Speeches

Your EPP colleague, Mrme Düpont, just told us a few moments ago that the EPP was in favour of the distribution of illegal migrants across the Member States of the European Union; She even spoke of the principle of solidarity. Do you confirm that, Mr. Bellamy?

(FR) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, 34% of Europeans give up medical care, and many young people our young people, are in great suffering. This is the third worldisation of our nations. The Europe of Hippocrates, Pasteur and Marie Curie is no longer even capable of caring for its own people, while it makes non-European preference a dogma. As poverty affects each of our nations, the Commission will provide €1.8 billion to Moldova. Moreover, immigration from the poorest sections of society is breaking records. For Enrico Letta, no reform, no progress will be possible without the participation of citizens. This participation, I tell you, is impossible, because these conditions are not met. Let's review Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Do we want people to be virtuous? So let's start by making them love the homeland: But how will they love it if the homeland only grants them what it cannot refuse to anyone?’ We are here at the heart of the evil that is destroying Europe. Colleagues, I would like to understand: Is it indifference – or worse: cynicism – which leads us to lament about the poverty we are organising?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, how much religious intolerance are we talking about? As early as September 1991, European migration ministers warned that, for many immigrants, cultural identity was largely confused with religion and that problems could arise when immigrants' religious practices were contrary to the traditions of the host society. The real question, then, is the hierarchy of rights. In the name of religious freedom, are we ready to renounce individual freedom, equality between men and women and the dignity of women, as Tunisian Islamologist Abdelwahab Meddeb was deeply concerned when he gave the true meaning and political significance of women's veiling? In the seventeenth century, after wars of religion that tore Europe apart, the philosopher John Locke warned of the consequences of identification through the wearing of religious symbols, which gives men, he said, the opportunity to count themselves. He feared the emergence of sedition actions that jeopardized civil peace. How can the European Commission not see that Europe is sinking today, every day more, into a new war of religion? So, are we facing a rise in religious intolerance or determined resistance from our peoples in the face of imported obscurantism and unbridled proselytism? This resistance testifies to the deep attachment of our European peoples to our fundamental principles. Ladies and gentlemen, let us not stand still, even though it is the historical continuity of the European peoples that is being played out before our eyes today.