Speeches

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.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, more than EUR 4 million: this is what the National Gathering would have embezzled in public money, i.e. the taxes of Europeans; our taxes. Only a few days after the convictions of several former MEPs of the party - including its leader, Marine Le Pen - for misappropriation of public funds, they are already reoffending. Moreover, I do not know if you noticed: There is absolutely no National Rally or far-right member present for this debate – certainly because they have something to hide. The facts complained of are simply overwhelming. More than €4 million of public money squandered to finance friends by circumventing tender rules or overcharging services. And these friends are not just anyone: They are fascist scoundrels of the "GUD Connection", an ultra-violent racist group, with which Mr. Bardella had promised to cut the bridges. So, to those far-right MPs who usually talk about “assisted” by referring to foreign people: Who are the real helpers? Immigrant workers who earn the SMIC and pay taxes or members of the National Assembly who consider public money as their pocket money?’ To use an expression that they usually like, I suggest one thing: zero tolerance against those who sting in crates.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, more than EUR 4 million: this is what the National Gathering would have embezzled in public money, i.e. the taxes of Europeans; our taxes. Only a few days after the convictions of several former MEPs of the party - including its leader, Marine Le Pen - for misappropriation of public funds, they are already reoffending. Moreover, I do not know if you noticed: There is absolutely no National Rally or far-right member present for this debate – certainly because they have something to hide. The facts complained of are simply overwhelming. More than €4 million of public money squandered to finance friends by circumventing tender rules or overcharging services. And these friends are not just anyone: They are fascist scoundrels of the "GUD Connection", an ultra-violent racist group, with which Mr. Bardella had promised to cut the bridges. So, to those far-right MPs who usually talk about “assisted” by referring to foreign people: Who are the real helpers? Immigrant workers who earn the SMIC and pay taxes or members of the National Assembly who consider public money as their pocket money?’ To use an expression that they usually like, I suggest one thing: zero tolerance against those who sting in crates.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Viktor Orbán has tried to ban the Pride March in Hungary; We made it the largest Budapest has ever known! Despite threats of fines and imprisonment, despite far-right protests, which have been allowed, despite facial recognition devices along the way, despite spurious arguments that describe homosexuality as ‘unnatural’, more than 200,000 people marched with pride, joy, to claim their belonging to or support for the LGBT community. Among them, many members of my group, who showed solidarity, when Mrs von der Leyen - and I regret it - woke up just two days before the pride to regret its ban, without ever having used the levers against Orbán’s authoritarianism. However, Viktor Orbán is not at his trial against the rule of law. I hear some people in France say that the extreme right, ‘we have never tried’. So see the result in Orbán's Hungary, which Bardella and Le Pen take as an example: corruption to serve friends, NGOs and associations threatened with closure, press freedom gone missing, workers' rights ransacked, LGBTQIA+ people persecuted. This is the reality of the rule of the far right; we can’t say we didn’t know! For as long as it takes, I will say here on this rostrum that being queer has never been a danger to anyone. The authoritarianism and violence of the far right, yes. For as long as it takes, I will proudly carry this flag: that of the LGBT community. We will proudly wear it here, in Parliament and all over Europe!

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Viktor Orbán has tried to ban the Pride March in Hungary; We made it the largest Budapest has ever known! Despite threats of fines and imprisonment, despite far-right protests, which have been allowed, despite facial recognition devices along the way, despite spurious arguments that describe homosexuality as ‘unnatural’, more than 200,000 people marched with pride, joy, to claim their belonging to or support for the LGBT community. Among them, many members of my group, who showed solidarity, when Mrs von der Leyen - and I regret it - woke up just two days before the pride to regret its ban, without ever having used the levers against Orbán’s authoritarianism. However, Viktor Orbán is not at his trial against the rule of law. I hear some people in France say that the extreme right, ‘we have never tried’. So see the result in Orbán's Hungary, which Bardella and Le Pen take as an example: corruption to serve friends, NGOs and associations threatened with closure, press freedom gone missing, workers' rights ransacked, LGBTQIA+ people persecuted. This is the reality of the rule of the far right; we can’t say we didn’t know! For as long as it takes, I will say here on this rostrum that being queer has never been a danger to anyone. The authoritarianism and violence of the far right, yes. For as long as it takes, I will proudly carry this flag: that of the LGBT community. We will proudly wear it here, in Parliament and all over Europe!

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, Mr Costa, you are talking about peace and security, but you do not have a single word today about the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Mrs von der Leyen, I quote ‘the report is very clear, Israel has violated Article 2 of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel.’ It is not I who say it, but your High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas. It took 20 months of systematic destruction of the Gaza Strip, indiscriminate bombing, amputated children, starving populations to come to this obvious conclusion: Israel violates international and European law. However, what conclusion do you draw from this? The immediate and unconditional suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement? No, nothing. Because, above all, the objective, I quote, ‘would be not to punish Israel’. Don't punish? But then, what do you call the more than 57,000 civilians who were killed? Targeted food distributions? Survivors who live in the midst of ruins and corpses, and who must choose between starving to death and dying under bombs? Isn’t that a punishment for those 2 million Gazans? If we don't punish the Israeli government now, when it commits genocide, then when? You were not afraid to punish Putin’s Russia by rightly adopting 17 packages of sanctions. But not a single sanction has been taken against Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu. Worse: it can fly quietly over French airspace without Emmanuel Macron intercepting and arresting it, as required by the international arrest warrant. Mrs von der Leyen, genocide is not stopped with words or gesticulations. We arrest him with deeds. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner. We can't trade with a genocidal man anymore. By agreeing to continue cooperation with Israel, you are directly financing and legitimizing the ongoing mass killings in the Gaza Strip. Ms von der Leyen, by your inaction you are making yourself a little more complicit in the genocide every day and you are leaving an indelible mark on the history of our continent. Every day, every hour counts. Finally, do what is your duty: Take action.

Madam President, Mrs Kallas, genocide, genocide, genocide. I repeat this voluntarily because, despite 18 months of massacres in Gaza, you still deliberately refuse to use this term, Mrs Kallas. 18 months of killings and more than 55,000 deaths, 18 months of destruction including 90% of schools, 18 months of famine for 2 million civilians, 18 months that the Israeli government methodically and deliberately organizes the genocide of the Palestinian people. It was not until our left-wing group made use of its opportunity to hold a debate that the word genocide and the need for sanctions appeared for the first time on the official agenda of our European Parliament. In short, we are doing what you, Mrs Kallas, and you European leaders, who do not even deign to come for this debate, have refused to do so far: qualify the unspeakable to act, punish, protect and get out of your complicity. Because yes, you are complicit, Mrs Kallas, when you remain silent in the face of the humanitarian blockade imposed by Israel, which leaves for the only dream the children of Gaza to have a simple loaf of bread. This shameful blockade that a member of my group, Rima Hassan, whose courage I want to salute here, tried to circumvent with the Freedom Flotilla. Their arrest in international waters was illegal, their conditions of detention unworthy. But the European authorities, and in particular you, Mrs Kallas, have not had a word to call for their release. Providing humanitarian aid should never be a crime. The only ones who must be behind bars are those prosecuted by the International Criminal Court, foremost among them Benjamin Netanyahu. Mrs Kallas, the European Union and European leaders are directly complicit in the genocide. Complicit when you let Benjamin Netanyahu tread European soil without stopping him, complicit when you pour millions of euros into the Israeli military-industrial complex through the Horizon research program, complicit when European states continue to trade and deliver weapons to a genocidal army. Words are no longer enough, we need action. I have a question for you, ladies and gentlemen. Do you know how our Parliament and the European Union have rightly adopted a package of sanctions against Russia: Seventeen, seventeen! What about Israel organizing a genocide? Zero! It is this double standard that weakens the entire architecture of international law and is unbearable. Europe's unconditional support for Israel's far right must stop. This should have been done a long time ago. But you have a new opportunity on 23 June at the Council of Foreign Ministers, deciding to suspend the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel. And let me warn you, Mrs Kallas, you can no longer procrastinate by proposing to reconsider, perhaps in the more or less near future. Because humanitarian distributions that are targeted by gunfire, it's not in the future, it's now. Because the Palestinians, who have no other horizon but to starve or die from a bullet, it's not in a future, it's now. Because the survival of the Palestinian people is at stake now. Everything must be done to bring down Benjamin Netanyahu's government. We need a total arms embargo and massive economic and trade sanctions against Israel. It is not only our group that is asking for it, often alone, I must say, in this Chamber, but it is also hundreds of thousands of people who, from Rome to The Hague, from Paris to Brussels, are mobilising all over Europe and who are doing much more than you European leaders in two years against genocide. Then Mrs. Kallas, finally, since the cries of pain of the Palestinians are indifferent to you, perhaps their poems will find thanks to your heart so that finally you get out of inaction. Listen to this Palestinian poet Salem Joubran: If a child was murdered and his killers threw his body into the mud, would you be angry? What would you say? I am a son of Palestine, I die every year, I am murdered every day, every hour. Express yourself: What caused your sudden indifference? What, then? Nothing to say?

Madam President, Commissioner: Finally! Finally, you acknowledge the need to review the Association Agreement with Israel. I must say here, it is first and foremost a victory of the mobilisations all over Europe that have maintained the pressure on the European Union. But how long did it take to wait? A year and a half of bombing, night and day, famine used as a weapon of war, more than 53,000 dead including 16,000 children. Netanyahu began the final phase of the genocide in Gaza. I repeat it here because, obviously, in this forum, some people find it difficult to describe what is happening in Gaza: Yes, it is genocide and it must be denounced as such! What else do you call the 14,000 Palestinian babies who could die in the next 48 hours if Israel continues to block humanitarian aid? Millions of Palestinians are bidding farewell to the world, and you European leaders, you at the European Commission, are still procrastinating over the use of the word 'genocide'. You just launch an investigation into whether, perhaps, Israel is violating human rights – as if there are still doubts. You let Benjamin Netanyahu parade on European territory without stopping him. You watch without flinching the European governments send him weapons. With all due respect to you, Commissioner, the Commission is sending the Commissioner for Intergenerational Equity, Youth, Culture and Sport to represent it in this crucial debate on Gaza. I'm sorry, but who are you kidding? Ursula von der Layen was not available? Unless she's too busy shaking hands with Benjamin Netanyahu. In the face of the war in Ukraine, you did not hesitate to take sanctions against Russia. What is true for Ukrainians would not be true for Gaza? Is the life of the Palestinians worthless? What the hell are you waiting for to take real sanctions against Benjamin Netanyahu? That there is no longer a single Palestinian living in Gaza? Words don't stop a massacre. We need action. History will judge you, because when Gaza is wiped off the map, it will be too late to act.

Madam President, dear friends and colleagues of the extreme right, it is true that last week the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed that the President of the European Commission had lied in the Pfizergate case. There is, I quote, "no plausible explanation" for the disappearance of the texts sent to the CEO of Pfizer. Citizens have the right to know how billions of euros of public money were negotiated by text message, why no trace exists, who has accepted that the price of doses increases by 25% to further increase the profits of the big pharmaceutical companies. We have every right to know. Citizens are also entitled to know that the hypocrisy of the extreme right is total, it which, on the same day, voted against the independent ethical authority, whose objective is precisely to tackle the ethical scandals within the European institutions. You see, the difference between you on the far right and us on the left is that we are fighting corruption and opacity in all the institutions, the Commission and the European Parliament – but obviously you have things to hide.

Mr President, Commissioner, with the trade war initiated by Donald Trump, we are experiencing a historic economic upheaval. Faced with this, what do you propose? First, never raise your voice in the face of an American president who multiplies violations of international law. Secondly, to give in to blackmail - to his blackmail - by buying 50 billion more American products, so that he sells us the shovel with which we dig our own grave. Thirdly, to speed up the signing of new trade agreements, starting with the United States, but also with Mercosur, India, Thailand, Australia, and so on. Anyway, we just got a slap in the face and you're holding out the other cheek. Translation: Free trade is dead, long live free trade! Let's go, let's make ourselves even more dependent on the rest of the world, as if we had learned nothing from this crisis. Above all, let's sacrifice the same ones a little more: workers, workers in the industries you are throwing away, Commissioner. More than ever, the impasse of free trade and capitalist globalization is obvious. Let's get out of this deadly system.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, who in this room can say that the priority today is to break the only texts on social and ecological progress that were voted on in the previous term? Who in this Chamber can seriously think that the most important thing today is to throw in the trash regulations that prevent multinationals from massacring people and the planet? To protect the environment, to improve people’s lives, this is never the time. You always have to wait, postpone, "we'll see when we have time". But when it comes to deregulating, the EPP is the great lord: Especially, fast, fast, fast! There is an urgency to give gifts to big companies, more and more. You have to get started right away, right away, in an urgent procedure!" – you who usually like the European Commission's evaluation procedures so much to waste time. The reality is that you did not have this idea on your own, dear friends of the EPP. The big companies that want to continue to make profits from the exploitation of workers and nature, they are the ones who suggested it, and it is actually at the request of their lobbyists that you are making this request for an urgent procedure today. This is a real scandal! Furthermore, Mr Tobé, you are talking about forecasts for large companies, but this text was adopted at the end of the previous term of office. What are we going to do during this mandate, here, all the Members of the European Parliament? Are we going to unravel the texts that have been adopted by our European Parliament? What is the point of sitting here, then, if it is to undo what has just been adopted? Today I would like you to think of all the victims of the crimes of multinationals and tell them face to face that their fate is not urgent. Go say, dear right-wing and far-right MEPs who are about to vote on this urgent procedure, go tell the 100,000 people expropriated by Total in Uganda and Tanzania that there is no urgent need for redress. Tell the families of the 6,500 people who died at the World Cup in Qatar that making those responsible pay is not urgent. Tell the Uyghur slaves exploited by Shein that stopping their torture is not urgent. Tell the relatives of the 1,135 employees who died in the rubble of Rana Plaza that access to justice is not urgent. So yes, this text on due diligence in the Omnibus package is not the most revolutionary, but it has the merit of existing. We have ripped it off after five years of fighting lobbyists and we are proud that the left, united in this Chamber, has managed to defend it and get it to vote, and finally put an end to the impunity of multinationals. The cynicism of those who propose this urgent procedure to establish the total impunity of the big bosses who have blood on their hands is a shame, and it makes you directly complicit. So, colleagues, it is up to you to take responsibility. Do not allow this disgraceful step backwards and defend this essential human rights acquis!

Madam President, Mrs von der Leyen, Mr Costa, I shall begin with a rather simple question: Ms von der Leyen, how much longer are you going to let Donald Trump dictate his law on US-EU trade relations? What are you waiting for, Ms von der Leyen, to raise your voice and propose a firm response that protects workers in the sectors concerned? I heard you this morning: You are still thinking, considering, calibrating your response, while Donald Trump is actually stripping us. The feverishness of the European Union in the face of pressure from Donald Trump speaks volumes about its inability to envisage its own independence. Yet this was an opportunity to rethink the entire EU policy, including its trade policy. With the United States, of course, but also with the rest of the world. It is obvious that our current economic fragility is the consequence of several decades of your liberal policies, the very ones that have promoted extreme economic globalisation and specialisation. Sweet trade was supposed to be a substitute for war. Result: We will have and war by arms on the European continent and trade war. This supposed freedom of free trade is what now makes us captive to the trade blackmail of Donald Trump. This supposed freedom of free trade makes us unable today to support ourselves: medicines, solar panels, clothing, food, and so on, are imported en masse from the other side of the world. We are getting others to produce what we should be producing here on the European continent. The consequences are well known: relocation and deindustrialisation, rising inequality and unemployment, accelerating the ecological catastrophe. But, Mrs von der Leyen, far from learning from these lessons, you are continuing the flight forward and multiplying the free trade agreements with Mercosur, Mexico, India, Thailand and Malaysia. How dare you, Mrs von der Leyen, again this morning, come and advocate free trade agreements? Have you really learned nothing from our dependence on states outside the European Union? There is an urgent need to completely rethink ways of producing and exchanging. What is produced, and where? For what needs and in what quantity? Are we producing to export airplanes or luxury goods and fatten multinationals, or are we producing to meet basic needs locally – to feed, house, dress, heat, furnish, move, heal? These, Mrs von der Leyen, are the questions you should ask yourself, rather than delighting in the comfort of worn-out economic dogmas: free trade, competitiveness, market, competition, growth... More than ever, we need solidarity-based and ecological protectionism, to refocus our economy on our needs and within planetary boundaries, to build an economy of peace rather than an economy of war. This is what must guide our economies: Our lives rather than their profits.