Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this evening we are debating administrative simplification. The outermost regions that make up our overseas territories in France are directly concerned by this need for simplification. They face a bureaucracy that hinders their economic development and prevents local actors from thriving. These administrative burdens, often imposed by the European Commission, are a straitjacket for entrepreneurs, farmers and ultramarine fishermen. How can we create jobs and boost these regions when so many of these projects are hampered by endless procedures and inadequate standards? An advance on revenue guaranteed by the European Union should also be introduced. This tool would allow local businesses to better access financing and prevent projects important for the development of our overseas territories from being stillborn due to funding delays. It is time to simplify procedures and adapt regulations to the realities of the sea. The European Union has chosen to integrate the outermost regions since 1992, creating the outermost regions. It must not be a brake, but a real support for their development.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, hostility to civilian nuclear power and the war in Ukraine have created the conditions for a serious energy crisis. Households and businesses pay a high price for the European electricity market. Nuclear energy is therefore the only one capable of ensuring the energy independence, competitiveness and decarbonisation of our economies. The ITER artificial sun project marks the ideal of scientific progress. It will reproduce the natural fusion of the Sun, a decarbonised and unlimited source of energy. Indeed, the energy efficiency of nuclear fusion is four to ten times higher than that of fission. Its waste generation is very low. Based in France, ITER is the largest scientific project in the world. It involves 35 countries, including China, Russia and the United States. It is certainly not without its difficulties, but it shows that technological revolutions are based on scientific cooperation between nations and not on federalised projects, driven by above-ground bureaucracies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a point of agreement with my colleagues from the other groups: 2024 was the warmest year on record by the World Meteorological Organization. Due to their geographical specificity, the outermost regions of the European Union are the first victims of this climate change. The Maroni basin, the largest river in the French department of Guiana, has been suffering from a rainfall deficit in recent months. In Guyana, the drought is now extreme and almost permanent. Thus, since October, the canoes that use the river to connect with the 40 000 inhabitants of municipalities far from the coast have stopped. This prevents goods and people from being transported to these remote areas. It undermines students’ education and access to administrative and health services. The State seeks to ensure continuity of supply of basic necessities, but cannot act alone. In these circumstances, the European Union’s consideration of issues related to the specificities of the ORs in general, and Guyana in particular, is essential and must guide the European Commission’s action.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, last night I posted a message of support to our fellow Mahorans and this morning I had this reply in the comments: Thank you, sir. I have no news of my parents or grandparents.” This morning too, I spoke as much as possible, as communications are bad, with my colleague Anchya Bamana, MEP Rassemblement national de Mayotte. She said to me: Andre, you know, everything, absolutely everything is destroyed: there is no electricity, fuel is rationed, and there is no water to drink. We need water urgently." What more can we say to illustrate this tragedy in Mayotte, which is mourning hundreds, and certainly thousands, of deaths? Cyclone Chido took away housing and infrastructure. Some 100 000 people no longer have a roof over their heads. Hunger is felt. Looting and epidemics threaten. Without a sea and air connection, the island is cut off from the world. Only the resources of the army make it possible to provide a start of aid, from the island of Reunion. President Metsola said yesterday, and I thank her for that, as I thank Commissioner Fitto for having the same words: “Mayotte is Europe.” But I do not forget that the French Members of the Left and of Renew voted against my proposal to add to the agenda of 15 June 2023 a debate on the vital urgency of water supply for our overseas compatriots. On that day, ladies and gentlemen, you demonstrated that your political quagmire and sectarianism were stronger than the public interest. I also remember that you protested against the Wuambushu operation to restore order and destroy slums, which Chido turned into the tombs of thousands of poor people. You now have the opportunity to make up for it by asking, like us, the European Commission, for the Solidarity Fund to be activated in the event of a natural disaster and for it to be increased in view of the immensity of the damage. Mayotte won't be able to get up on her own. The European Union will have to play its full part in this, including by contributing to the investments of the Reconstruction and Resilience Plan against future climate shocks, which we are sure to tackle. This tragedy in Mayotte is the sad and cruel culmination of a long process of abandonment – abandonment to migratory flooding, chronic crime and underinvestment. Let us hope that this historic and deadly disaster, caused by political blindness and culpable negligence on the part of successive governments, will give way to a concrete commitment on the part of France and the European Union to our fellow Moroccans, but also to all overseas populations.

Mr President, Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it is surprising, in the 21st century, to mention the difficulties of access to drinking water. However, these deficiencies remain a major problem for France overseas due to unstable and limited access. Our compatriots pay the double penalty of the inefficiency of the public service and the absence of such a basic right as that of access to drinking water. This is the result of negligent planning of public investments by the French government, and this is particularly true in Mayotte. Moreover, at the time, I had asked for a debate on the subject, which had not received the support of any of the political groups in the Chamber. Mayotte, now hit by Cyclone Chido, is facing water shortages more than ever. This is also the result of other environmental disasters, such as chlordecone pollution in the West Indies, which has permanently polluted water and soil and poisoned people. Finally, the lack of drinking water is the consequence of a historic drought in regions that are nevertheless home to considerable water reserves, such as Guyana. Commissioner, in the face of this unacceptable situation, which I have been unrelentingly denouncing here for years without being heard, I call for the overseas regions to be included as a priority in the European Commission's interventions in favour of access to drinking water. France pays a cheque for €27 billion; it is entitled to expect from the Commission a concrete expression of solidarity with its outermost regions.

Mr President, France is subject to foreign interference in the university. In 2021, a report from the Senate fact-finding mission referred to a policy of aggressive Chinese influence in the university. The Senate emphasized the importance of control and prevention mechanisms. Behind a facade of cooperation, China deploys all its influence in order to benefit from our research and development and manipulate the academic integrity of our institutions. This strategy is at the edge of intelligence and influence politics. Behind the reality of academic partnerships between Chinese and European universities are attempts to control European scientific discourse. Exploiting the porosities of our academic systems, other powers, such as Azerbaijan – which also engages in subversive activism in overseas France – Russia or some Gulf states employ similar methods. It is therefore necessary to increase transparency on the extra-European funding of universities and to develop a European ranking of universities respecting academic freedoms, but also to introduce credible sanctions against any interference. The European university must remain a sanctuary of knowledge, open to ideas and innovations from the rest of the world. So let us preserve our universities of dynamics that do not participate in any way in the elevation of knowledge, but constitute games of geostrategic influences that do not say their name.

Mr President, since September, the French in Martinique have rightly protested against the excessive cost of living. The causes are of course national – such as dock dues, freight prices and the weight of oligopolies – but also European. Overseas France is specifically exposed to free trade treaties, including the one looming between the European Union and Mercosur. On this subject, since September 13, farmers have been engaged in a vast protest movement in metropolitan France. The overseas also participates, like the food market gardeners of Martinique, who are organized since this autumn in a defense committee. In 2020, our Members took part in drawing up the transitional provisions for the EAGGF to extend aid for overseas farmers for two years. The European Union must do better by increasing the envelope of this guarantee fund to modernise agricultural techniques, improve soil irrigation and work towards agricultural diversification. In the same way, it must refound a decentralised POSEI, halving the time taken to obtain aid. Martinican agriculture suffers. The European Union cannot turn a blind eye.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the overseas territories enable France, the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, to be at the forefront of protecting the oceans: a global environmental priority, of which marine protected areas are the most prominent element. We are therefore concerned about the threats to the Scattered Islands, now claimed by Madagascar. These islands are referred to as oceanic sanctuaries of primitive nature. They are the global reference laboratories for studying the influence of climate change, as they are free of any human presence, making them models of naturalness. It is essential that the European Union strongly supports French sovereignty over the Scattered Islands. Faced with the devouring appetite of a major global and hegemonic power exploiting the Republic of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, how could the European Union lose interest in this natural sanctuary? How could the European Union lose interest among its islands in the one that symbolically bears its name – Europa? In this part of the world, no one is fooled by the Malagasy claim to annex the Scattered Islands. To guarantee the future of these territories and their biodiversity, the European Union must integrate this geopolitical reality into its strategy for the protection of the oceans, but also into its diplomacy.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, what efforts does the Commission intend to make to ensure that European industry benefits from the production of nickel in New Caledonia, a French territory that holds 29% of the world's reserves and the third largest producer in the world in 2023 of this ore coveted by China? Does the European Commission have a clear vision? I doubt it. Without affirming its solidarity with France in the face of foreign interference in its overseas territories, the Commission could have argued for our common interests in sustainable development at the Summit of the Future. Nevertheless, our group can only endorse the desire to manage energy resources sustainably. In this regard, France, with its expertise in the field, its strategic depth and resources sometimes poorly exploited overseas, can contribute to the sustainable development of our continent. I come back to New Caledonia nickel, a strategic raw material for the manufacture of batteries in our automotive industry, and therefore for the immense work of the energy transition. I solemnly repeat it here: New Caledonia contributes to Europe's strategic autonomy. Let us therefore act in the direction of our common interests, those of the Pacific region, which would have everything to lose from a de facto annexation of this territory by a hegemonic power. The European Union must guarantee a future for the New Caledonian nickel industry. We propose that, like Greenland, an association decision be adopted between the European Union and New Caledonia, providing for EIB intervention alongside that territory. By moving from words to deeds, let us act to ensure that France and the European states have a safe and environmentally friendly supply of nickel.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, who wants to take over France from overseas? Brazil's G20 presidency has identified the growing confrontation between the United States and China as a priority for its upcoming summit in Rio. This confrontation poses a threat to the whole of a world experiencing a number of hotbeds of tension at risk, whether, among others and as everyone knows, in the Middle East or on the Russian-Ukrainian borders. However, this confrontation leads to a number of factors of instability that are particularly worrying for our countries, and in particular for France's overseas territories. We are convinced that this global competition, between hyperpowers in search of new strategic positions and new sources of raw materials, has taken the French overseas departments and territories hostage. It is this same competition that increasingly directly affects the peace and prosperity of local populations, objectives that were expressed at the G20 ministerial meeting last July. The G20 is the embodiment of multilateralism. Its objectives were based on mutual respect among States and therefore on non-interference in internal affairs. In this regard, what is happening today in different territories of overseas France, victims of obvious foreign interference, especially in New Caledonia, but also in Martinique or Mayotte, must question us as to the sincerity of some leading protagonists within this G20 summit. We therefore expect Rio to be an opportunity for France and the European Union with it to solemnly recall the refusal of any interference and the inalienable nature of French sovereignty over its entire national territory. We will therefore be very attentive to the expression of the solidarity of the members of the G20 in view of the difficulties that France of the great sea is going through today, this distant France which brings to our country, as well as to Europe as a whole, a cultural and human added value, but also a maritime projection and leading strategic resources.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, why is the European Union trying to finance countries, such as the Union of the Comoros, which are attacking its founding and contributing states? The EDF, in its 2021-2027 programme, allocates 46 million to the Union of the Comoros, a state of 800 000 inhabitants provoking, insulting and offensive towards France, to which it challenges the membership of Mayotte. Every year, France pays 27 billion to the European Union. They are financed by French taxpayers, including the Mahorais. It is astonishing that this money is being used against the Mahorais. Why subsidize a country that organizes a real migratory flood towards Mayotte? The Union of the Comoros is also used by China in the Indian Ocean as a pawn in its influence on the international scene. I strongly reiterate today that the European Union must stop funding this regime. It calls into question the territorial integrity of France and acts in favour of a foreign power with interests contrary to our own.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this report makes little mention of the development of the outermost regions, particularly the French overseas departments. This offshore France is not of sufficient interest to the European Union, which does not perceive its specificity linked to remoteness and, often, insularity. I tabled an amendment to this report to take better account of natural and climatic disasters in the outermost regions. Unfortunately, it was not retained. However, I drew attention to cases of drought, with catastrophic and sometimes vital consequences, for a department like Mayotte. The Cohesion Fund, the ERDF and the ESF account for one third of the European budget and must be useful instruments. France is a net contributor of funds intended to promote equal development of the Member States, but whose approach does not take sufficient account of the overseas departments. I therefore hope that this money will be better used in favour of France overseas. I would like the word cohesion to be applied literally, not to reflect asymmetric development to the detriment of the outermost regions here, but to keep France at the centre of its concerns.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in 1941, at Oxford, General de Gaulle said: "At the base of our civilization, there is the freedom of each one in his thought, his beliefs, his opinions." To speak of freedom in this place, where the texts that norment, which constrain in a punitive way and where the Commission blackmails the States are voted, is to speak of rope in the house of a hanged man. Attempted democratic dispossession of states, revision of national history, Brussels trial brought by Thierry Breton against Elon Musk, threatened with purge ‘von der Leyenienne’. On YouTube, far-left collectives and macronian good-thinking are censoring content deemed hateful according to their own criteria. The CNews channel, which is too heterodox for the official doxa, has just been convened by a parliamentary committee of inquiry. Our freedoms are threatened by the construction of a European superstate of which Emmanuel Macron is one of the prime contractors. And in Macronie, depending on whether you are a globalist or a patriot, the rulings of the ruling intelligentsia will make you guilty or innocent. The French still want to believe in free France, that of freedom, equality and fraternity. Then leave them alone.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, how far will you go in your march towards federalism, after the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, the sovereignty of European law and the Verhofstadt report, or, now, the Verheyen report and its procession of self-criticism, re-education and revision of history? In a breach of the Treaties, the European Union intends to impose a narrative of repentance on the dark hours of Europe. But Europe was not built on crimes. It is the story of artistic masterpieces, pioneers of industry and science, a founding diplomacy of the international order. To learn his story as a young European is to admit this genius, that of Dante, Goethe and Voltaire. Renan defined the nation as "an everyday plebiscite," "a soul, a spiritual principle." To this concept you prefer self-flagellation and remove all moral conscience from the people. But French students will never accept being taught: Our ancestors the bastards.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, so you have dared. Mr Verhofstadt and his friends dared to affirm the need for a reform of the Treaties, with a European Commission transformed into the European executive of a central state, the end of unanimity voting in the Council and the principle of the primacy of EU law over national laws. It is no longer a coup, but a 27-state coup. These attempts have no popular legitimacy and undermine the sovereignty of states. This is a mark of imperialism. France, a millenary country, will never submit to it. These federalist advances of the European Union are rejected by the people, as did the French in 2005, before the defeat of President Sarkozy in 2007. The French will also not adhere to the supranational model of your migration pact. This immigration policy, which has just been sanctioned by the rejection of the French Minister Darmanin’s law. The people no longer support this Europeanist technocracy. So let us give back power to the peoples of Europe to come to a Europe of the cooperation of nations.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, three French departments: Mayotte, Martinique and Guadeloupe are suffering from a serious shortage of drinking water. But the priorities of the European Union are clearly elsewhere than in the aid to the ultramarines. I deplore this regularly, and again in the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on 7 November. The European Commission, like the Members of the European Parliament from overseas, is reluctant to help Mayotte. On the other hand, it finances its neighbour, the Union of the Comoros, to the tune of EUR 30 million. How can we accept that France, the contributor and founder of the European Union, is so little considered by the Commission? It prefers a state totally outside Europe, which keeps provoking France. These additional EUR 30 million of European contributions were paid by the tax of the French and therefore of the Mahorais. France will not forget the strange priorities of the European Commission. We will not forget anything, and the French will judge in their souls and consciences in the coming deadlines.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, would this debate have taken place if I had not sounded the alarm at our last plenary session about the disastrous situation in the French departments of Mayotte and the Antilles, about the situation of several hundred thousand EU citizens who are thirsty and lack drinking water? Would the French Government have taken the decision to pay the water bills to Mayotte for several months if I had not publicly blamed it, if I had not denounced its inaction by raising the problem of the lack of this vital resource: water? Water that French taxpayers in Mayotte must, however, continue to pay for. Two weeks after my last speech in this Chamber on this issue, nothing has changed, and the disillusionment of the Mahorais, the Guadeloupeans and the Martiniquais is only increasing. To my French colleagues from The Left and Renew, who here represent LFI and their colleagues from the government majority in France – the very ones who decided to vote against my resolution on the vital water emergency of our overseas compatriots – I mean that water has no political colour. The only colour it has, in Mayotte and the West Indies, is a brown colour, when it flows at the tap. So let's end with the political shambles and finally give priority to the general interest, by voting on the budgetary amendment we are proposing. Overseas French people have the impression that the European Union is only interested in them when a crisis brings them to light. Unfortunately, the European Union prefers to pay subsidies to the Gaza Strip for pipes which Hamas then uses to manufacture home-made rocket launchers. It would be better inspired to finance the pipelines of the ORs of Mayotte and the Antilles, rather than arming – even indirectly – terrorists. The fact that the French of Mayotte and the West Indies are not our neighbours does not mean that they are our fellow citizens. So help me make sure that Europe's ultramarines are not citizens... (The President withdrew the floor to the speaker)

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the EMFAF fisheries budget, voted for six years, allows vessels from 12 to 24 metres to be renewed for an amount of more than EUR 6 billion. The payment of this aid on condition of the size of the vessel is a social, economic and ecological nonsense. In addition to contributing to overfishing and the destruction of the seabed through the financing of ever-larger boats, this aid is inherently unfair. It excludes all traditional fishermen or those with small boats who are generally the poorest. Overseas, and more particularly in French Guiana and Mayotte, 90% of fishing vessels are small. I put a number of questions to the Commission. Why does it favour large industrialists over traditional and coastal fishing? This preference greatly penalises fishing in overseas France. How does it plan to financially support the renewal of small fleets and how will it act to support the sector while limiting overfishing? For their survival, traditional fishermen in our outermost regions are waiting for answers. Let us help our fishermen, let us not deprive them of their working tools.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, when the European Parliament talks about the economies of our Member States, it only talks about protection and sovereignty. But, in reality, we are suffering the blows from non-European countries. In 2021, the European Commission affirmed its commitment to strengthen its protection against economic coercion from third countries. But there is far from words to deeds, and our national economies are increasingly exposed to competition from emerging powers, with China, India and Brazil leading the way. The action of these new players on the international economic scene is not without its implications for France and Europe alike. Last May, I observed it myself in New Caledonia, where three plants extract nickel. As a reminder, the French subsoil of New Caledonia contains a quarter of the world's reserves of this metal. It is therefore a major strategic resource for France and for Europe. But, although it is expected that global demand will quadruple by 2030, a new competitive environment puts France in front of China, Indonesia and the Philippines, producers of nickel at a more affordable price, but more polluting. The economic coercion of third countries therefore applies, in your words, to French nickel, and the European Union is doing nothing against it. As a result, when will the Commission and our Parliament take stock of the problem in the face of the imperialism of Asian competitors?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, at the beginning of the 21st century, when artificial intelligence, new technologies and progress are in the spotlight, French citizens, and therefore of the European Union, do not have access to drinking water, or even to running water. One third of nationals of Guadeloupe and Martinique face this scourge. And what about the situation in Mayotte, where the army is distributing bottles of water to the population? What about the accumulated delays in the construction of desalination plants? What about the loss of 30% of water in unmaintained pipes, a real ecological disaster in addition to being a waste? That is why I appeal to your humanism, your sense of responsibility and the general interest so that our ultramarine compatriots, those Frenchmen of the great sea who look at us and judge us, know that here we consider them dignified, with respect, as Frenchmen and therefore Europeans in their own right and not entirely apart. I therefore ask you to place on the agenda of our session the fact that good access to and preservation of drinking water is a vital need for our outermost regions.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t the declared desire to reform Parliament’s rules in order to combat corruption merely a communication effect? Ms Kaili and Mr Tarabella, caught in the act of holding EUR 1 300 000 in cash, sit with us again, as if Qatargate had never existed. Mr Glucksmann, always quick to overwhelm the opponent, but who saw nothing coming concerning colleagues from his own group, is still Chair of the ING2 Committee. Regarding him, I note that there is still suspicion about his ex-wife, who was arrested in December 2015 at Kiev airport with $4 million in cash. Mr Glucksmann assures us that this is an untruth. If that is the case, you honoured yourself by raising all ambiguity before the European representation and we hope that these recent scandals will not be just the tip of the iceberg of corruption involving more so-called defenders of good.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the EU's environmental policy can be summed up in one word: unconsciousness. Unconsciousness of choices. The EU is failing to respond to current and emerging climate challenges. Privileging punitive and militant ecology to pragmatism and science, it aims to be anti-nuclear. She preferred the agit-prop of a young activist whose place is in school to the opinions of the most eminent scientists. Unconsciousness of contradictions. It has put in place the most punitive and restrictive policies, overwhelming the rural and our farmers of all evils. The EU ratifies free trade treaties, promotes the import of end-of-the-world production by aircraft, cargo ships, container ships and other supertankers. Unaware of its image of the future, that of a punitive ecology suffering the effects of global warming, a posture that removes all hope and all prospect of innovation from our youth. We must stop this tragicomedy. The religion of free trade and the import of products that the Member States know how to produce, often of much higher quality, must be called into question. As the Rassemblement national claims, it is time for an ecology that is both social and local.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, one third of French people in the West Indies and Mayotte do not have access to water. In the absence of a relevant response from the French Government, it is now the UN that, in a humiliating and out-of-role manner, speaks of a health emergency and reminds France of its obligations in this regard in Guadeloupe. At each meeting between the French overseas and Marine Le Pen, the same fears arise: that one day the water simply stops flowing at the tap. For too long now, the Rassemblement National has been warning about this crisis and its consequences for offshore France. Agriculture, education, daily life and, of course, health are concerned. The crisis is mainly the result of inadequate or absent water networks and soil contamination, in particular by chlordecone. The solutions exist and must come from a truly ambitious water policy, favouring mainly a renovation of the water supply networks. For the time being, the lack of resources of local authorities and the lack of commitment of the government put in place by Emmanuel Macron still condemn our ultramarine compatriots to recurrent cuts and restrictions. As such, I would ask the Conference of Presidents to bring to the attention of the REGI Committee my motion for a resolution calling on the European Union to support France, in order to promote access to water in the outermost regions.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the testimony of the young war reporter I was in 1985, who in Nicaragua accompanied the guerrillas of Comandante Cero, Edén Pastora, charismatic leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance. The country was then under the control of a dictatorship set up and supported by the Soviet power in Moscow and its Castrist subsidiary in Havana. I saw with my own eyes the abuses committed by government troops, the burning of farms and their reserves, and attacks on columns of civilian refugees. I have seen children under the age of 10 injured by soldiers’ bullets. I saw others barely 14 years old deserters from an army in which they had been forcibly conscripted. I have collected accounts of rape and torture. The head of this dictatorship had a name: Daniel Ortega. The same Daniel Ortega, who still rages today and fights the Church as he fought Archbishop Obando y Bravo. It is from this same Ortega, the current corrupt president of the country, that I ask when he will finally be held accountable for his crimes.