What François-Xavier spoke about.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we are here. Tomorrow will be the final vote on the return settlement. It is the end of several decades of powerlessness in the face of illegal immigration and eight long years of blockage in the revision of the Return Directive, which will finally disappear in a few days. The law protected only those who had broken the law. Now we're putting the rule back in place. When less than 20% of return decisions in Europe are implemented today, 100% can be implemented tomorrow. Not in two years, as some people wanted, tomorrow. Tomorrow, our states will be able to deport again. Detention periods will be increased without limit for individuals who represent a danger. Our police and gendarmes will finally have the legal basis to fight smugglers. A crime, a misdemeanor, will be worth an entry ban. Appeals will no longer be used to delay deportation and return centres will put an end to the blackmail of regimes that prevent the return of their nationals. Tomorrow it will be clear that we can only settle in Europe if we have been legally authorised to do so. Nothing exceptional in there, just the return to the rule. We give power back to our democracies and to the citizens of our countries to control their borders. But it seems that some would still want to ban this return to normalcy. When the discussion came to an end on this fundamental opposition, we assumed our responsibilities. And it is on the basis of the text that I proposed, on behalf of the EPP, that we will vote tomorrow. And we are proud of that, proud of this historic result which shows that, yes, Europe can change. That, when voters want it, politics can and must act to bring about the concrete results that our countries so badly need. I would like to thank all the elected officials who made this change possible. Thank you, Commissioner, Lieber Magnus, for the work you have done in the Commission. Thank the Council and the European governments who, almost all of them, want to do everything in their power to implement this new return regulation. Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, this is the only question that will be asked of all of us here, who really wants to break with Europe's current bankruptcy in the face of illegal immigration, this bankruptcy that has caused so many tragedies? Who really wants to protect the rule of law and get out of the rule of law, who sees our states and jurisdictions as powerless? Who refuses to allow the right of asylum to be diverted as it is today everywhere? Who believes that Europe can be faithful to the principles of democracy by responding today to the strong expectations of the citizens of our countries? Everyone is faced with this choice.

Madam President, Commissioner, ETS. When this system was created to charge companies for the carbon they emit, more than twenty years ago, it was in the spirit of creating a global carbon market that was never formed. It was to give a price signal that would impose decarbonization. But the price signal, today, already exists. We see what is playing out in the world around us and just look at the prices at the pump to understand that, already today, using fossil energy is very expensive. Do colleagues here all hear the same cry of distress that comes to us from families in Europe who are struggling to live, to provide for their daily livelihoods, who, for many of them, will have to give up going on vacation this summer or meeting again? Do all colleagues hear the cry of distress from European industry, which in many regions is about to shut down because it lacks the means to continue producing? We have heard that there is no planet B, but on hearing this debate, I wonder if some colleagues are not already living on planet B. In the reality of planet A, in the reality of this planet, Europe is already the continent that has made the most important efforts for decarbonisation. Anything we do against European companies, we will do against the climate cause. Europe has all the means today to succeed in regaining prosperity and ensuring its climate responsibility. For this, it is enough that we let it produce, that we leave the companies, that we leave the know-how, that we leave the skills, that we leave our nuclear energy, that the same environmentalists attacked ferociously while it produces the most carbon-free electricity in Europe, that we let all these assets of Europe deploy to allow our continent to regain its capacity to produce, radiate and ensure its responsibility for the future.

Mr. member, you can scream as long as you want, the truth is that every civilian victim is obviously a tragedy. The only amazing thing is that you do not see war crimes where international humanitarian law explicitly condemns them. When Hezbollah - like Hamas, which you have also covered - goes into hiding among the civilian populations, precisely to make them human shields, that is a war crime, Mr MEP. For the rest, you know, you may want to sow war. But today Lebanon is discussing with Israel a historic peace process that we can hope will be completed. You cover Hezbollah, you cover the war it launches; We want peace and security for the Lebanese people. Maybe that's what sets us apart here.

Israel has no territorial claims to Lebanon, none. Israel would not have set foot in Lebanon and would not have fired a single shot at Lebanese territory if Hezbollah had not decided to attack Israel. Recognize the reality, dear colleague; You refuse to see her, but that's the reality. Let me say one simple thing, dear colleague: All the civilian victims that you deplore, they are linked to this Islamist militia that, curiously, you never criticize and that you never attack, that you never condemn, while it is the cause of the misfortune of the Lebanese people today, and that it is from this cause that we must liberate Lebanon as quickly as possible.

Mr President, Florian Montorio, Anicet Girardin, two French soldiers who died a few days ago under the French flag and under the blue helmet to defend the Lebanese people. Only a few days later, the French government put Israel and Hezbollah on the same footing, declaring that it cannot accept either the IDF or Hezbollah. What more worrying symptom of French and European myopia, when it comes to understanding what is being played out today in Lebanon? One can criticize the Israeli government as much as one likes, but nothing will prevent this simple, absolutely indisputable fact: Lebanon would be in peace and security, no civilian victim would be to be deplored, if Hezbollah had not launched Lebanon in its suicidal war against Israel to obey Iran, of which it is only the proxy. Put on the same level the army of a democratic government with an Islamist militia that carries out its assassinations on the soil of our own countries, today, for the benefit of the Iranian regime; To put Israel on the same level, attacked by hundreds of rocket fire for only a few weeks, with this militia that controls a large part of the world's cocaine trafficking and is involved in all the organized crime mafias of the world, is obviously to miss the reality of the evil that plagues Lebanon today. There is only one chance for the Lebanese people to regain peace, security, sovereignty and full democracy: It is the disarmament of Hezbollah in accordance with the decisions of the international community and the resolutions of the United Nations. This is what Europe and France must contribute to today, concretely, on the ground, by all possible means.

Mr President, today, Commissioner, we have just achieved an essential victory to finally protect Europe from illegal immigration. And yet what is the Spanish socialist government doing, showing that it has understood nothing of what citizens expect in all our countries? It constitutes a monumental air call by deciding to publicly regularize at least half a million illegal immigrants in Spain. Maybe 800,000, who knows? Who will know who these people are? Security checks will not be done. We will not know if they are perpetrators of crimes or close to terrorism and if they are the vectors of political Islam that threatens our countries tomorrow. This is not only a danger for Spain, even if the left is delighted today that these are additional arms to turn the economy, in a perfectly cynical vision of what man is and what society is; This is not just a danger for Spain, it is a danger for the whole of Europe, because these people who entered Spain illegally will be able to travel to all our countries tomorrow. Spanish friends, we need you. The real problem is not to tackle, I say to our colleagues in Vox, the Partido Popular who is fighting Sanchez's policy. The real problem is Pedro Sanchez's policy. As long as Pedro Sanchez is Prime Minister in Spain, the whole of Europe will be in danger in the face of illegal immigration. Spanish friends, help us. Amigos españoles, ayúdennos. Spanish friends, help us, thank you very much.

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to reply to Mr Lent, who has just asked the EPP and the Republicans about the frightening situation. diary of the radical right that would represent the fact of wanting to implement a policy of return finally effective in Europe. Mr Lent, I would like to tell you about the exchange we had with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with our colleague Malik Azmani, who brought together all the representatives of the groups on the text we are talking about. The representatives of the United Nations told us: "We need an effective return policy in Europe, because if we want to protect refugees, then those who are not refugees must leave. And the truth, Mr Lent, is that, by wanting to turn a blind eye to the inability of our States to implement an effective policy of expelling people in an irregular situation on the soil of our countries, you have in fact, in the end, destroyed the right to asylum. Today across Europe, 20% of illegal aliens who have received a return order actually leave – 20%! What is the value of a right that is only respected by 20% of people? What is the value of a law that only applies in 20% of cases? The truth is that the rule of law presupposes that we put an end to this form of lawlessness, which has ended up being imposed by the impossibility of applying existing case-law. We have a duty to resume together an effective return policy to ensure that those who are irregularly on the soil of our countries, those who have been denied asylum once, twice, three times finally leave. Without it, there is no right to asylum, and no right at all, in Europe.

The question, Mr Botenga, is, in fact, "are we really in solidarity with the Iranian people?" To support this regime is indeed to endanger the Iranian people. But you supported all his allies, Mr. Botenga. You supported Hamas, which is Iran's ally. You support Hezbollah, which is Iran's ally in Lebanon. You have supported all the militias that today, piloted from Iran, oppress and destroy the Middle East. To want peace is to fight against political Islam and that is what, unfortunately, the extreme left does not know how to do.

Mr President, High Representative, how many are there? Thousands, thousands of Iranians killed. Unarmed men, women, too many children, dead only because the regime that oppresses them has decided that it survives only by terror. By terror and with a mixture of European complacency and impotence. Complacency of some of Europe's political forces. I am thinking of the extreme left which, since the beginning of the Islamic revolution, has been on the side of the executioners of the Iranian people and which, even today, is moved by the fact that the President of Parliament has banned Iranian diplomats from entering this Parliament. It is Rima Hassan, of the extreme left, who today takes up the cause for the guardians of the revolution. Impotence too, because three years ago this Parliament, by an overwhelming majority, called for these Revolutionary Guards to be classified as a terrorist organization. Today, countries still oppose it: France, Spain, Italy. Why? It is obviously a terrorist organization that we are talking about, which oppresses not only the Iranian people, but also the entire region. If this regime falls, ladies and gentlemen, it will be the equivalent, for the whole region, for the whole Middle East and for all our countries, of another fall of the Berlin Wall. Our duty is to work with the Iranian people.

Mr President, Commissioner, the murder of Mehdi Kessaci is not a miscellaneous fact. It is not even just another crime committed by drug trafficking. It is not even just one innocent victim too many. This is the alarm signal that should wake up all of France and all of Europe. Mehdi Kessaci had nothing to do with drugs. He wanted to become a policeman. He died for one reason: He was the brother of Amine, who has been fighting these criminal networks for years after losing another brother, who was murdered. The courage of Amine, who is here tonight, inspires admiration. He decided not to shut up and act as if: as if everything were normal when watchmen greet you at the bottom of the towers, when criminals hijack a generation, when deal points are won with a weapon of war, when gangs clash in front of classrooms to the point where a school has to move – as in Saint-Ouen – or a college burns – to Dijon last weekend. Amine refused silence, and I admire her for that – although we are not on the same side. In the face of this outbreak of violence, the same resistance must bind us, because the essentials are at stake. When the mafias are ready to kill in order to silence, fear begins to install a power other than that of our states. Drug money is not just about ill-gotten luxury, corruption, profit: He wants power, through terror. It is enough to listen to the heavy silence caused by the death of Mehdi Kessaci. I was in Marseilles to walk in her memory with Marie Toussaint, with thousands of French people, elected representatives from all walks of life, all those who refuse to resign themselves. But where are the great voices, the great figures of Marseille and the country? Drug money wants to replace our states. It has already taken control of entire territories, of a parallel economy. In neighbourhoods in France, he ensures order, he delivers at home, he issues loyalty cards, he provides social services, he pays rent. Tomorrow, he will take control of our institutions faster than we think, to increase his gains, he will destroy our democracies. It is time to finally realise the danger and act, above all, before it is too late; prevent harm to those who run the networks, sometimes even from prison; finally enforce the law so that every consumer understands that he is complicit in the worst; take back control of our ports, which are open to all the poison that is spreading across Europe; to give law enforcement, the armed forces and the judiciary the legal and humane means to fight networks that have no limits, neither material nor moral. This is a challenge for the sovereignty of our countries, but it is a challenge that we will only face at the level of the European continent. We owe it to Amine. We owe it to Mehdi. We owe it to all the lives destroyed, wounded, to all those who refuse to give up freedom.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, yes, it must be remembered today that our countries are under threat. Yes, history is tragic and, yes, war is returning to the dangerous world that is emerging before our eyes, and it is our duty to look it in the face. It is astonishing that during this discussion we have heard the denial of reality that continues to be displayed with pride. I am thinking in particular, dear colleague, of you who said: "Europe should make social housing rather than ammunition." You can build as many homes as you want, dear colleague, the day you disarm our countries, these homes, these houses, these homes will all be in danger. Because today, as yesterday, the only real way to guarantee peace is to prepare for war. This does not mean that we want war, quite the contrary. And to refuse denial of reality does not mean to yield to distressing and anguished statements. We don't want war, we want to protect peace. But the only way to protect peace is to apply this advice that comes from the very origin of our civilization, "Si vis pacem, para bellum": If you want peace, you must be ready for war. For having forgotten it for too long, Europeans have entered a guilty dependency that puts them, that puts us all, today in danger. Last year, our countries collectively purchased 79% of their armaments outside the European Union. This dependence, as we know very well, ladies and gentlemen, was a sign of the gamble that the European countries had made collectively, that of underinvesting in their own security in order to take shelter under the umbrella of another. This dependency today endangers the sovereignty of our states, the freedom of our democracies and the security of every citizen on the European continent, and that is what we must get out of. The word "historical," dear friends, is often overused, but today I believe it can be rightly used. From this choice of dependency – 79% of armaments purchased outside Europe – we are now making the choice to reverse the logic. With the European Defence Industry Programme, the European Union, for the first time, will contribute to the financing of our states' armaments needs, reversing this paradigm. From now on, an armament will be financed if, and only if, it is made up of at least 65% of European components; if, and only if, it is designed in the European Union by companies from our countries; and, thirdly, if it is not subject to any legal license that would prevent our states from using it sovereignly in order to be able to defend themselves tomorrow. This fundamental choice was made by Parliament and the Commission, and I would like to thank you, Commissioner, for these long months of work. Of course, the road has been long, but today we have arrived at this decisive result. I hear, of course, some colleagues say 'It is not enough, it is not enough, it does not go far enough' and some may find the pretext for not voting for this text, which they know is an opportunity to express the true patriotism they would like to claim. If we are patriots, we have a duty to support this new direction created by this text, because this new direction - the whole world has understood it and in Europe all industrial players have understood it - is decisive for the sovereignty and the future of our democracies. Today, we do our work peacefully, calmly, with determination. We assume our political responsibility, not to agitate fearful statements, but to produce solutions to ensure peace tomorrow. With this text, we offer all those who work in our countries – you were talking about workers, dear colleague, but you are depriving them of this text and the means it will give them – the means to produce in our States what we need: support workers, support the industry of our European countries, support engineers, technicians, support researchers who have in their hands a decisive part of our security for tomorrow. 'Cause the battle's going on here. It is played out first in our factories, in our ability to produce. It is played out in our laboratories, in our ability to invent strategic technologies to guarantee our sovereignty. And we are finally giving today - and it is to them that I would like to think with you, ladies and gentlemen, this morning - we are giving today to those who bear arms on our behalf the means of their mission. I would like to have a word for all those who, soldiers of the armed forces engaged under the flags of each of our States, today carry the protection of our countries by committing their own lives for our security. With this text, we want them to be able to count tomorrow on the means to act, on the means to carry out their mission and to defeat in all the battles in which they will be engaged for the success of the weapons of our countries and to defend what we have in common, the very principles of our civilization and this spirit of freedom which is today threatened everywhere in the world, and especially everywhere in our countries and against our countries. It is by empowering our armed forces to carry out their mission that we do our job and assume our political responsibility. This morning the choice is very clear, ladies and gentlemen, for all those who will have to vote: choose whether or not to support our soldiers, choose to be with them, behind them, in support of their mission, or choose instead to fail them at the most decisive moment. I would like to thank all the colleagues who have contributed, from all the political groups, to this crucial work, and in particular my co-rapporteur, Raphaël Glucksmann, for the work we have carried out in a relationship of trust in the service of this common cause that transcends all divisions. I hope that our Parliament today will bear witness to this unity in the service of our future.

Madam President, ten years ago, Islamist terrorism claimed more than 130 innocent lives in Paris. We have a duty to remember, of course, and to think of all those who are still grieving today that nothing can fix. But it is not enough to remember, we still have to look at how far we have come and everything that has not been done. The threat still exists against our countries, and all the vulnerabilities of the European borders that allowed terrorism to strike at the heart of Europe have not been repaired. Of course, thanks to the courage and commitment of all those who fought against it – police, gendarmes, soldiers, especially from all our countries – the Islamic State has been destroyed. But Islamism still exists, and it still threatens. It sows terror in many other countries of the world, and it still threatens to destroy everything on which our countries are built. Our duty is to keep fighting. We not only have the right to remember today, we also have the duty to act. Because Europe’s naivety must end once and for all, we have a duty to commit ourselves today by thinking of all those who paid with their lives for this Islamism that struck at the heart of Europe. We have a duty to act to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. Colleagues, let us all ask ourselves this question today: what action is in our hands, which will be decisive tomorrow, to ensure that Europe lives and survives by finally being freed from the threat of Islamism?

Mr President, Commissioner, I will never forget the day on which the ban on combustion engines was voted in this Chamber a few years ago in 2035. I will never forget the celebration of so many elected representatives to whom I objected – as did the EPP Group, which opposed this deleterious measure – that Europe had just made the biggest gift to China and committed the biggest crime against its own competitiveness. A few years later, the result is there. We are now seeing Chinese cars flooding our markets, and tens of thousands of jobs are being destroyed in factories in our countries; Millions of Europeans can no longer buy new cars or move freely. This immense damage to the automotive industry is precisely due to the choice of a single technology, which destroys the very principle of our responsibility. The role of policy makers is not to decide on the right technology; their role is to set the goal by giving industrialists, researchers and technicians the freedom to develop the means to achieve this goal. Yes, we want to decarbonise, but decarbonising does not mean going to school in China, which is now the world’s biggest polluter. Our duty is to save technological neutrality and, for that, to repeal this absurd norm that set 100% electric vehicles in 2035, in order to give back to those who produce in our countries and to those who want to move the freedom to which they are entitled and the prosperity that we must regain.

Dear colleague, I think I have already replied: Western Europe has for too long turned a blind eye to the reality of danger. I have no problem saying it in front of you today. But I, in turn, would like to send you an alert, dear colleague: What those who want to attack Europe today – whatever their name is in the world of the return of empires that we have before us – are seeking is to divide us. Now, the spectacle of throwing absurd accusations at each other is precisely what they expect. By entering this game of division, you are playing into the hands of those who want to bring Europe to the ground today.

Madam President, Commissioner, when will we open our eyes? The recent attack on Poland, launched by Vladimir Putin's Russia, shows how what is at stake today is the shaking of the foundations of the world in which we thought we could live for the future. We will not have security without assuming the means of our defense. Weakness is today, as yesterday, the safest path to war. It is urgent for Europe to rearm itself today, to rebuild a defence industry that is able to provide autonomously the resources entrusted to our armed forces. It is necessary to accelerate on the SAFE program, on EDIP. We must accelerate the ramp-up of our production capacities. For what is at stake is our ability to guarantee peace for generations to come. Western Europe – and I say this from France – must never again forget that what is at stake is our security at all, not just that of Poland, our security at all. The Second World War, which devastated our countries, began when Western Europe accepted, through the German-Soviet pact, the dismemberment of Poland, with the support of so many communist parties in Europe. We no longer have the right to this abandonment because it will devastate Europe tomorrow, as yesterday, if we do not take care of it.

Mr President, Commissioner, to try to get back to the point, let us also go back to the facts. Some have been contesting the very title of this debate for some time now. But there is no doubt about the link between immigration and delinquency, if we look at the facts. Take some major cities of France. In Paris, 14% of the population is of foreign origin, 48% of those implicated in crime are of foreign origin. In Marseille, 11% of foreigners, 55% of foreigners among those who are accused of delinquency. And this is especially true when talking about sexual violence: In Île-de-France, 63% of sexual assaults in transport are committed by foreigners. For a while now, I have been hearing from colleagues who say that it is a scandal to make this connection and who have even preferred to explain that, when it comes to sexual violence, all men are guilty, rather than looking reality in the face. I think we need to go back to reason. The subject is not only the observation. The subject is to provide an answer to this situation that citizens in our countries live in their flesh every day. To this end, we have before us the opportunity to review the Returns Regulation, which will finally make it possible to deport illegal aliens outside Europe. I hope that all political groups here will be able to seize this crucial opportunity.

Dear colleague, I fully share your point of view and I was also impressed to hear this morning in your speech, Madam President, that Europe must defend the freedom to pray. I believe that freedom of conscience is at the heart of the European heritage and that freedom must be defended through the appointment of this representative. We are counting on you to make rapid progress on this essential appointment.

Madam President, what is the state of the Union? Europe is threatened with going out of history. Fragile, divided. All those who work and who make our countries live the reality of an impoverishment that strikes everywhere, of a stall that already makes us lose control of our destiny. There is an urgent need to react. This morning, in your speech, you announced many new plans, initiatives, texts. But the main thing is undoubtedly to start by correcting the mistakes and denials that have led us so far. You talked about security. First, let us stop massively financing foreign-purchased armaments. No longer depending militarily on the United States will be the condition to no longer suffer the commercial blackmail that they impose on us today. You talk about energy prices, but continuing to massively finance renewables will only increase our dependencies. Finally, let us stop excluding nuclear power from European budgets, which, despite what the Greens have been saying for a long time, is sovereign and decarbonised. The Court of Justice confirmed this very morning the fight we have been fighting for years for this. We don't need a plan to make small cars affordable. We need to first abandon the rule of buying only electric cars. And then let our builders innovate. You want to advertise for European farmers. But let us start by abandoning the massive cuts planned by the Commission in the budgets due to them, and by guaranteeing them that they will not be Mercosur's adjustment variable. You're talking about fighting illegal immigration. We will of course do the work in Parliament to finally facilitate, through the return regulation, evictions. But we'll have to go much further. After years of warning, during the last legislature, about a policy largely dictated by the left, which at the time cared very little about what the central majority thought in this Parliament as in our countries, we have made a clear choice, but now we need results.

Mr President, a simple reminder to the Rules of Procedure to say that, since just now, our Socialist colleagues - the Socialist voters and the Spanish citizens have the right to know - have been marching in this gallery to defame without any reason...

It seems to me that the protection of children from sexual abuse is too important a subject to be transvested in absurd divisions. This is a subject that must bring us all together. And I would just like to say that, on this major issue of children's exposure to pornography, there is no political divide that holds. Today, we have a historic opportunity to finally force pornographic platforms to get out of their denial of reality, to obviously get out of the profits they make so they can continue to thrive on the lives of our children. Our duty is to act together and all those who seek excuses for not committing to it, I believe unfortunately, will weaken this cause that should bring us together.