has extended the mandate of the special committee that I chair. I thank all those who renew their confidence in me. As for the Patriots for Europe, who opposed it, I tell them that they make very little effort to deserve their name and everything to convince us that they systematically drive against Europe and against their homeland.

Madam President, Armenia is a miracle. Please note: The Armenian people have continued to be attacked, from massacre to genocide, and again recently through ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet the Armenian people are still standing, legitimately proud of their culture, civilization and religion, and determined to make them shine. The spectacular development of Armenia in recent years bears witness to this. Armenian democracy itself is a miracle. Take a card: Not one of Armenia's neighbors is a democracy, nor is Iran the guardians of the revolution, nor Azerbaijan and its hereditary dictatorship, nor Erdoğan's authoritarian Turkey, nor, alas, Georgia sinking into arbitrariness. Yet since 2018 and the Velvet Revolution, Armenia has enjoyed true democracy, pursued courageous reforms and fought corruption. This is what Armenia wants to protect, and this is what Russia wants to destroy. A few weeks before the elections of June 7, Russia multiplies the interferences, as before in Moldova, to impose its line in Yerevan. To prevent it, it is not enough to believe in the miracle. We must help the Armenians to decide their fate freely, without anyone preventing them from doing so. Armenia is increasingly trusting Europe. Let's not disappoint her.

Madam President, everything shows us that we need to increase our defence efforts and our strategic autonomy. And yet, it seems that we are looking for all the pretexts to not be up to the task. The US is mistreating its allies and devoting its military resources to waging war in the Middle East, rather than supplying the Europeans or helping Ukraine; Yet there are some here who are fighting European preference. Our industries remain too fragmented, our arms orders poorly synchronized, our purchases too dispersed and our transfers too complicated; Yet there are still those who think that everything is fine, that we must remain in the status quo and whose ultimate crusade is to prevent a single market in defence, agitating the fear of a European control of arms exports that is neither planned nor desirable. China is investing heavily in its defense equipment, including a new generation of fighter jets. At the same time, industrial quarrels and Franco-German political rivalries put the SCAF project at risk. There would be hopelessness. Fortunately, a few days ago, France proposed a new vision, that of an advanced nuclear deterrent that could meet both the concerns and expectations of other Europeans. Fortunately, this proposal has been well understood and welcomed everywhere and by everyone, except by those who continue to want to understand nothing because they prefer a weak, divided and disarmed Europe. Let's not listen to them.

Madam President, Ukraine has never needed us so much. In a biting cold, Russia bombs cities, power plants and civilians every day. The United States no longer helps Ukraine. The Kyl Institute alert, today, and we know that it refers. Support for Ukraine is based on a small number of countries and it is Europe that assumes the main responsibility. It is our honour and it is in our interest, because our security is at stake and that is why we must adopt the support loan to Ukraine as soon as possible. And this is the moment that ESN chooses to enjoin us to wait. If one needed more proof that AFD or Reconquest are in the service of Russia's interests, we have it. I urge you, ladies and gentlemen, to vote against the dilatory manoeuvre of the Kremlin's small telegraph operators. (Long applause)

Madam President, the situation is changing very rapidly, in Syria, and in a worrying way. That is why I would like to table the following oral amendment: ‘Expresses its deep concern at the continued fighting in areas such as Aleppo and north-east Syria, which is leading to further displacement and a high number of civilian casualties and creates a serious security risk, in particular due to the flight of Daesh fighters detained in north-east Syria; calls on the international coalition, including the US, to take all necessary and immediate measures without delay to mitigate this security risk;”

Mr President, High Representative, for years in this Parliament I have heard a part of the left tell us that we should not strengthen our defence, that peace was there and priorities elsewhere. During the same years, part of the right swore that it was enough to rest on the American ally, that he would always be there and that he should be trusted. Even today, on the far right and on the far left, we do not see a Russian threat, we hate NATO and we oppose a European defence. If we add up the vision of each other, it makes a beautiful skewer of visionaries. It is therefore little to say that Europe's defence has often encountered headwinds. Today, war is raging in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's appetite has no limits. The United States covets Greenland and maligns its allies. While NATO is still standing, the Atlantic Alliance is in palliative care. Tonight, Donald Trump has just retwittered a post designating NATO as an enemy. We're at this point. Vladimir Putin must not return. As for us, we must stop lamenting. It is without hesitation that we must strengthen our strategic autonomy, exercise a genuine European preference over our arms purchases and build a fully European pillar of NATO. Alone, we are weak and vulnerable. United, we will be powerful and respected.

Mr President, High Representative, the Iranian regime already had a long history: He had suppressed his people's aspirations for freedom, helped Bashar al-Assad, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, attacked Israel, developed a clandestine nuclear program, supported Russia in Ukraine and launched cyberattacks in Europe. Now he's turned into a real butcher: The mullahs, unable to offer a future to their people, had him shot by the guardians of the revolution. Terror reigns in Tehran. And yet, there are still European countries, including my own, that are hesitant to classify pAsdaran as a terrorist entity. What do they need? What are they waiting for? That a handful of Revolutionary Guards dissociate themselves from the Supreme Leader and make a coup d'état, to save their backs and maintain their grip on the country? Wouldn't Iran deserve better than that? While Donald Trump has already forgotten Iran and handed over to the regime by abandoning the demonstrators to their fate, let us at least do what we can so that the butchers of Tehran feel the pressure rising on them and that their crimes do not remain without consequences.

Mr President, Commissioner, there are elected representatives in our house of democracy, yes, elected representatives, who do not want democracy to be protected. Fortunately, they are in the minority, but they give voice, as we have just heard. They wouldn't want you to do anything. But there is a majority in this House, and I am concerned about the relentless attacks on our democracies. I ask you to listen to the voice of this majority that urges you to do more. You promise us to enforce our European laws by the tech giants. This is the least that can be expected of the Commission. But, alas, we are still waiting. Do you want to support the media? So don't wait any longer. Let's demand that news journalism has more visibility online than disinformation content, let's focus on truthfulness over virality. The time has finally come to understand that what we criticise on social networks – not to correspond to our European values – we will always criticise them, and for a simple reason: they are not European, nor X, nor TikTok, nor any. The time has come to promote the emergence of European platforms serving not users, but citizens, not for immediate profit, but for our society and our democracy.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I hesitated when I came this morning about what I was going to say: Congratulate me or get impatient. There is indeed something to be satisfied with, with modesty of course, but also something to question. Let's start with the half-full glass. Today we are putting to your vote a good text, a text that makes it possible to move away from the urgent logic with which we have dealt with defence issues so far, and to start setting up structured European support for increasing our defence capabilities and reducing their fragmentation. I am particularly pleased that we have reached a firm and clear agreement in favour of European preference. This is an important achievement that we must maintain in all the other instruments that we are going to put in place in the field of defence. We have also succeeded, and this is a first, in putting in place an incentive to build up stocks of military equipment and an emergency mechanism in the event of a crisis in the supply of such equipment. All this must be welcomed, and I am pleased that my Renew Group has helped to find the necessary compromises. But still, I would not want to pour into self-satisfaction. While our fellow citizens tell us day after day that they want a European defence, it took us more than a year to adopt this programme. And while the expectations are immense, the ambition of EDIP is great, its budget is unfortunately very insufficient. So, if I want to acknowledge the role of Commissioner Kubilius, if I want to thank all the co-rapporteurs who have honoured our Parliament, I say to all of us, when we see that the account is not quite there, on the resources devoted to EDIP: can do better.

Madam President, I refer to Rule 150 of our Rules of Procedure. Ladies and gentlemen, you asked in January for the release of Boualem Sansal, and today, as we speak, Boualem Sansal is free. I would like to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for having all, as Europeans, wished for the release of this Franco-Algerian, this writer whose place had never been in prison. I would like to thank and congratulate the French diplomacy and the German diplomacy, which worked together for his release. I would like to recall the fate of French journalist Christophe Gleizes, who is still detained in Algeria for investigating an Algerian football team. A journalist’s place is not in prison. Imprisoning journalists means attacking freedom of expression and democracy. In the same way, those in this Chamber who attack journalists when they have the misfortune of not sharing their opinions are undermining democracy. Long live the freedom of Boualem Sansal! Long live freedom of expression!

Madam President, I complain to the Hungarian people. I pity him because he is a great people and Viktor Orbán misrepresents him. I pity him because he learned, like us, that Viktor Orbán had the European institutions spied on, as if Hungary were the enemy of our Union. I pity him because he learned, like us, that drones from Hungary had flown over Ukraine, as if Budapest was Kiev's enemy. The Hungarian people want to know everything about the practices of Viktor Orbán and Oliver Várhelyi. I want to help him. On the European Commission's spying scandal, we need a commission of inquiry. Until then, the special committee that I chair will receive, on November 5, the journalists who investigated this case. Remember this date. It's another date I don't forget. On October 23, tomorrow, Hungary will celebrate the beginning of the 1956 uprising. Let us never forget that the great Hungarian people stood up against Russian oppression and fought for their freedom.

Mr. President, Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Prize, but only one, that of inconstancy. We can't count on him. Ukraine cannot count on him. One day Russia is a paper tiger, another he had a very good conversation with Vladimir Putin and wants to meet him in Budapest. And then he doesn't want to anymore. But enough about Donald Trump. Expecting him to make the right decisions, we waste our time. Let us decide for ourselves, let us act for ourselves and for Ukraine. Ukraine needs weapons, not kisses between Trump, Putin and Orbán. Let's use frozen Russian assets for Russia to pay the price of its war. Ukraine needs us to increase pressure on Moscow and stop importing Russian gas that bails out the Kremlin's coffers. We don't have to go to Budapest. Volodymyr Zelensky neither today nor later. Vladimir Putin cannot be welcomed because Hungary is still bound by its international obligations. And, let's remember, Vladimir Putin's place is in The Hague, not Budapest.

Mr President, I would like to make a point of order under Rules 10 and 183 of our Rules of Procedure. These articles specify that a Member of the European Parliament must preserve the dignity of Parliament, not damage its reputation and that he may be punished if he fails to fulfil his obligations. We knew that our colleague Rima Hassan had shown no compassion for the victims of the October 7 pogrom. We now find that it condones the abuses committed by Hamas against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. One might have hoped that her political group would sanction her, but I fear that this hope would be in vain. I therefore ask you, Mr President, to ensure the dignity of our Parliament and to take the necessary measures.

Mr President, in technocratic language, what the European Commission accuses Google of is an abuse of a dominant position. The context is actually much darker. The very existence of quality press and professional and verified information is now threatened by the tech giants. They chose to monetize just about everything except what should count as a priority: the integrity of the information. It is better today to be an influencer. It is better to spread disinformation en masse. It is even possible to be subject to the sanctions of the European Union and you will be paid by social networks. Meanwhile, the press is suffocated, its revenues are diminishing, its online visibility is lost. It is not only the survival of an economic sector that is at stake, it is one of the pillars of our democracies that is weakened. Any Democrat should be moved by it, and yet the Trump administration is attacking us. For once the Commission recalls our rules and the respect they deserve, Washington is threatening new tariffs. My message to the Commission is simple: Don't tremble, don't be intimidated. You're announcing a democratic shield, all right. Start by protecting our democracies by protecting the press.