Speeches

Madam President, in Hong Kong, the free press is now being treated as a threat to national security. But accusations of terrorism do not deceive anyone. Press freedom is only a threat to the Chinese Communist Party, which has undertaken to methodically destroy any democratic resistance to its totalitarian project. A few days ago, the last independent daily published its latest edition. After two police raids, the arrest of its founder, Jimmy Lai, chained in front of the cameras, the imprisonment of his main executives, the freezing of his bank accounts, the newspaper was forced to cease publication. This is obviously a message. From now on, all free speech is threatened in Hong Kong. From this Parliament, we must express our immense admiration for the courage of those who pay the price for this commitment, which they have never given up in favour of democracy: journalists fromApple Daily, but also Joshua Wong, Ted Hui, Claudia Mo and so many others. We stand by them because 10 000 kilometres away, Europe is directly concerned. And this is not, contrary to what the Chinese regime claims, an internal China matter. Firstly, because it is a unilateral breach of an agreement it signed with a European country only 35 years ago. It is therefore not only Hong Kong’s freedom that China is attacking, but also the entire Western world. It de facto weakens the whole climate of the relations that we can build with it, including on the commercial level. What will happen to the investments that we claim to secure with China, if this platform that Hong Kong has always represented for trade relations were to disappear permanently, in its freedom, for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party? Europe must promote the principles of the rule of law that it is honoured to uphold in its trade and political negotiations. Here it must prove its consistency. We are expected because, in fact, the future of freedom is at stake. If we do not react, we will let China impose its model, which is actually a global counter-model.

Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, double standards, the latest Council conclusions are once again indicative of European biases in international matters. France and Germany offered to reopen a dialogue with Russia. The US President himself has taken an important initiative for this, but the European Council has blocked this proposal, I quote, because of ‘malicious, illegal and destabilising’ actions. However, the tone is very different when it comes to Turkey. The Erdoğan regime is continuing its migration blackmail, violating the territorial integrity of several European countries, mobilising terrorist organisations, staging its means of political pressure in our countries and even going so far as to prosecute its opponents at home, most recently. Do we need more malicious, illegal and destabilising actions? We could go on with the list for a long time. In response to all this, the latter Council, I quote, recalls that it wants to ‘develop a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship with Turkey’ and welcomes a more serene context. To continue the dialogue, he decided to grant Mr Erdoğan an additional EUR 3 billion. How can we take such an incoherent Europe seriously? A weak Europe, to the point that it finances Erdoğan in the hope that he will solve for us the migration problem for which he is in fact one of the main culprits. A Europe whose constantly claimed commitment to the rule of law is so variable in geometry. And then – because we have to talk freely, ladies and gentlemen – a disunited Europe, to the point where Germany sells Turkey the submarines with which it will threaten Greece, Cyprus and perhaps the French navy again in the Mediterranean Sea tomorrow. Colleagues, Mr President, I have the despairing feeling that these Councils follow one another and are alike. But what else can we do than say it again? It is time to open our eyes before history suddenly takes us out of the denial of reality.