Speeches

Madam President, it is official: From Paris to Bucharest to Republika Srpska, the European Union is accompanying the democratic death of Europe. Marine Le Pen's unjust and totalitarian condemnation sadly echoes that of Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian Serb Republic. Through him, the Republika Srpska is attacked judicially and politically. Milorad Dodik, who was democratically elected, has just been sentenced to one year in prison and six years of ineligibility in an externally guided political trial. At this stage, the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina is no longer independent: it is an instrument of repression in the hands of Sarajevo, an instrument that acts under the pressure of Christian Schmidt, high international representative, who behaves like a colonial governor by annulling laws and violating the popular will expressed in the ballot box. Obviously, Brussels lets this authoritarian farce unfold, orchestrated against a legitimately elected president, thereby proving that its indignation is selective and that it tramples on the right of peoples to self-determination – in particular that of the Serbs. Republika Srpska and its people deserve neither ignorance nor humiliation, but respect.

Madam President, on the eve of 1 April the Commission decided to hold a debate on democratic pluralism. Frankly, you have a taste for humor and timing: start by reacting to the scandal surrounding the conviction of Marine Le Pen. I am surprised that the Commission, always quick to denounce the abuses of the world, is so silent when the hammer of injustice hits our continent to prevent democracy from expressing itself. In France today as in Romania or in the United States, justice has become the favourite tool of an oligarchy that acts against peoples. In France, she has just gagged the voice of 11 million French people, while all serious polls place Marine Le Pen largely ahead of the next presidential election. This is an outright political assassination, a serious hindrance to democratic life, and one whose European impact is certain. We also see that Brussels takes a mischievous look at all these convictions, since they are its life insurance policies. Stop applauding the censors of the people and take care of the real cheats, those of your majority, those of "Qatargate". Are you talking about democratic pluralism? I see a totalitarianism moving forward.

Madam President, of course we must fight corruption and those responsible for the tragedy in Novi Sad must be identified. But the European Parliament stands out once again for its hypocrisy: as a zealous agitator, he precipitates a debate that only concerns Serbia's internal affairs in order to better conceal his silence on the attacks on the Serbs in Kosovo. In January, for example, Socialist Prime Minister Albin Kurti shut down ten Serbian municipalities, signing an additional act of political harassment and a frontal attack on the rights of the Serbian population in that territory. On 9 February, a few weeks before the general election, the Kosovo Central Electoral Commission, under Pristina's orders, tried to ban the main Serbian party from running in the elections. So, after physical violence, administrative burdens and institutional discrimination, for Kosovo Serbs, the cut is full. They know that these coups are part of a devious ethnic cleansing that has been going on for four years and on which the European Union is turning a blind eye. These injustices and violence must stop and it is time for the European Union to admit it, for us too to give up our repeated interference by constantly judging and criticising a democratically elected government that has the right to conduct its policy, even if you dislike it.

Mr President, Commissioner, this is not a humanitarian crisis. It's been going on for 30 years. Thirty years! We received in these walls the Nobel Prize and Dr. Denis Mukwege, who alerted us by saying: "Women, men and children are falling like flies in Kivu." And already in 2008, in this Chamber, a resolution was passed for an exactly similar crisis. Except it's not a crisis. It's been going on for thirty years. And we haven't done anything for thirty years. We've been saying for thirty years that we're going to send trucks to save people and everything. What is needed today is to tackle the roots of evil. But the roots, we know where they come from. We know very well that there is a neighboring country that, in reality, participates in the plundering of the DRC's revenues and mineral resources and sells some of these minerals back to us. We now know who is an accomplice: It is the European Union. The European Union, as you know, signed a treaty, or rather an agreement, on 19 February last year to buy back these stolen minerals. And it is since September that I have been asking for a special commission on this subject. Nothing. I heard we were going to do it next week, behind closed doors, without translation. Then you know what to do. What we need to do is urgently cancel the minerals agreement that binds us to Rwanda. It is suspending the security partnership we have with this country. It is blocking the payment of the additional 20 million euros promised by Europe last November under the European Facility in Rwanda. This is to strongly condemn the massacres and abuses and to take concrete sanctions against those responsible, who are largely in Rwanda. That's what we're waiting for. It is not to pass a new resolution in five or ten years.

Madam President, a death sentence is a sentence that our Parliament cannot accept. But let us not forget that the Democratic Republic of Congo is a sovereign state, with sovereign justice. With regard to this coup attempt, the DRC had to deal with a serious attack on its democratic institutions. In addition, Mr. Wondo is convicted at first instance, and he has just appealed. The Congolese justice system has therefore not yet delivered its final verdict. So, frankly, why is this Parliament rushing into interfering in a judicial matter that is in no way within its competence? You will allow me to doubt: Is this not to hide its inconsistencies? Because, while we are debating a personal case here, Kinshasa is facing a deadly war in the East, in Kivu, where the M23 militias in Kigali’s pay are slaughtering the population and taking over territories. And what has the European Union done? She signed with Kagame, this Rwandan dictator, re-elected very democratically with 99.18% of the vote, criminal agreements to plunder critical raw materials in the DRC. Europe says nothing about this latent war. For the past 20 years, Brussels has been turning a blind eye to a situation that, in the end, does it well. Unless we soon discover, in this Parliament or in the Commission, a ‘Rwandagate’ after the ‘Qatargate’. Today, you are seeking justice for this alleged coup plotter – it is your right. I demand justice for the hundreds of thousands of Congolese dead who have been drowning in the blood of European interests since 1998, and whom we cover with our complicit silence.

Mr President, ‘Brussels must do more to support pro-European forces.’ This debate mirrors the outrageous remarks just made by the chairman of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. But what right do you think you have to influence the democratic choices of a sovereign people? Because these words are not the words of dialogue and mutual respect that nations deserve, but an admission of interference illustrating European arrogance. In Georgia, the people spoke, just the people. Moreover, the OSCE confirmed this in its report of 20 December 2024: no foreign interference is mentioned, none. On the other hand, since the re-election of Georgian Dream, Brussels has increased its interference to refuse the choice of Georgians. And what about the violence you silently condone – more than 150 Georgian policemen injured? In Tbilisi, the European Union is not the protector of democracy, but the accomplice of chaos. This country is free, stop caricaturing it. Georgians want Europe, but a Europe that respects their choice, because, after the Soviet Union, Georgia does not want to become a colony of Brussels.

Madam President, Rule 10 of our Rules of Procedure stipulates that Members shall preserve the dignity of Parliament and shall not damage its reputation. I would therefore like to denounce the invitation of the representatives of the Polisario Front in the framework of the Monitoring Group on the Maghreb of the Committee on International Trade. First, this militia is supported by Algeria to destabilise Morocco, an important partner for the European Union. Secondly, its links with Islamists, the barbaric attacks on the people of the city of Smara in 2023 and the cases of diversion of humanitarian aid from the Tindouf camp should alarm us. Finally, in 2018, our Parliament warned in a resolution of the negative effects on local populations of the non-application of tariff preferences in Western Sahara. Therefore, this invitation harms the reputation of our Parliament and the people of the Moroccan Sahara, as much as it compromises our cooperation with Morocco. That is why, Madam President, under our Rules of Procedure, I ask you to cancel this statement.

Mr President, it is now Kyrgyzstan’s turn to suffer the wrath of European neo-colonialism – with Parliament once again attacking the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of nations. With this debate, the European Union has chosen a victim, prosecuted by the justice of its country for accusations of vote buying. Decidedly, with the socialists, nothing changes. Whether here, with the Qatargate affair, or in Kyrgyzstan, socialists often find themselves, unfortunately, entangled in corruption cases. Frankly, do our discussions correspond to the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation between nations? Do we here in Strasbourg have the right to dictate or even comment on the internal decisions of a democratic state like Kyrgyzstan, when we have no serious evidence on this matter? I firmly believe not. Respect for the sovereignty of States and peoples must take precedence over all other considerations. We cannot claim to defend democracy and human rights by at the same time – and continuously – flouting the principle of non-political interference in the affairs of other nations. The European Union is increasingly becoming what it has always wanted to avoid: an interventionist and neocolonial power.

Madam President, 'Now no woman can go to the fields alone. They are afraid of being raped and abused.” This testimony by a Congolese woman from North Kivu gives a glimpse of the hell that has become the daily life of women in this region. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rape has become a weapon. Not an isolated strategy, but a real tragedy of war. Who is the architect, Madam Vice-President? It is Paul Kagame, the Rwandan dictator whom the European Commission supports against Kinshasa, who was brilliantly re-elected with 99.13% of the vote – and there is nothing to complain about... And then, if I may, I listened to your speech. You said that sanctions should be imposed on all those who are complicit. I am afraid that, for you, the sanctions should start by taking them here, in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Why? Because, as you well know – or perhaps you will find out – the European Union has signed an agreement that is being presented as exemplary, and where, in reality, Rwanda is buying minerals that it does not have, but that, as everyone knows – as the UN confirmed in its report last June – it is plundering from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just on the other side of its border. That is to say, in reality, one feels guilty by being a receiver and buying these minerals. So, if you want to take sanctions, start there, or change this agreement, which I think is an agreement that encourages these rapes.

Mr President, in Georgia, as indeed in Romania, the European Union refuses the choice of the peoples. Georgia has become the scene of a creeping insurgency, which breathes the scent of a foreign-led destabilisation operation against the legitimate Georgian power. As evidenced by these demonstrations, at night, in the streets of Tbilisi, where the opposition – which you encourage – throws its supporters against the Georgian state, probably seeking slippage and multiplying provocations, on the model of Maidan. Yet Georgia and its institutions stand firm. They are resisting the violence of those who, having lost the elections, are now attempting, with your support, a coup de force. The victory of Georgian Dream was recognized by the Central Electoral Commission, and President Kavelashvili was elected in accordance with the law. People no longer want to see their sovereignty confiscated, neither in Georgia nor in Romania. The EU wants to masquerade as a guarantor of prosperity and democracy, but in Georgia it is encouraging a coup that risks dragging the country into chaos.

Mr President, who here in Strasbourg or Brussels sees this clearly in the European Global Gateway programme, which has a budget of 300 billion? Not surprisingly, pretty much no one. The laudable and bold intention of 2021 to propose a European response to the new Silk Roads seems to have turned into a big bureaucratic confusing machine. This is particularly true for potential beneficiaries of the programme, for whom the clarity and readability of the allocation of funds is a real conundrum. Take, for example, a country like Chad: ambitious transport infrastructure projects are expected to materialise there through Global Gateway – and that is very good. But when it comes, for example, to the financing of the solar farms project in Chad’s three major cities of N’Djamena, Moundou and Abéché, where the rate of access to electricity is 6.4% – one of the lowest in the world – nothing is clear. However, these projects are crucial and priority, and N’Djaména should be able to count on more readable development policies, as was the case with the Cotonou and Samoa agreements. In Africa, and especially in Chad, Europe must have a clear plan that responds first and foremost to people’s needs. That must be our only obsession.

Mr President, in Pristina, the protege of the European Union has been organising the constant harassment of the Serbian community in Kosovo since 2021. 25 years after the Gracko massacre, Albin Kurti continues ethnic cleansing and systematic violence against Serbs. Everything passes there: physical violence, administrative constraints and institutional discrimination. This coordinated plan is ruining the lives of 120,000 Serbs still in Kosovo. In fact, 15 per cent of them had already left Kosovo in the previous year. Logical, since public services for Serbs are being abolished. The Serbian dinar is banned, forcing retirees to travel hundreds of kilometres to receive their pension. Entire families are being expropriated from their ancestral lands and the police, composed exclusively of Albanians, are abusing Serbian civilians. In Brussels, the European Union does not care about this situation. Worse, she can handle it. In line with its double standard policy, the Commission has just announced EUR 882 million for Kosovo in October, which Pristina will undoubtedly use to oppress Kosovo Serbs. When will we finally react?

Mr President, ten days after the victory of Georgian Dream, the German embassy in Tbilisi was calling, in a message full of ambiguity and hypocrisy, for a peaceful revolution. Worse still, the chairman of the Swedish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee is bluntly giving instructions to Georgians: go out into the street, peaceful demonstrations must develop, remember the Maidan revolution. Since 28 October, not a day has passed without a European leader interfering in Georgian affairs. These multiple destabilizations must stop, unless the European Union definitively wants to become like the USSR. Especially since the organization of demonstrations, encouraged and financed by Soros and his friends in the Georgian capital in no way reflects the political state of the whole country. On 28 October, Georgians gave a very clear majority to the Georgian Dream Party. They are neither the vassals of Moscow nor the obligors of Brussels. They are simply free, European and want to remain Georgians, let us respect their choice.

Mr President, from President Zelensky's visit to Brussels and his plan for victory there will not be much left. Or rather if: €35 billion. Yes, 35 billion euros that the Commission wants to impose on us as a miracle cure to keep alive a state already plagued, long before the war, by corruption and unable to provide for the basic needs of its citizens. Pensions, salaries of civil servants, hospitals: Everything is wobbly in Ukraine. And this is not the first time, because this 35 billion comes on top of a mountain of debts owed to the European Union: EUR 18 billion in 2022, EUR 33 billion in 2023. Obviously, everyone knows that nothing will ever be refunded. All the more so as this financial waste looks more and more like a solitary adventure for Europe, since Washington is no longer really sure that it wants to contribute to this massive financial effort. And everyone knows that if the United States withdraws, the debt is no longer sustainable. Moreover, the European Court of Auditors does not say anything else in its latest report on the 2023 budget year, describing these successive loans as ‘significant risks’ for future European budgets. But you want to know the next step? These loans are largely based on the freezing of Russian assets. Which, if a peace is negotiated and sanctions are lifted, can no longer serve as a guarantee. Then the budget time bomb will be ready to explode. Be clear-headed: this indebtedness without guarantees or a long-term vision jeopardises Europe’s economic future. For Shakespeare, ‘death is a debt that everyone can only pay once’. This is exactly what Ukrainians are experiencing. It is time for this war to end.

Mr President, Lebanon is in danger of death. Neither the European Union nor France is up to the human tragedy at stake. Faced with this ruthless war, the European Union is stubborn in its certainties and refuses to come to the aid of Damascus, which is at the forefront of managing the reception of refugees in this crisis. Every day, thousands of people cross the border to seek refuge and protection in Syria. Today, almost 240 000 people have already made the choice to cross into Syria, considering that Syria is a safe territory. But Europe and France remain still, while Italy calls for a renewed dialogue with the Syrian Arab Republic. The situation in Lebanon is only getting worse, and with it, if nothing is done, looms the threat of a new wave of refugees migrating to Europe. The Syrians, behind Bashar al-Assad, valiantly resisted the Islamists whom some of you in this Chamber had supported. There is an urgent need to reconnect with Syria. It is in the interest of the refugees it hosts, but also of the countries of the region, and it is also in the interest of Europe.

Mr President, 'do what I say, not what I do' is the motto that sums up the attitude of the European Parliament in the general elections in Georgia on 26 October. Indeed, on the eve of a major election, the vote on such a resolution truly sounds like an alibi disguised as a banner, a tool offered to agitators and foreign-funded NGOs, which aims to destabilize the current majority in Georgia. In 2020, George Soros's Open Society Foundation acknowledged that it had poured 85 million euros into Georgia since 1994, including nearly 5 million euros in 2019. Since then, no figures seem to have been made public, but this foreign interference, obviously, does not bother anyone here. Once again, it is being demonstrated that the European Union is applying double standards, because obviously, by engaging in this dangerous game, we are serving as a voice for external interests, including those of the Open Society, which are seeking to sow chaos in the Caucasus. Everyone can guess that in case of victory of the Georgian Dream, some hope to reverse the result by disorder and chaos, or even by a new Maidan. Everyone will also fully understand that the purpose of this resolution is to influence the exercise of Georgian democracy through obvious external interference. This is dangerous, because it also gives the European Union an image of a neo-colonial moralizer. Our willingness to denounce interference is matched only by our silence when it comes from our own camp, or when it serves our interests. The Georgians do not want to take their orders from Moscow, nor do they want to take their orders from Brussels. Finally, I fear that this pressure will end in a vulgar blackmail of funding. On October 26, let the Georgians choose their own future. No need to give them lessons. This free and courageous people will be able to choose their destiny alone.

Madam President, like many French people, my thoughts are with our Lebanese friends, once again caught up in the suffering of the war. This war is now regionalized, as Israel has engaged its army on seven different fronts and is fighting Hezbollah. However, let's be clear, Lebanon is not just Hezbollah. This political and military party undeniably exerts its influence, but today it is the Lebanese people who pay the high price. Everywhere, civilians are trapped in this conflict, victims of an unlimited confrontation between great powers fighting to divide the world. In Beirut and Lebanon, Israeli shelling has already killed more than 2,000 people, including two Frenchmen, according to official figures, and displaced more than a million people, nearly a fifth of Lebanon's population. So, if Europe and especially France want to reconnect with their diplomatic tradition, we must resume the initiative and engage in respectful mediations, in order to reverse the logic of war. Yes, Israel must be able to live in peace within borders recognized by all. Yes, the same is true for Lebanon. Yes, the Palestinians, rid of their Islamist demons, must also, in the long run, be able to benefit from a state.

Mr President, in Afghanistan, women have ceased to exist. This is the last horrific find of the Taliban who have just completed their entry into the cabinet of nothingness and hell. In 114 pages and 35 articles of a surrealist law, they have just imposed this summer a new human madness, that of the enslavement of Afghan women. I say it with gravity, the gravity of impotence, the one that the West has long shaped on its own initiative in the region. Because yes, for 40 years we Europeans have been offering Afghan women to the vindictiveness of these furious madmen by pursuing an interventionist and geopolitical agenda in this country that is still at the helm of the Anglo-Saxons. Who remembers the Afghan program initiated by the CIA in the 1980s? Six to 12 billion dollars poured directly into the pockets of Islamist movements via Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the very ones that will give birth to the Taliban. Who remembers the disbandment of NATO in Kabul after 20 years of sterile occupation? Who will remember the sums we are pouring into Afghanistan today with the United States, one of the Taliban's main donors: 21 billion dollars distributed since 2021 and kindly transported by the United Nations, as recalled a few days ago by the newspaper The World. Certainly, Afghan women will remember this, since they, despite the silence that this new law imposes on them, will eventually understand that we are all partly responsible for the sad fate that awaits them. So, to the chaste ears of many of my colleagues who are advancing on this subject with limited vision, I want to offer some advice. Let us immediately stop subsidizing the Taliban through European humanitarian aid, almost 126 million euros this year, which can be directly credited to the enslavement of these women. Finally, let us stop financing at home, in the European Parliament, Islamist pharmacies such as Femyso, an NGO close to the Muslim Brotherhood and whose program converges with that of our worst enemies.

Madam President, you have decidedly only the enlargement of the European Union in your mouth. After trying to bring Turkey into the forceps, you are now proposing Ukraine, the Balkans and soon the non-European Caucasus. The founding countries of the European Union continue to pay the high price of successive enlargements, such as France, of course, which sees the European Union turning away from the Mediterranean basin and leaning ever further to the East. Emmanuel Macron brings together the last quarteron of his admirers at the Sorbonne today. He embarked on his favourite exercise: pretentious monologues who do not hide the catastrophic balance sheet of the duo he forms with von der Leyen. Five years ago you promised prosperity. What is the assessment five years later? European growth is one of the lowest in the world. Inflation has broken our families. The European demographic winter continues. The migratory flood is multiplied tenfold by your migration pact and the choice you made not to use Frontex as it would be possible to do. The French suffer from your decisions, but you have no intention of hearing them or influencing your policy. Most of all, you're hiding the truth. For once, I listened carefully – and I almost wanted to applaud you, Mr Verhofstadt, because you are right. Under the current Treaties, we cannot operate at 20, 30 or 35, and that is what I criticise the Commission and Emmanuel Macron for: They hide the truth from the French, because everyone knows that in this Chamber, as in the Commission, there is a hidden programme. The hidden agenda is indeed the abandonment of the veto. On Wednesday 24 April, 50 leading French intellectuals spoke in The Figaro against the abolition of the Member States’ right of veto in the European Council. Removing this right of veto means that France no longer controls its nuclear weapon or its seat on the Security Council. This would be a real betrayal of French sovereignty. Like these 50 intellectuals, we will not let this coup against democracy and against the French pass. If the veto is abandoned, we will call for a referendum in France.

Mr President, Egypt is a key partner for France and the European Union in Africa. Cairo now faces immense challenges. Egypt must aim for food, energy, economic and financial sovereignty in the midst of a particularly degraded neighbourhood. The European Union therefore has everything to gain from being at its side. While everyone sees Cairo's decisive action in the search for peace in the Holy Land, Egypt's action is also beneficial elsewhere, for its region and for the European Union. In Sudan, Egypt plays an essential humanitarian and diplomatic role, while welcoming refugees from the civil war that is tearing the country apart. On its Libyan border, Egypt is fighting terrorism, as it has done for years in Sinai. As the dark hours of Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood rule of the country are barely blurred, Cairo has regained its pivotal role in international negotiations. I can therefore only welcome Egypt’s participation in Horizon Europe. I hope that this progress announces more, in particular on the partnership for the prevention of migration. It is also an excellent signal for European companies, which benefit from the new opportunities that are opening up in this territory. France is already at the forefront of works related to the Cairo metro, but would benefit from investing more in the Egyptian markets under development, such as the construction of the city of New Cairo. In Egypt, because of the strong demographic pressure of the population, huge projects are flourishing, in which our companies must be supported. As competition rages with Chinese, American and Arab groups, it is important that European companies play a leading role in the country. At the heart of the emergence of a multipolar world, the European Union must support the intensification of its relations with its historical partners. While this legislature has been marked by several resolutions, particularly badly felt by the Egyptian Parliament and many associations, I can only rejoice to end this final plenary session with good news for our relations with Egypt.

Madam President, France has chosen to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty. The Member States did the same collectively a month ago. We will therefore vote in favour of an exit from the European Union decided by the sovereign choice of the Member States. However, contrary to the broad statements we hear here, the withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty is neither an ideological advance nor an assurance of the success of our energy policy. There is no feat in voting for the exit of a treaty abandoned by all. There are just a few governments that, like Emmanuel Macron’s, excuse the failure of their energy policy by incriminating a treaty that would come to an end anyway. Yes, Mrs Vedrenne, you smile, but you know that this is the reality. It is easy to denounce only the Energy Charter Treaty, not to tell the people of Europe that the European Union is not delivering on its energy promises. As you know, the best way to convert our energy model is to massively support investments in the nuclear field. There is no other way to hope to achieve our climate goals. However, for five years, the Rassemblement National had to fight on all the texts in order to defend French nuclear power, on the financing of hydrogen and on direct state aid for our power plants. We were the first to encourage low-carbon hydrogen, which France can produce with a decisive comparative advantage. Unfortunately, the European Union is still reluctant to make it a major asset in the development of our continent’s sector. The French are still deprived of access to cheap electricity because of the absurd rules of the European electricity market. Our country is doomed to gas price changes, rather than being able to benefit freely from the production of its nuclear power plants. Once again, the European Union of Macron and von der Leyen has put the interests of the European Union ahead of those of our compatriots. The decreasing ideology, which acts as the Commission's energy compass, condemns us to economic and industrial decommissioning. Quickly, let us reform this European Union so that it becomes one of growth and support for nuclear power.

Mr President, after due diligence for European companies, this week the European Parliament will discuss a text to combat forced labour. At the same time, many in Africa accuse the European Union of hypocrisy. For example, the signing of an agreement with Rwanda for a partnership on rare metals raises the worst concerns. On 22 February, the announcement of this agreement provoked the reaction of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, who stated, I quote: “It is as if the European Union is waging war on us by proxy.” He added: ‘When you buy a product from a receiver, you are guilty of the theft yourself.’ No serious international observer explains Rwanda’s support for militias ravaging eastern Congo other than through its appetite for the region’s mineral resources. This Parliament should therefore call on the European Commission as soon as possible, so that it finally commits itself not to fuel one of the worst conflicts in the world by supporting the Kigali regime, which is raping and plundering Congo with impunity.

Mr President, on 19 February, Bruno Le Maire announced that he was withdrawing EUR 1 billion from the MaPrimeRénov’ tool for the coming year. This week, in the European Parliament, the European Union of Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen is voting on a recast of the directive on the thermal performance of buildings, whose objectives are absolutely unattainable. In Paris, the Minister of Economy said: "You will receive less money than expected to renovate your houses." Meanwhile, in Brussels, the French government gave in to negotiations and let pass a text on the renovation of real estate that will ask our compatriots for sacrifices impossible to keep. Making commitments that he knows he cannot keep has become the disease of macronism. Tomorrow, in Brussels, Macron will accuse the French of not caring enough about ecology. But in Paris, on the other hand, he would say that the European Commission was addicted to the norm. In fact, Mr Macron never changed his strategy. At the same time, he is lying to the European Union and the French, and hopes that no one will notice. The European Union claims to put solar panels on all public establishments, while French hospitals are in tatters. The European Union wants to ban oil-fired boilers, but it allows 80% of French people to reduce heating during the winter because they can no longer pay their bills. The European Union claims that the State will accompany the owners, while France is indebted to the tune of more than EUR 3 trillion. As with the Green Deal, you confuse ecology with demagogy. You will always find us on your way to tell the French the truth.

Madam President, the renewal of the customs exemptions granted to Ukraine for agricultural products is raising a huge protest movement, both in France and elsewhere in Europe. The European Commission validates, for example, unfair competition in the poultry sector, even though Ukrainian chicken is exploited by a company headquartered in Cyprus whose profits fatten a tax-exiled oligarch in London. Poultry, eggs, sugar, wheat: This unfair competition accelerates our agricultural crisis and undermines French food sovereignty. There is no real brake on Ukrainian imports, as the rapporteurs propose to trigger the return to customs duties only if our market is submerged in the same proportions as last year, the year when our markets were flooded as never before by Ukrainian products. That is why the Identity and Democracy Group is calling for a debate to be opened at this plenary session so that European farmers know who is betraying them and who is defending them in our Parliament.

Mr President, as the whole of France turns to the Agricultural Fair, our Parliament is once again discussing a free trade agreement that this time sounds like a provocation for our farmers. 9 000 tonnes for pork, 2 000 tonnes for beef, 4 000 tonnes for sheepmeat and 18 000 tonnes for poultry, the new import quotas granted to Chile will be a new step in the descent into the abyss of French farmers. I particularly warn my compatriots of the immense responsibility of those who will vote for the interim agreement with Chile. This will be implemented directly after Parliament’s vote and will have a direct impact on French farms already subject to unfair competition due to the customs exemptions granted to Ukraine. Half of the chickens consumed in France are already produced abroad. Today, 30% of the meat consumed in France is imported. We are therefore in a situation where any new import quotas are a new nail planted in the coffin of French livestock. You tell us that these quotas represent only a fraction of European consumption. You said the same thing with New Zealand, you tell us the same thing with Kenya and tomorrow, of course, you will tell us the same thing with Mercosur, which will be paradise for European agricultural producers. France has just experienced two record years of trade deficit: €160 billion deficit in 2022, €99 billion in 2023. The European Union of Macron and von der Leyen has not kept any of the promises made to the French. Our farmers are on the front line to suffer their failure. On 9 June, it is time for Europe to take a different direction.