What Nathalie spoke about.

5 Apr

2022

FR Speech

EU Protection of children and young people fleeing the war against Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Mr President, there are those who have died under the bombs and will never grow up. There are those who were born in the shelters and have not yet seen the light of day. There are those whose schools were bombed, those who were separated from their parents, those who were forcibly taken to Russia, and there are those who fled. They are the children of Ukraine. Europe has opened its arms to them, b…

10 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

Watch

Madam President, culture is the memory of the people, the collective awareness of historical continuity, the way of thinking and living. This sentence from Milan Kundera reminds us that every time we attack the culture of a people, we seek to destroy it. We saw this when the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan. We saw it again when Daesh destroyed the temple of Nimroud, the sanctuaries of Mosul…

9 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Debate with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas - The EU's role in a changing world and the security situation of Europe following the Russian aggression and invasion of Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Prime Minister, High Representative, the war has come back to haunt Europe. Death is knocking on our doors and we need to be clear: despite our efforts and the heroism of the Ukrainian people, we have not been able to prevent the war and we are not yet able to stop it. Of course, we have done a lot in a short period of time, from sanctions against the Russian regime, to closing Mo…

8 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Ukraine has shown us that hybrid warfare leads to war at all. For years, Russia has poured torrents of disinformation into Kiev. It has bribed politicians, harassed the country with countless cyberattacks. And then she stormed. It is because Ukraine is a democracy that it is under attack. Today, all democracies are the target of foreign interference and all must understand the threat…

1 Mar

2022

FR Speech

Russian aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Mr President, it took a war on European soil for Europe to learn to speak the language of power. It took Vladimir Putin and his war too much for the transatlantic bond to tighten, for NATO to wake up and for European defence to finally be born. Above all, it took the extraordinary courage of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people to finally feel compelled to try to live up to it. Let's not fo…

16 Feb

2022

FR Speech

EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s military threat against Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Mr President, dear Josep Borrell, Ukraine does not want a war, neither does Europe, nor does the United States, and I am deeply convinced that the Russian people, too, want peace. Yet more than 130,000 Russian soldiers are massed on the Ukrainian border. Unprecedented Russian maneuvers are taking place in Belarus. Russian ships cross the Black Sea in quite unusual numbers. We are told that troops …

15 Feb

2022

FR Speech

Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2021 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2021 (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Mr High Representative, when it comes to defence, 2021 has somehow signalled the end of illusions. The rules-based international order has been weakened, assaulted and undermined. In the east, we have been given a signal, whether Russia invades Ukraine or not. It is through the threat of a conventional war on European soil that Vladimir Putin is trying to impose his worldview and ret…

16 Dec

2021

FR Speech

Forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia

Watch

Mr President, in Bor, Serbia, the Silk Roads have become the roads of shame. China is not only exploiting copper there in defiance of the environment, it is also exploiting people there in defiance of their dignity. A red cloud of pollution floats over the city. A cloud of opacity too, as those investigating Chinese investments in Serbia are accused of going against the country’s interests. But wh…

14 Dec

2021

FR Speech

Situation at the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Madam President, it saddens me to hear it and it saddens me to say it, but in Europe, in French politics and even in this Chamber, there are still useful idiots. This expression invented by Lenin and which visibly survived him. In France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, like Éric Zemmour, the extreme left and the extreme right, both candidates for the presidential election, repeat the Kremlin’s language on Uk…

25 Nov

2021

FR Speech

Human rights violations by private military and security companies, particularly the Wagner Group

Watch

Madam President, officially, the Wagner Group does not exist. At least that is the position of the Kremlin. This is annoying, because the Wagner Group is found everywhere Russia tries to expand its influence: – in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and perhaps one day – let’s hope not, let’s make sure not – in Mali. This is annoying, because the victims of the Wagner Group do exis…

23 Nov

2021

FR Speech

Situation in Belarus and at its border with the EU and the security and humanitarian consequences (debate)

Watch

Mr President, this is not a migration crisis taking place on the border between Belarus and Europe. It is a deliberate manipulation by Aleksandr Lukashenko in an attempt to destabilise and divide us. Lukashenko is not only a dictator who oppresses his people and remains in power illegitimately after rigged elections. He’s a highwayman. A few months ago, he hijacked a European plane between two Eur…

19 Oct

2021

FR Speech

Situation in Tunisia (debate)

Watch

Madam President, today is the autumn of democracy in Tunisia and yet it is far from spring, that of the Jasmine Revolution. Yet only ten years have passed. Today, the Tunisian Parliament is suspended. President Kaïs Saïed decides more and more on his own. More and more alone. So, of course, we rise, we lament, we regret. We condemn what we see and do not understand. But where were we? Where was th…

5 Oct

2021

FR Speech

The future of EU-US relations (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Mr High Representative, in his report to the United States, the Europe of 27 too often resembles the three little monkeys of Chinese tradition. Above all, hear nothing when three US presidents in a row, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, tell us about the pivot to Asia. Above all, see nothing when the United States leaves Afghanistan because it is tired of being the world’s po…

15 Sep

2021

FR Speech

The Pegasus spyware scandal (debate)

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, how many of us have had our phones, yes, theirs, infected with the Pegasus software? Because what we're talking about doesn't just happen to others, and spying isn't just about movies and TV series. If the Pegasus scandal has any merit, it is, colleagues, to make us aware of the security challenges and the fight against foreign interference that concern us al…

14 Sep

2021

FR Speech

A new EU-China strategy (debate)

Watch

Madam President, one minute to talk about China, the organisation of our debates borders on surrealism – Joseph Borrell noted this earlier and he is right. I will therefore avoid general comments and focus on one specific point, that of China's presence in universities and European research. In this area, as in others, our naivety leaves us speechless. We have not paid enough attention to strategi…

14 Sep

2021

FR Speech

Situation in Afghanistan (debate)

Watch

Madam President, defeat, rout, disbandment; for once, in the face of a crisis – that of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s victory – there is no shortage of words. But as always in the face of a crisis, these are always the same moods. First the astonishment, then the anger, and then the denial. Denial is refusing to see that NATO has failed in its most ambitious mission. This me…

8 Jul

2021

FR Speech

Hong Kong, notably the case of Apple Daily

Watch

Mr President, Viktor Orbán and Carrie Lam have two things in common: They don't know how to say no to Beijing and they hate the free press. Reporters Without Borders has just singled them out among the world leaders who most attack journalists. It is therefore no coincidence that the Hungarian Prime Minister stole from the Hong Kong leader and prevented the European Union from opening its doors to…

6 Jul

2021

FR Speech

Foreign interference in democratic processes (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Mr High Representative, I have a question for you. Are we still really at peace when disinformation sweeps across Europe every day, when cyberattacks follow one another, when, in this very Parliament, some falsely patriotic politicians recite the propaganda of Moscow or Beijing without changing a comma? We need to get to the bottom of it: our democracies are being harassed by auth…