What Bernard spoke about.

16 Sep

2026

FR Speech

Deteriorating situation of media freedom and freedom of expression in Hong Kong following the recent arrest of bookseller Leticia Wong and the convictions of Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung

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Madam President. With your industrial surpluses, you have a vital need, you who rule China, for a good understanding with our 27 nations, but you are only alienating them. Two systems, you said, but Europe sees the one-party brass law coming down on Hong Kong. We respect, you say, international law, but without your boundless friendship Russia would soon have had to turn its heels in Ukraine. You …

15 Sep

2026

FR Speech

Escalation in the Middle East (debate)

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Mr President, yes, everything is wrong, very wrong in the Middle East. But Iran can't do that, neither can the United States. And when they vote, Israelis and Palestinians will have to look for ways out of this appalling impasse. It is therefore time to make ourselves heard, we Europeans, to propose the ways of a compromise in the Gulf and to repeat the obvious, to hammer out that there is no othe…

8 Jul

2026

FR Speech

Future of EU support for Russian democratic forces, anti-war actors and repressed civil society (debate)

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Madam President, geography imposes it on us: Because Russia is European and it is with Russia that we share this continent, we need to find ways and means to coexist in a strong and lasting peace. This requires two things: the first is to help Ukraine more and more to inflict on Vladimir Putin the defeat he deserves. The stability of our continent requires that no one in Russia can believe that br…

11 Feb

2026

FR Speech

State violence in Minneapolis and the rule of law in the United States (topical debate)

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Madam President, it's very distressing; it's very bad. We would like to unsee it, but the reality is there. The MAGA team decided to undo our alliance because Donald Trump thinks, to quote him, that the European Union was invented 'to screw the US'. So, he's trying to offer a victory to his friend Putin by pressuring Ukraine into full surrender. He is undermining the credibility of the Atlantic Al…

20 Jan

2026

FR Speech

Brutal repression against protesters in Iran (debate)

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Mr President, with their backs to the wall, they killed, killed, killed by the thousands. But now this regime no longer has a penny, its Russian ally is far too busy martyring Ukraine to be able to really help it, it no longer has regional relays, it has been humiliated by its impotence in the face of the Israeli-American offensive and now has only to meditate on what Talleyrand said about this ki…

21 Oct

2025

FR Speech

Recent peace agreement in the Middle East and the role of the EU (debate)

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Madam President, it is pointless to say that we are spreading our differences, and yet we are. Unfortunately, it is time, really time, to tell you, Mr Trump, that your inconsistency is as irresponsible about the Middle East as it is about Ukraine. You can't let yourself be turned around by the bluff of a Putin promising Ukraine to destroy it if it doesn't kneel down. You cannot betray Europe by ab…

7 Oct

2025

FR Speech

The EU’s role in supporting the recent peace efforts for Gaza and a two-state solution (debate)

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Mr. President, peace, the two states... No, not yet. But if it were at least a stop to the bombing, a cease-fire and the release of the hostages, how happy it would be! Let's cross our fingers. Let's hope so. But let's also try to understand: Why did Donald Trump suddenly twist Benjamin Netanyahu's arm? Why did he give back to the United States this role of arbiter that he had renounced during his…

9 Sep

2025

FR Speech

Gaza at breaking point: EU action to combat famine, the urgent need to release hostages and move towards a two-state solution (debate)

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Madam President, what did these murderers of yesterday in Jerusalem want? They wanted, they would say, to avenge the deaths in Gaza, the bombings, the hunger and the destruction of all cities, villages, schools and hospitals. But what is the object of these bombings that they wanted to avenge? This is all too well known: avenge the bloody barbarism of October 7 and the intolerable hostage detentio…

9 Sep

2025

FR Speech

Ukraine (joint debate)

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Madam President, nothing is done, alas, nothing is done, but it does seem that his eyes are opening. Disappointed, he says, by Vladimir Putin and especially worried about the tightening of ties between China and Russia, Donald Trump seems to finally understand - start to understand - that he needs allies to face the Sino-Russian understanding. We will see if this president takes action now, but on…

8 Jul

2025

FR Speech

Situation in the Middle East (debate)

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Madam President, when Benjamin Netanyahu says that Palestinians should "have the ability to govern themselves, but not the ability to harm Israel," he is right. Unless it means - and there is every reason to fear - that the Palestinians should not have a state. This people would then live with the ambition to meet next year in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine. Nothing would make him give up tha…

7 Jul

2025

FR Speech

Arbitrary sentencing of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and journalist Christophe Gleizes (debate)

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Madam President, since they will read this text, I am addressing them, the leaders of Algeria: Imprisoning an elderly and sick man, whose only wrong is to have written things you don’t like, is first and foremost immoral, and, to put it mildly, shameful! You must release Boualem Sansal within an hour, especially since in keeping him in detention you seem to be saying that your power and the whole …

17 Jun

2025

FR Speech

Situation in the Middle East (joint debate)

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Mr President, in Gaza, Israel is reprehensible, but is it in Tehran? In Gaza, we must condemn increasingly senseless bombings that have long been aimed no longer at dismantling Hamas, but at destroying much of what is to become Palestine. In the face of these war crimes, we must express our reproach and draw the consequences. But the Israeli strikes against the Iranian theocracy, its nuclear progr…

21 May

2025

FR Answer

The EU's response to the Israeli government's plan to seize the Gaza Strip, ensuring effective humanitarian support and the liberation of hostages (debate)

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Before I say such stupidities, I would simply suggest that you read what I have been writing since October 7 and the bombing of Gaza. I have never stopped denouncing the bombing of Gaza and, during my election campaign as an abominable macronist in the last European elections, I called – which I have been doing constantly for many, many years and continue to do – for recognition of Palestine.…

21 May

2025

FR Speech

The EU's response to the Israeli government's plan to seize the Gaza Strip, ensuring effective humanitarian support and the liberation of hostages (debate)

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Madam President, it is no longer enough to condemn, it is also necessary to propose. Our Parliament, the High Representative and the Member States have stated, and very clearly since last night, that the bombing of Gaza and the blockade of food aid must stop. This is to be welcomed, but the European Union must now go further and work towards the opening of peace negotiations. I would therefore lik…

2 Apr

2025

FR Speech

Threat to freedom of expression in Algeria: the five-year prison sentence of French writer Boualem Sansal (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, there is injustice and, worse still, there is what it shows. Injustice is the fact that the Algerian courts have sentenced Sansal, a Franco-Algerian writer who is only accused of crimes of opinion, to five years in prison. Sick, elderly, innocent of any crime and simply hostage to tensions between his two homelands, Boualem Sansal must be released. The Algerian authorit…

2 Apr

2025

FR Speech

Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2024 (A10-0012/2025 - Isabel Wiseler-Lima) (vote)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as coordinator of the Renew Europe Group in the Subcommittee on Human Rights, I propose to add an oral amendment at the end of paragraph 4 of the annual report on the situation of human rights and democracy in the world. This oral amendment concerns the situation of the writer Boualem Sansal and would read as follows: “condemns the arrest and sentencing by an…

1 Apr

2025

FR Speech

Crackdown on democracy in Türkiye and the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu (debate)

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Madam President, the dictator or freedom, the irremovable Erdoğan or the hundreds of thousands of Turks who demonstrated in Istanbul on Saturday do not know who will win. The battle remains uncertain, but the first thing these tense faces of hope remind us is that freedom is the best shared value in the world, a value that is not European, but universal. These faces then tell us that there is defi…

12 Feb

2025

FR Speech

One year after the murder of Alexei Navalny and the continued repression of the democratic opposition in Russia (debate)

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Madam President, highly respected Mr Navalny, ... (the speaker speaks in a non-official language) Navalny, you didn't die in vain. In a deliberate sacrifice, you returned to Vladimir Putin, your assassin, to tell the world that all Russians, far from it, supported neither this war of aggression, nor the dictatorship exercised by the sword and theft. Many thought then that you were committing madne…

11 Feb

2025

FR Speech

Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)

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Mr. President, well no, President Trump: Contrary to what you say, Vladimir Putin is not sad that this war took place. This war, he wanted and prepared for a long time, because he would like to return to Russia his lost empire. The only thing he is sad about is that the heroism of the Ukrainians prevented him from walking to the Polish border, to the border of our Union. So stop talking to us, Mr.…

22 Jan

2025

FR Speech

Case of Boualem Sansal in Algeria

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Madam President, the outrage, yes, of course. The indignation of seeing Algeria plunge back into censorship and arrests of opponents, the indignation of seeing it imprison a renowned writer, seventy-year-old, holder, to quote Kateb Yacine, of this spoils of war that is French; The indignation of seeing Algeria deprived of the freedom that independence promised it. Indignation, yes, but sorrow even…

18 Dec

2024

FR Speech

11th year of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Crimea, notably the cases of Iryna Danylovych, Tofik Abdulhaziiev and Amet Suleymanov

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Mr President, 'But she is Russian!', Vladimir Putin's friends protest. Well no, Crimea is above all Tatar and was many things before Russia conquered it. "But precisely, she had become Russian," they exclaimed, forgetting that she had become Ukrainian after being Russian. "But it was only a game of writing, a modification of the internal borders of the USSR!" they exclaimed. Well, no, this modific…

17 Dec

2024

FR Speech

Toppling of the Syrian regime, its geopolitical implications and the humanitarian situation in the region (debate)

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Mr President, it is not unfortunately not impossible: maybe Will the new Syrian leaders eventually set up jails and try to impose the veil, but how would that be a certainty? Why should we rule out that they want to rebuild their country rather than plunge it back into blood? Why should we assume that they would aspire to impose on Damascus the theocracy that is collapsing in Tehran? This new powe…

27 Nov

2024

FR Speech

The increasing and systematic repression of women in Iran

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Mr President, geography, history and ideology, everything is between Iran and Russia. Everything but the similarity of their diets. The psychiatric internment of the opponents, it was Yuri Andropov, the boss of the KGB, who invented it, but Ayatollah Khamenei pushed it to perfection by making the refusal to wear the veil a disease of unveiling. Yes, a display of exhibitionism – you had to think ab…

22 Oct

2024

EN Speech

People’s Republic of China’s misinterpretation of the UN resolution 2758 and its continuous military provocations around Taiwan (debate)

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Madam President, surprisingly enough, Mr Xi happens to be right. There is only one China, which means that one day the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China will be united. But I have a question for you, Mr Xi: why should it be inevitable, and even mandatory, that Taiwan would adopt the political regime of mainland China, and not the opposite? It would certainly be preferable for th…

8 Oct

2024

FR Speech

Escalation of violence in the Middle East and the situation in Lebanon (debate)

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Madam President, southern Lebanon is not Gaza. Attacking a real army pointing its missiles at your territory and making so daily use of it is not the same as bombing an open-air prison from which no one can escape. In Gaza, Israel ignores the law; against Hezbollah, he defends himself; But the right is not everything. By weakening Iran's proxies to such an extent, Israel is also breaking up one of…