What Raphaël spoke about.

6 Feb

2024

FR Speech

The need for unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we believed that Europe had awakened from its long geopolitical sleep, that sinister 24 February 2022. We had hoped that, after so many mistakes and weaknesses, our leaders would finally open their eyes and understand. But sleepwalkers continue to wander, haggard, condemned to perpetual lethargy. It's been two years. Two years! So how is it that the 200 billion …

6 Feb

2024

EN Answer

Conclusions of the European Council meetings, in particular the special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 (debate)

Watch

Mr Bütikofer, I would really support it, and I am supporting it, because when I’m looking at the Kiel Institute ranking – ranking the help to Ukraine – I’m ashamed. I have to say I’m ashamed. I am ashamed first of my own government. Because when you see that France is in terms of help to Ukraine, it means that in Paris people did not understand what’s at stake. As you mentioned very clearly, it’s …

6 Feb

2024

FR Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meetings, in particular the special European Council meeting of 1 February 2024 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, fortunately Viktor Orbán has not succeeded in killing European financial aid to Ukraine. But, honestly, there is no point in poaching, because this aid is not enough, and it will be even less enough if the Americans elect Donald Trump in November and leave us alone. So where to find the necessary funds in Europe to massively support Ukraine even…

13 Dec

2023

FR Speech

European Defence investment programme (EDIP) (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner: A, S, A, P. ASAP. As soon as possible. “As soon as possible” – if I am not mistaken. I still wonder today, at that time, what the Member States did not understand in ‘As soon as possible’. One million rounds of ammunition promised to the Ukrainian resistance, 300,000 delivered. Meanwhile, North Korea alone is delivering 1 million shells to Russia, and Putin is reorga…

13 Dec

2023

EN Answer

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 (debate)

Watch

I will stop to be weak. And that’s what we have done with Orban for ages. We gave him the power to actually hold us hostages. So now it’s time for him to understand that if he blocks it, it’s not that we will not give him some candies, is that we will make sure that we break his power and we expel him. That’s what I will tell.…

13 Dec

2023

FR Speech

Preparation of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Putin can now smile. He made two bets in 2022: the first bet, which he completely lost, was the complete collapse of the Ukrainian state. But the second bet, which was to believe that our European societies, that our European and Western leaders were unable to make a sustainable effort in the medium and long term, that bet is winning. Our weakness an…

12 Dec

2023

FR Speech

EU-China relations (debate)

Watch

Mr High Representative, dear Josep, you are surely familiar with Lenin's famous phrase: “The capitalists will sell us the rope to hang them.” This is an excellent summary of 30 years of European and American capitalism with the Chinese communist regime. We have allowed this regime to take over our technologies and know-how until we become fully dependent in strategic sectors. Take, for example, so…

12 Dec

2023

FR Speech

European Economic Security Strategy (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Mr Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, in May the first Chinese airliner, the C919, made its first commercial flight using European technology. We are well aware of this scenario: The Chinese regime decides to dominate a global market, creating a state-owned company, Comac. It relies on our companies, who supply it with our technologies, and nobody cares about anything. After two d…

12 Dec

2023

FR Speech

Defence of democracy package (debate)

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, democracy is neither natural nor eternal, it is a political project that is extinguished if it is not defended forcefully, a fragile historical construction that collapses if it is not cultivated. For too long, our indolent elites have rhymed democracy with impotence and Europe with weakness. As war has returned to our lives, as authoritarian empires find mor…

18 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Islamist terrorist attack on French schools and the need to protect people and promote social cohesion (debate)

Watch

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, three years after Samuel Paty’s infamous beheading, the school, this sanctuary of our Republic, has again been targeted by an Islamist terrorist attack. This Friday morning, October 13, Dominique Bernard, professor of letters at the school city Gambetta-Carnot in Arras, was brutally murdered. By getting in the way of the terrorist, he protected his students and …

18 Oct

2023

FR Speech

A true geopolitical Europe now (topical debate)

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, High Representative, war in the Middle East, war in the South Caucasus, war in Ukraine: history, as we see it every day, is not over and remains tragic. The earth has not become flat, and trade does not appease customs. All the myths of the 1990s are ending up in the trash cans of history. These myths have long structured our institutions and our worldview. N…

17 Oct

2023

FR Speech

Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we are not going to do this. I know all the efforts that the European Commission is making, but the problem is the Member States. The problem is that Belgium refuses an embargo on diamonds. The problem is that France refuses a nuclear embargo. The problem is that we therefore have loopholes in our sanctions, linked to interests defended by the Euro…

12 Sep

2023

FR Speech

Iran: one year after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini (debate)

Watch

High Representative, 'Woman, Life, Freedom'. A year ago, the assassination of Jina Mahsa Amini triggered the incredible uprising of the women and people of Iran. One year of heroism, one year of fierce repression, one year of European procrastination. Despite the barbarity, blood and tears, Iranian women continue to fight, struggle and die. And they're counting on us. Any return to normal with Teh…

13 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Resumption of the sitting

Watch

Madam President, last night in this House the limits of decency were crossed. Last night, the small telegraphers of the Kremlin peddled to the very heart of our institutions the "fake news" coming from Russia. Last night, during the plenary debate on the report on recommendations for the reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and the fight against corr…

12 Jul

2023

FR Question

Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Watch

Are you ashamed of yourself or not? You're despicable. You are what you have always been throughout history. What you have just peddled will have legal consequences of one. Second, it comes from a Russian site taken over by Fdesouche and far-right conspiracy sites in France. This is completely unfounded and you have just proven that you have never changed. You are always the same type of character…

12 Jul

2023

FR Speech

Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, corruption is not just about bags of tickets being handed over to hotel rooms. Corruption is also a conflict of interest. It is working for a large oil group when you are an MEP. Corruption also means selling your address book of chancellor, president, minister or elected official to interests hostile to our democracies as soon as your t…

13 Jun

2023

FR Speech

Humanitarian and environmental consequences of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam - Sustainable reconstruction and integration of Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic community (debate)

Watch

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Putin's bet is that we will get used to his crimes. Vladimir Putin's bet is that we will be too tempted by a return to business as usual. So let us show him that there cannot be, that there will be no return to business as usual, that compromises are over, that the sacrifice of the sovereignty of nations in exchange for gas contracts is over, that this …

1 Jun

2023

FR Speech

Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024 (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, there are times in history when indolence becomes guilty, and criminal lightness. We are living through one of these moments, and after almost three years of working as the head of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, today I want to share with you the dizzying conclusions we have reached. For 20 years, European leaders have sh…

31 May

2023

FR Speech

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (debate)

Watch

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this letter was found in the box of this pregnancy test: The appeal for help from a Chinese prisoner forced to manufacture products that are then sold in a pharmacy in Paris. This is where the pyramid of irresponsibility, globalisation, leads. This is where a rules-free world leads in which those who have the most power also have the least responsibility. The wo…

11 May

2023

FR Speech

Resumption of the sitting

Watch

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was a dark day for the French Republic and for all European humanists. Yesterday, the mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins, Yannick Morez, was forced to resign after months of death threats against him and his family. Months of harassment by the far right. After seeing his car and house burn in the middle of the night while he slept with his wife. What is…

18 Apr

2023

FR Speech

The need for a coherent strategy for EU-China Relations (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Mr High Representative, the Chinese Communist Party keeps the Uyghurs in concentration camps. The French National Assembly denounces a genocide and so does this parliament, but apparently that does not count. Xi Jinping's regime is cracking down on the people of Hong Kong and Tibet, attacking and threatening Taiwanese democracy, deploying secret police offices in our own cities, and …

14 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Watch

Well actually that’s not the name I would have picked, because in France, if I’m quoting my country – sometimes it does things right – it’s called the high authority on the transparency of public life, which I think is better because we should not put it on the moral ground. It’s a question of the survival of democracy. It’s a political issue, and it’s a legal issue. It’s not a moral issue. I don’…

14 Feb

2023

FR Speech

Establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body (debate)

Watch

Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, it will therefore have taken bags of cash and bundles of banknotes hidden under diapers for things to finally move. Why did you wait so long? The creation of this independent body to monitor European public life was voted on here in 2021. Now is the time to act, and it will be even more time to act when media attention has shifted to someth…

17 Jan

2023

FR Speech

The EU’s response to the appalling attack against civilians in Dnipro : strengthening sanctions against the Putin regime and military support to Ukraine (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Maria Lebed was fifteen years old and had a life ahead of her. She lived in a peaceful area of Dnipro with no military objective nearby. She died on Saturday in the infamous bombing of Dnipro. Why? Because Putin and his minions are terrorists and make their war a war of terror. Civilians, for them, are targets, in Ukraine as yesterday in Chechny…

17 Jan

2023

FR Speech

New developments in allegations of corruption and foreign interference, including those related to Morocco, and the need to increase transparency, integrity and accountability in the European institutions (debate)

Watch

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this is a nausea story. This is the story of so-called left-wing men and women who betrayed all our principles for cash bags. But it is not just an individual story. This is the story of states like Qatar or Morocco, but also Russia or China that see our political class as a market in which they can come and shop. This is the story of democratic…