Speeches

Madam President, I shall begin with three simple words: taxing the rich. I say this because, obviously, these words here are taboo. Officially, the European Semester serves to ensure the balance of public finances, but each time you look collectively on the same side. We should absolutely cut pension spending, health care spending, but never look at the revenue side, never tax the ultra-rich, never tax the multinationals. On all these subjects, radio silence. You never propose to go and get the money where it really is. And how can the other leftist groups, the Greens and the Socialists, accept this logic? When you finally open the door to a little budget flexibility, that only applies to military spending. I proposed that it could also apply to expenses related to health crises or natural disasters, but you refused. As usual, your mantra is: money for tanks, yes, but not for hospitals. So I say it again here, and for as long as it takes and these words will be taboo in this Chamber: taxing the rich.

Madam President, I would like to say, of course, all our emotion for Coco, because Coco's life is the lives of millions of young women who suffer this harassment on a daily basis and for whom we must, of course, also question the responsibility of platforms in controlling this content. Allow me, since it is International Women's Day, to make a useful reminder. March 8 is International Women's Day and not just "Women's Day". Because, these rights, we have won them with great struggle. And when I still see the far right exploiting, as you do, women's rights, women's rights, to better instigate your rational, racist votes, to attack foreigners – don't mind, 90% of sexist and sexual violence is committed by our husbands, is committed by our brothers, your friends and carries no religion. They're men. And as long as we let the extreme right attack our rights, vote systematically against parity, systematically against the means for gender-based and sexual violence, you will find us on your way.

Madam President, I would like to make a point of order based on Rule 10, concerning the code of conduct for Members of Parliament. This morning the ECR Group – only men, of course – showed a banner with a foetus and an anti-abortion slogan on it, 'It's a life, not a choice'. The far right shows again today its true face – you want a return to a society in which women cannot decide on their body. It's a clear attack against abortion rights, and it is not the first one. But, whether you like it or not, our Parliament, the majority of this Parliament, voted for the 'My Voice, My Choice' initiative less than two months ago. Because in countries where abortion is banned, like in Poland, women still die; because our mothers, our grandmothers have been fighting for this right. Madam President, this is not acceptable. And the right to abortion is not just a choice, it is a right. We will never let the far right take it away from us.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, what is the name of a militia that hunts people according to their real or supposed origin, that kills its opponents and multiplies punitive raids to make terror reign? This is Donald Trump's ICE. If it had been anywhere else in the world, our Parliament would have already adopted several resolutions and the necessary sanctions. But no, let's not hurt our ally, Donald Trump. The ECI can double its staff, kill at least 30 people in one year, the United States of course remains the privileged partner of the European Union, in the words of Ursula von der Leyen. Worse, Italy welcomes their agents with open arms for these Winter Olympics. This Parliament, from socialists to the right, is resuming the adoption of the completely unequal trade agreement with the United States, and the European Commission is sending its Commissioner for Fisheries – with all due respect to you, Commissioner – for this crucial debate. That's how seriously you take the threat. So it does not matter if Trump wants to annex a European territory, it does not matter if he breaks international law, it does not matter if he takes up the fascist methods worthy of the 1930s. As in the 1930s, European capitalists also benefit from it. Capgemini provides the software; Parrot, drones. The money of hate and blood has no smell. This is the model envied by the European far right: A militia that massively imprisons, kills and sows terror. An MEP belonging to Marion Maréchal's group even rejoiced at the murders of the ICE. And unsurprisingly, Jordan Bardella is not here for this debate today. Probably he prefers to remain discreet about the actions of the ECI after taking Trump as a model and organizing conferences at the European Parliament with Trump's relatives, as recently as last week. As for you, Mr Valet, I would be you, I would be very small. You pretend to defend the police, but in reality, you stitch in the crate and you stitch their money to your own colleagues. Little by little, Trump is imposing his methods everywhere. The ECI is already in the making in Europe. Frontex is hunting migrants at our borders, while increasingly inhumane migration policies are being adopted, as yesterday in this Parliament. In France, the former interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, even launched anti-migrant roundups, vast operations to stop as many undocumented migrants as possible. In the United States as in Europe, as Bertolt Brecht said, the belly from which fascism emerges is always fertile. Let's stop feeding him before it's too late.

Mrs Yon-Courtin, you rightly say - and I quote you exactly - that we must not give in to the intimidation of Donald Trump and that we Europeans are strong in the tools at our disposal. There are monetary tools, but in economic tools there are also trade tools. Why say one day that we must be strong against Trump and the other, resume negotiations on the trade agreement with Donald Trump, which your group supported, where we could have hoped for a real balance of power not to give in to the one ‐ Donald Trump ‐ who wants to annex a European territory?

Madam President, I hear some people wishing to stand up. Democracy is first to listen to the proposal, but I know some might be keen to follow Trump's line. I would like to propose modifications to amendment 37, after paragraph 78, in order to address the recent threat by Donald Trump to impose new tariffs on EU countries that have taken a stance against an action of Greenland. The modified amendment therefore reads as follows: 'Underlines that the EU cannot accept extortive policies; stresses that threats made by the US administration against Greenland, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands, in addition to those made in relation to the EU's digital legislation, fall under the definition of "economic coercion" as set out in Regulation (EU) 2023/2675; calls, therefore, for the Commission to immediately react by triggering the Anti-Coercion Instrument;'.

Madam President, Donald Trump is attacking not only our democracies, but also the international architecture of peace and namely, the United Nations. His proposal of a 'Board of Peace' is a serious threat to international law and only serves his internal, personal interest. Therefore, we propose the following amendments to take into account the latest developments relating to the 'Board of Peace': 'Is deeply concerned by the "Board of Peace" promoted by US President Donald Trump; condemns any initiative that seeks to weaken, bypass or replace the United Nations; reaffirms its unwavering support to international law and UN principles as laid down in the UN Charter;'.

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, Mr Costa, Donald Trump is redrawing the world order. And you serve him as a doormat. The president of the world's leading power threatens to annex a European territory, transforms the world map according to the interests of an oligarchy and threatens peace and security more than ever. But, Mrs von der Leyen, Mr Costa, your responsibility in this situation is immense. You have systematically reduced the danger of Donald Trump's policies. Worse, you have constantly facilitated the expansion of its imperialist project. Because it was you, Mrs von der Leyen, who smiled last summer to seal a totally asymmetric trade agreement that relegated the European Union to the status of a branch of the United States. We were already warning you that Trump wasn't going to stop there. You promised us prosperity and stability. As a result, it is now resuming its trade war. And no, it is not with a free trade agreement with Mercosur that we will be saved, that you are trying to impose us here by force. Curling up, cajoling Trump, that's what the European Union does best. Trump humiliates us and you tend the other cheek, even when he provokes, intimidates, attacks. Yes, Mrs von der Leyen, Donald Trump's imperialist ambitions in Greenland are only mirrors of the cowardice of the European Union. Servility produces nothing but the extension of the law of the strongest. When the United States illegally attacked Venezuela and kidnapped Nicolas Maduro, you applauded the aggressor, rather than taking the side of international law. With your blessing, the United States also threatens to intervene in Iran. But I tell you, the revolt of the Iranian people, repressed in blood, wants neither mullahs, nor shah, nor Donald Trump. Abroad as well as in his own country, Donald Trump has nothing to do with democracy. Just look at how her immigration police killed Renee Nicole Good and how all the checks and balances are being rolled out. Its only interest is power and the capture of natural resources. And I must say that it is still quite curious to see the contortions of the extreme right and the group of Jordan Bardella, who applauded the election of Donald Trump and who, a little later, death in the soul, pain and then pound in a serious tone on the attacks of Donald Trump in Greenland. Jordan Bardella, remember that moment when you proudly stare alongside Donald Trump. Is Donald Trump still your ally? Mrs von der Leyen, you continue to regard as a friend a country which has only signs of hostility towards you. You persist in calling an ally a head of state who is a threat to peace. Yes, a threat to peace. The United States withdrew from no fewer than 31 UN organizations. The UN, precisely, to which Donald Trump intends to substitute a Peace Council and privatized justice at the service of the powerful. International law is faltering. He's under attack from all sides. You yourself, Mrs von der Leyen, have helped to undermine its foundations by refusing to sanction the State of Israel and by making the European Union complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Mrs von der Leyen, we refuse to become the 51st state of the United States. It is time to stop acting as a vassal and get out of our dependence on the United States. Your wait-and-see attitude has blinded you to the risks that the United States poses to the stability of the world. To the point where you are, apply to become Donald Trump's Secretary of State and leave. We will take care of defending the interests of Europeans and peace.

Madam President, Commissioner, what is a political regime in which a text is adopted without the vote of any parliament? Without a popular mandate, von der Leyen last week signed the largest – and worst – free trade agreement ever negotiated by the EU: the agreement with Mercosur. To achieve your ends, you have multiplied the magoyles. First, you split the agreement in two to bypass national parliaments, and then the President of the Parliament obstructed our action before the Court of Justice of the European Union. And now you are opening the door – potentially I hear what is being said, anyway, in the press – to provisional application of the agreement even before Parliament votes. These are your methods, Commissioner: you maneuver, you lie, you pass in force. In other words: You trample democracy and insult citizens. And I must say that you are still quite inflated to come and talk to us, in front of us, about transparency and dialogue. However, this agreement will open the door to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef, poultry, cheese, sugar and cereals from the other side of the world. And I, who naively believed that we were already producing all this in Europe... Commissioner, my irony is bitter, because with this agreement – and you know it – you will kill European agriculture. The President of the Commission, Mrs von der Leyen, does not give a damn about the fate of farmers and, again tonight, is not here. But you are not the only ones. The hypocrisy of the far right is reaching its peak, starting with the issue of free trade. Mr Bardella is, once again, not there, he who is so quick to put on the white knight costume of the agricultural cause. Why did the majority of her group vote for the agreement with New Zealand and for the agreement with Kenya? Why were less than 20% of his group opposed to the ratification of CETA? Yesterday as today, you are clumsy opponents, on the far right. You share the same obsessions, with Mrs von der Leyen: obediently obeying Donald Trump's blackmail, deregulating in the service of multinationals, precariousing the poorest, tapping foreigners, stigmatizing LGBT people, supporting Netanyahu in his genocide in Gaza. Mrs von der Leyen has already done far too much damage: it must leave, but the far right will never be an alternative.

Mr President, it is 2025 and we are still fighting for the right to abortion in the European Union, especially in the face of the extreme right – which is not very much there, like Jordan Bardella, who is not there. I wonder where they find all this energy to block the way to a European initiative that is supported by more than a million people in Europe, who are just asking for safe access to abortion. Meanwhile, all Bardella’s friends, the far right, talk to us about ‘abortion tourism’, ‘abortion business’ or ‘culture of death’. But if there are people dying today in the European Union, it is precisely because they cannot have secure access to the right to abortion, or because they are put in prison because they do not have access to the right to abortion. So I say it, with the power and anger I have, to all those men on the far right who want to manage our lives: When you have a uterus, come and teach us about our rights!

Madam President, this is a reminder to the Rules of Procedure under Rule 117. While the anger of the agricultural world is rising and raging all over Europe against the free trade agreement with Mercosur, you have refused, Madam President, for the second time to put to the vote our resolution calling for an opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union on the legality of the agreement. This new refusal has no valid justification. Article 117 is extremely clear: at any time our Parliament may request an opinion from the CJEU. Worse, you have even refused to allow our Legal Service of the European Parliament to decide whether or not to request this opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Madam President, I would like to ask you: What are you afraid of? Because your role today, whatever your opinions, is to be the guarantor of the proper functioning of our institution, not the relay of the bass works of the European Commission and the Council, which try everything for the whole to pass in force on this agreement.

Madam President, no, it was not late in the evening in a dark alley. It was in a house, a bed, a living room, almost unobstructed. No, it was not a foreigner passing by, contrary to what the extreme right says. He was a husband, an uncle, a brother, an ex, as in most cases. No, it wasn't what's called "violent." There was no struggle or screaming. That night, they gave way to astonishment. But that the minutes seem long when you fix the ceiling... No, accepting this dinner didn't mean consenting. Sleeping by his side did not mean consenting. No, smiling was not consenting. Being married is not always consenting. No, it wasn't a crime of passion. It was a femicide, not an act of love, but a deadly crime that could have been avoided, because the police had been alerted, but, as often, they downplayed, or, worse, profited. No, no one would have thought that of him. Because after all, as the extreme right says, he was a good man, a friend. No, they're not all men, but they're all men. If our anger and rage are not enough for you to act, know that we are no longer ready to suffer or suffer.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, lobbies have dreamed of it, you have. With this omnibus text, you sign the death sentence of the duty of vigilance that put an end to the impunity of multinationals by making them legally responsible for their human rights violations and environmental damage. With this text, you yield once again to the injunctions of Donald Trump, who explicitly demanded its removal. With this text, you give a totem of immunity to companies like Total or Shein to continue exploiting nature and workers. And in addition, at the request of the extreme right, this vote will take place by secret ballot, which is quite unprecedented. We see that they have transparency with variable geometry and when you destroy our rights, you prefer to do it quietly, in the shadows. So I would like to address the Socialist Members who have helped seal this pact and who are about to vote on this shameful deal. What are you going to say to the victims of the crimes of the multinationals who hoped to obtain justice through this text...

Madam President, Madam Chairman of the Committee, Madam Minister, Mrs von der Leyen, the genocide in Gaza is not over. As I speak, the Israeli government continues to kill and block the supply of water, food and medicine to the Gaza Strip, as Palestinians starve to death, at least 20,000 injured are in a state of absolute emergency, and the World Health Organization warns of out-of-control epidemics. No, Mrs von der Leyen, whatever you say, this is not peace. And I am amazed at the extent to which the situation in the Gaza Strip today seems to have completely disappeared from the radars of this European Parliament. Because in reality, Israel has already violated the ceasefire and murdered 100 Palestinians since October 10. Just as he had already broken the ceasefire last March. Because Netanyahu will use any pretext to, I quote his words, "finish the job." Because there is no, I say none, guarantee of the effective withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip, nor a binding timetable. So I ask you, Mrs von der Leyen, what is the life of a Palestinian worth to you? Colleagues, the chorus of cheers that has been heard so far in support of Donald Trump's so-called peace plan, and behind which many of you are sheltering, inspires me nothing but shame and contempt. So you'd have to braid laurels to the U.S. president for forcing Netanyahu to negotiate? The truth is that he preferred, for more than two years, to deliver weapons and missiles to the Israeli army and give pats on the back of his great friend Bibi. Netanyahu should also be thanked for temporarily suspending the annihilation of the Gazan population, as if a relative pause in bombing could absolve him of all his crimes. As if the 68,000 dead and the 170,000 wounded were already forgotten. As if the immeasurable trauma of the 2 million people who have faced death and fear every hour and every day for more than two years already belonged to the past. Mrs von der Leyen, what you have called a peace plan really sows the seeds of chaos. It installs a neocolonial trusteeship over the Gaza Strip and sounds the death knell for the self-determination of the Palestinian people. It endorses the Israeli occupation of Gaza and settlement in the West Bank. It delivers the Gaza enclave to vultures who want to turn Palestinian land into an opportunity for real estate developers. It tramples on international law. It provides no justice for Israeli criminals. And as you know, Mrs von der Leyen, without justice there will be no peace. And despite this, the European Commission, the European governments, a large part of this Chamber applaud in chorus. History will remember your responsibility and your complicity. The responsibility of those who have continued to treat the State of Israel as a privileged partner, refusing to break the association agreement that binds it to the European Union. The complicity of those who have consistently and deliberately refused to take any sanctions against Benjamin Netanyahu's genocidal government. Neither economic, financial, commercial nor diplomatic sanctions nor the application of the arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court. Total impunity in defiance of international law. Mrs von der Leyen, the genocide in Gaza is not over. Your complicity must finally stop. Take action.

Madam President, just to say that this very touching plea in favour of a former President of the Republic, who has been convicted of extremely serious acts, has no place in the Chamber, that no one is above the law, not even a former President of the Republic, a fortiori when he has been convicted of extremely serious acts of corruption. If you want to give lessons on the rule of law, go see what Viktor Orban is doing in Hungary, go see what all your far-right allies are doing all over Europe. The rule of law is one and indivisible and we will not let anyone trample on it!

Madam President, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, you are at the head of an organised robbery. Yes, a robbery, because how else can we name a Member State that orchestrates European tax evasion and whose model literally plunders the tax revenues of other countries? According to the European Tax Observatory, $1 trillion in profits are relocated each year to tax havens. Hearing these words, one would probably imagine that I am talking about the Cayman Islands or other remote and paradisiacal islands, but not: Half of these profits go to European tax havens. And among them, your country, Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy, at the service of great fortunes. You were also, Prime Minister, Minister of the Budget and Finance during the period covered by the LuxLeaks tax evasion scandal. You are therefore directly complicit. But you never paid for it. On the contrary, after this scandal, you were appointed president of the Deutsche Bank of Luxembourg. The world of finance was indebted to you. And I can already hear you answer that all this belongs to the past, that Luxembourg has changed. But that's not true. The 2021 OpenLux showed that 90% of the assets of Luxembourg companies were housed in entities with no real economic activity and that nine out of ten CEOs were foreign. Congratulations on this internationalism, Prime Minister. But I still have a question for you: Is it for the sweetness of life of the Grand Duchy or for tax evasion models? Your neighbors pay directly for these models. Intra-European tax evasion still loses 20% of corporate tax revenues in Europe today. And this race at least so-called fiscal has transformed all our European countries into quasi-tax havens. Let's remember: In 1975, the Commission proposed a framework for corporation tax of between 45 % and 55 %. That seems a long way off today, when we should welcome a minimum rate of 15%. All this is obviously not without consequences. When multinationals do not pay their fair share of taxes, it is obviously the European citizens who are charged the bill. So, rather than pocketing the Europeans, I propose that we go and get the money where it is: among tax evaders. We must do this by putting an end to unanimity in tax matters in order to withdraw your right of veto, from you and your accomplices who are leaders of other European tax havens; calling a cat a cat and finally listing tax havens, including Luxembourg; taxing billionaires with the Zucman tax in Europe. Because, as in any robbery, Mr. Frieden, our duty is to put an end to the cavalry of its perpetrators and have them return the loot.

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, you must leave. You accompanied the genocide in Gaza with your cowardice and inaction. You have left tens of thousands of civilians and children to die under Israeli bombs. You still refuse to cease all trade relations with Israel and to impose an arms embargo, while we are on the nineteenth package of sanctions against Russia. How can you, powerful of this world, watch without moving an entire people being decimated, children being starved, an entire territory being calcined? Mrs. von der Leyen, you must leave. You capitulated to Donald Trump, not only by supporting his neocolonial plan for Gaza, but also by yielding all the way to the economic interests of the United States at the expense of the Europeans, by signing without any democratic mandate a one-way agreement. You have accepted the vassalization of the European Union to a regime in the process of fascisation. Mrs. von der Leyen, you must leave. You have also passed in force, in defiance of democracy, on the free trade agreement with Mercosur, bypassing the vote of the national parliaments and the unanimity of the Member States. With this agreement, you will kill our agriculture, poison us with dangerous pesticides and trash the planet. Mrs von der Leyen, you must leave, because it is a fact that for the past year your new mandate has been under the sign of ecological renunciation. One example is the multinationals' duty of care, which holds companies accountable for their human rights violations and environmental damage. Your priority, Mrs von der Leyen, is to unravel it to the applause of the right and the far right in this Chamber. The extreme right, let's talk about it. She spreads her hatred everywhere and promotes the most abject ideas: criminalization of abortion, backsliding on women's rights, targeting LGBT minorities, attacks on migrants, sniping in the rule of law, and so on. And yet it is with this extreme right that you, Mr Manfred Weber, have chosen to build many of your majorities. So the motion of censure tabled by Jordan Bardella's group is all the more hypocritical. Mrs. von der Leyen, you must leave. Everywhere in Europe, people draw the language, struggle to pay their bills, lose their jobs. They see the disintegration of their public services under the yoke of your budgetary austerity. Because money, you find: For tanks, yes, but not for hospitals. Mrs von der Leyen, 60% of Europeans want you censored. You have to leave. This motion of censure is also a moment of political clarification between those who want to pursue your deleterious policy in the service of a few, and those who are fighting the battle against you. To the colleagues from the Greens and Socialists groups in this Chamber, I would like to ask you: What have you gained in a year of mandate and your alignment with the guidelines of Mrs von der Leyen, other than complicity in the face of genocide and the passage into force on free trade agreements and ecological and social renunciations? Mrs. von der Leyen, you must leave. Colleagues, choose.

Madam President, would it be possible to have a very short break to analyse the votes before moving on to the final vote? Thank you. It is part of the rules of procedure, but I know that the far right, the rules of procedure, you have nothing to do with it. (The Chair responded to the request)

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, it has already been a year since you were re-elected head of the European Commission. A year too long, during which you have done irreparable damage. Frankly, today, your speech is not enough to mask reality. Yes, you have been complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people by not taking any real sanctions so far. And your announcements today do not change anything, because, in the face of genocide, there can be no half-measure. Yes, you have capitulated to Trump's trade blackmail and signed, with Mercosur, the worst, most harmful free trade agreement that will be a disaster for our farmers. Yes, you persisted with fiscal austerity, which takes the poor to give to the rich, and multiplied ecological renunciations. And you want it to last another four years? Mrs von der Leyen, at the end of this year, yes, you must leave, and quickly, with your whole Commission. It is not just our group that is asking for it, but 60% of MEPs, 60% of European citizens. And since you refuse, we will table a motion of censure against you to put an end to your policy of social breakdown and your culpable inaction in the genocide in Gaza. We censor you...

Madam President, 700 days, it took you 700 days of genocide in Gaza before there was finally a resolution in the European Parliament. For 700 days, most of the groups here refused each of our demands and instead turned a blind eye to the worst humanitarian carnage our century has seen. And it is only thanks to the abnegation of our left-wing group, which has never given up anything for the Palestinian people, that Parliament finally takes up the issue. It was therefore necessary to wait for the UN to declare a state of famine and denounce Netanyahu's genocidal rhetoric, for Israeli bombs to target humanitarian distributions, for more than 60,000 civilians, including 30,000 children, to be cowardly murdered, for more than 200 journalists to be killed, for Benjamin Netanyahu to extend his genocidal project to the West Bank so that this Parliament could finally seize on the genocide in Gaza. But let's be clear: We will not be satisfied with vague condemnations. We want action. Mrs Kallas, what are you waiting for to impose a strict embargo on the shipment of weapons, when countries such as France have delivered a record number? What are you waiting for to suspend the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel, when your own Commission has acknowledged that human rights are being violated? What are you also waiting for to offer diplomatic protection to the Freedom Flotilla, which was attacked last night by drone, as it is on its way to break the humanitarian embargo in Gaza? I mean, here, solemnly, that these hundreds of crew members demonstrate that they have 1,000 times more courage than you, Mrs Kallas, and that you, the European leaders. The Palestinians will not be able to wait another 700 days of genocide, simply because they will no longer be there to be saved. They no longer have shelters to protect themselves from bombs, no hospitals to save their wounded, no more bread to feed themselves, no more journalists to report their martyrdom, no more land to bury their remains and no more tears to weep for them. They don't have anything anymore. But you, Mrs Kallas, you European leaders, you who have all this, you lose something they still have, you lose your morality and your humanity. History is yours. Act, otherwise it will be too late.