What Matthieu spoke about.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am not going to do the belly dance, Madam, but I am not going to pretend. For us, enlargement is no, and I will explain why. Because, first of all, the European Union is a kind of big colocation, which we already have difficulty with at 27, and therefore enlargement would be difficult. So I wanted to be precise, because I like to be technical and factual. Take Kosovo: it is a territory marked by trafficking in arms, drugs, human beings, but also by Islamist networks, and whose sovereignty is still not recognised by five of the Member States – therefore, it is difficult to welcome that country. Bosnia: a country paralyzed by institutional divisions, facing the risk of secession, endemic corruption and persistent influence of organised crime. Albania, a major hub for drug trafficking to Europe, whose criminal networks are regularly identified by European security services, and which has close links with Erdoğan’s Turkey, whose interests are often contrary to ours. We could mention North Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia, which also continue to face corruption, foreign influences and criminal networks. I advise you to read the reports from Europol or Eurojust that confirm this, even the reports from the European Parliament. So let's start protecting the 27 Member States. Let us work well together at 27, and then we can look at enlargement, which we do not want to see.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, together with the group chaired by Jordan Bardella, we wish to add an oral amendment to the resolution on Afghanistan in order to better protect our continent against irregular immigration. This amendment aims to support technical negotiations facilitating the return of Afghans in an irregular situation to their country, while refusing to legitimize and normalize the Taliban regime. We have a duty of responsibility to Europeans, let us show pragmatism in the face of this reality. I therefore propose the following amendment to paragraph 4, which would read as follows: "urges the Commission and the Member States to maintain the non-recognition and non-normalisation of the Taliban, in line with the five Council criteria; calls for the effective return and readmission of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan; calls for pressure to be exerted on the Taliban in order to restore human rights, in particular the rights of women and girls; reiterates its full support for the arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court and urges the Member States to enforce them."

Dear colleague, I heard you on digital platforms. In Marseille, a 14-year-old boy executed a taxi driver, Nessim, 36, in October 2024. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. So I'm quite amazed at the "blessed yes" speeches we hear here. I think that in this Chamber I am the only one who has been a police officer for 20 years in the difficult neighbourhoods of France. Stop evangelical or angelic speeches and take the measure of the danger that awaits. For you, does a minor who kills, who murders, have his place in freedom or in prison? Either in prison to protect the victims, in my opinion; or be outside to remake victims, according to you. Because, at 13 and 17 years of age, we must protect our citizens from these armed madmen who, even at a very young age, can execute.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to talk to you about France, since you talked about Marseilles, Commissioner. More than 74% of minors prosecuted for murder, murder, beatings and aggravated voluntary violence between 2017 and 2023. One in five people arrested with a weapon is a minor in France. Almost a quarter of the burglaries involve minors. Nearly a third of those arrested after the riots following Nahel’s death in 2023 were also minors. Six out of ten juvenile offenders reoffend within five years of their final conviction. I think that for the most angelic leftists or for those who speak only of prevention, the figures are clear: First of all, we need repression and a desire to protect our fellow citizens, who are asking for nothing and are victims of the actions of the vast majority of minors, who are increasingly violent. So, clear answers? The age of criminal responsibility is sixteen. She is now 18 years old. How can we understand that a 16-year-old child is judged in 2026 with texts from 1945? They must be judged as adults when committing crimes and misdemeanours to adapt the criminal response to today’s reality. Resigning parents who abandon their children must lose benefits and social housing. And most importantly, when they break, they have to pay until the end of their lives. So we want to create a tax on thugs and not a tax on victims. So prevention is simple: When you make kids, you take care of them. Parents to monitor dating, homework, outings. This is just common sense. We must stop the culture of social and criminal apology and all that is part of the impunity that has been killing us for years.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad that we are having this debate because, in my country, in France, I feel that usually nobody cares, even though it is a major subject. Mrs. Keller, don't be unpleasant. It'll change you. Smile, smile. The weather is nice today. In addition, farmers are ahead. And so we are going to talk about an interesting topic that concerns almost a million people over the last two years, who have finally been victims of data theft, data leaks on networks. And I don't know if you know breach3d, in my country, in France, it is the story of a 14-year-old minor who, from the age of 14, now 15, hacked into the National Agency for Secured Titles, the agency that makes driving licences, makes passports, makes identity cards. And so he was arrested thanks to the courage and excellent service of the French judicial police. And now he is accountable to the courts. So we can see that he was not a scholar and an IT specialist, but he managed to hack into one of the first sites that the French use to make their identity documents. The same goes for the police training platform. She was hacked into a setting where police officers are targets. They were legitimately worried. So it is clear that the official sites today are not or poorly protected. And it is good that we have a plan that is not only national, but European to protect this data. Then, similarly, sports shooters saw their database in which they are referenced, stolen. So there have been home thefts of their firearms, and the same also for usurpations or false qualities used through data collection, falsification and intrusion into computer data affecting many French women and men, but also at EU level. So, for example, multi-factor authentication would make it possible to combat these IT intrusions. And I think it is now necessary to have a real IT and safety and security policy so that we can finally live up to the 21st ᵉ century. Thank you for your smile, Mrs. Keller, it changes you, really.

Madam President, do not worry, I am a legalist and for almost two years I have been elected to this European Parliament and I have always respected the rules, I have never been caught without anything or anyone. I want to respond to M's defamatory and infamous attacksme Aubry, from unsubmissive France – you will tell me, I am used to: In France, they are in slander and personal attacks, since if they do not have substance, they try to attack the form, which is obviously false. I never stole from the police box, I never stole money from anyone, I have a clean criminal record. So I understand Mme Aubry, she collects in her party to open the Louvre Museum of Insoumise France: Mr Mélenchon, convicted of violence against police and magistrates, Mr Kerbrat for using and buying drugs, Mr Arnaud, for voluntary violence in a meeting – this is verifiable, these are facts that have been finally judged in my country. I mean, you see, I have a clean criminal record. And so, the facts, ma'am, it's very simple: when I was a police officer – because, sorry for having had professional experience, in the absence of Mme Aubry, who was in the humanitarian field at Sciences Po, I protected my fellow citizens on the ground against the Islamists, whom she defends, against the thugs, whom she also defends, whose party is the first lawyer in France. So I'm just saying that colleagues gave me vouchers when I was a police officer, because I had a loved one who had cancer. (incomprehensible) and then – it is three minutes in the Rules of Procedure, so before you do any lessons as a legalist, check the Rules of Procedure of our Parliament. So, I finish: They gave me vouchers voluntarily so they could help me. This was not provided for in the memo of the Directorate General of the National Police, I had to explain it to myself and I was never convicted for it, neither an investigation, nor before a court, nor anything. So I'm a clean MP with a clean criminal record, which is not the case with M's party.me Aubry. Well-ordered charity begins with herself, whether she cleans up in her party before cleaning up in the police or in the opposition, obviously, that she will behave, as we saw earlier, it is very worrying in a debate where she denounces Americanism, where she herself, in her party, would show the worst methods to muzzle the opposition.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you, Mr Glucksmann, for your weighting and balance, for your constant distribution of patents of respectability. The events in Minneapolis gave rise to a legitimate emotion, Mr Glucksmann. The death of two people is always a tragedy. But unlike you, I don't have variable geometry indignation. Every life counts, everywhere in the world. But I want to say it here with calm and clarity: These events took place in the United States, not in Europe, not in France, not in our country. We cannot accept that certain political parties are exploiting foreign tragedies to import into our country tensions that are not our own. I refuse to allow the trial of the police, the French police, based on images from across the Atlantic. We have already been hit with the George Floyd case, where we wanted to bring France to its knees, to blame our police, as if our policemen were responsible for the faults committed elsewhere. Jean-Luc Mélenchon – Mrs Aubry, I have not forgotten you – or, even yesterday, Christophe Castaner before him, you introduce, you oppose, but on this point, you come together. I remember the same Minister of the Interior, Mrs Hayer, who justifies violent demonstrations before the Paris court by explaining that emotion could go beyond the law. No, Mrs Hayer, in a democracy, law protects emotion, it does not submit to it. And I am surprised, Madame Aubry, that you have not summoned Madame Traoré, the muse of your far-left party, always ready to bring American causes to feed an anti-flics speech, as I am not surprised to see your same party making its butter on the dead in Gaza to bring them to our streets, making Jews targets, Madame Aubry. In France, we have a republican police – the border police, the gendarmerie, the national police, the one you type on all the time. It fights against smugglers, it protects our borders – do not syncopate, Mrs Aubry, it will go well –, defends our freedoms... I say it solemnly, I will never accept, Mrs Aubry, or your party of others, that we make our police officers a target to serve the hatred of the cop you love so much.

Mr President, Commissioner, I will give you a scoop: drastically restricting immigration and enforcing removals is not just the Patriots’ agenda, but it is also the demand of the overwhelming majority of European public opinion. It has even become a vital necessity for our peoples and states. When an asylum application is rejected, there can be a second, third or even 20th chance, always disguised on humanitarian or international protection grounds, or always an excuse, as we so well know how to invent them in our democracies. The return procedure must be swift and fully executed. Above all, I wanted to draw your attention, Madam, to the fact that the authorities must have at their disposal all the necessary means, control, investigation, search of the person and the home where this is essential for the execution of a return. Non-cooperation can no longer be tolerated, it must become a clearly sanctioned criminal offence. Finally, as regards unaccompanied foreign minors, I do not know whether you have ever been to Barbès, whether you have ever been to Noailles, to the Duchère, to Wazemmes – in the north of France, to my home – but it is becoming a real scourge for public security, since the fact that they cannot use the DNA tests or bone age examinations that have already been carried out, the investigators, it allows them to benefit from double immunity: that of the minority excuse, and that of being released each time.

Madam President, Vice-President Kallas, in the face of Islamism, the European Union is trembling. Not a word about Turkey, a real Trojan horse of the Muslim Brotherhood. When will the European Union finally have the courage to consider this organization for what it is, a terrorist organization, as did the United States, but especially many Arab countries, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Jordan. Worse still, the European Union is funding this scheme to the tune of nearly €10 billion over the 2021-2027 period. Ten billion as Islamism progresses. Not a word either about Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as Iran, these Islamist countries with the Islamist regime from which the people suffer. So let us be clear: are the Islamists our enemies, your enemies, Mrs Kallas, or the Commission's allies? And your cowardice doesn't end there. Nothing about the smugglers who turn our seas into cemeteries. You mourn the dead children on the beaches, but you tremble when you have to treat their executioners like criminals they are. Worse, the far left makes a syncope when it is simply necessary to name them that way. Cherry on the cake, you are demanding a seat on the UN Security Council, as if it were obtained by incantation, where France has obtained it at the price of blood and its history. So let's stop these leftist delusions, stop dreaming in 3D and return to the reality of what our fellow citizens and peoples around the world are experiencing, who are waiting for freedom and our fight.

Mr President, first a word, of course, for Amine Kessaci and her brother – Amine, with whom I had the opportunity to discuss in previous positions. We do not share the same opinions, but in any case, I have always respected his strength of character and his convictions, and I imagine that his brother would have made an excellent guardian of the peace, armed with the same values that I imagine one shares within his family. Ladies and gentlemen, I will tell you about a war: no Kiev, no Aleppo, no Baghdad, but in France, in the face of narcoterrorists. Instead of sending armoured vehicles, helicopters, CRSs and mobile gendarmerie squadrons in front of our peasants, send them where the Republic retreats, to the cities that fall one by one into the hands of the gangs. We will hold the ground in front of the "narcoracailles" who hold the walls! We will send CRS 8, CRS 81, 82, 83 and 84, as well as the 16 new mobile gendarmerie squadrons to help their brothers-in-arms from public security, BST, BAC and PSIG. Not with Fiat Ducato, not with exhausted Renault Masters or rinsed Iveco, but with new powerful, armored, light vehicles, to attack these deal points safely. We will create and send new, lighter, more manoeuvrable Gendarmerie armour into the cities, supported by helicopters and drones, so that our forces can progress, track and arrest watchmen and dealers safely, even in the midst of the firing of weapons of war, as we saw in Rennes or Castres. For us, consumers are not victims: They're accomplices. They have blood on their hands: that of Mehdi and that of Socayna in Marseilles, that of Fayed in Nîmes. They will have to pay and serve a short prison term. We will also hit the networks: creation of a new judicial police, reinforcement of the research and intervention brigades with a special bonus, as for the bikers, the LAC and the FTSI, who are waiting for it so much. We will create a working group against organised crime, because we have to hit not only drug traffickers, but also those involved in arms trafficking, human trafficking – pimping is exploding in our cities. We'll also go get the money from the traffickers with the IRS, which only asks for that, and we'll redistribute the criminal assets to the investigators to motivate them. Speaking of investigators, plan to help OPJs: payment of overtime, simplification of criminal proceedings and new procedural software with artificial intelligence. Finally the word of the policeman will be superior to that of the thug. The administration will protect its police and gendarmes by paying the lawyer and the hospital automatically. We are ready to wage war against them, not with Playmobils, but with a real army, a police force – and not the one that protects us outside, at the risk of its life, for the French flag.

Mr President, I find it a pity that, for a debate on the role of the police, which plays a crucial role in our democracies, you have slashed the debate and that we cannot raise blue cards to be able to conduct a debate in the face of an extreme left that insults our police officers, that taxes them on police violence, on facies checks, and that still explains to us that they defy the prohibitions on protesting to defend honest people. So I would like that, in this forum that calls itself "democracy in action", every sensibility can express itself on positions that we do not share, but in any case, democracy is that. You distribute all day long patents of respectability. It would be nice to apply them to yourself and make this temple the real democracy in action.

Mr President, the police, for me, are a big family. It is a passion and above all a great pride to give back to France everything it has given me by protecting it for twenty years. In 2023, I was proud to command women and men who bravely defended the Republic in the face of scum that set everything on fire, ransacked everything and injured nearly 1,000 police, gendarmes and firefighters in France. With us, they will all be decorated, all rewarded and especially all honored during a red white blue ceremony that Emmanuel Macron did not organize. With us, the police officers of RAID, BRIPP, the intervention brigade, the LAC will not wait ten years after the Bataclan to be decorated for their courage in the face of the Islamist terrorists who crossed Europe to come and strike my country. With us, all their medical expenses will be covered, without delay, without advances, without begging, without begging. With us, the lawyer's care will be automatic. They will be systematically protected by the administration. We will create a presumption of responsibility for the administration. Be assured, in front of this European Parliament, that all those wankers who ransack everything at the expense of honest people who can no longer pay up to the last cent: No more allowances, no more social housing. Above all, we'll put these thugs to dry bread. Faced with the savages who smash a LAC policeman in Tourcoing, a brother in arms, the rule will be simple: You touch a cop, you sleep in jail and it'll be at your own expense. Same if you are a loyal client of the police and gendarmes: In addition to a loyalty card, no more snooping in front of magistrates who can no longer. It will also be the prison from the first recidivism. In the face of the narco-scum that gangrene my country, we will restore its letters of nobility to the judicial police that was dismantled by the Minister of the Interior at the time, Gérald Darmanin. And we will save all those investigators who are dying. To these elected leftists, I tell them to stop defiling my brothers in arms, policemen, gendarmes, with "the police kills". Instead, talk about Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, police officers slaughtered by a terrorist in Magnanville in front of their three-year-old child Mathieu, Constable Arnaud Beltrame who sacrificed his life to save a hostage in the face of an Islamist, Eric Masson, police officer in France, executed by a dealer in Avignon, who left two little girls behind. I also say to my LFI colleagues: appointment in 2026 for Florian's trial in the Nahel case. You've defiled his honor. In front of you, I will never be afraid, I will never back down. It is true of all my brothers in arms who fell for France, under the uniform of the national police.

I recognize you there, the elected LFIste. Take your breath, I was afraid you'd make a syncope. I should have brought you a glass of water, dear sir. I recognize here the bias of your anti-France movement, always on the side of thugs. You always have a word for thugs in demonstrations. You're bordering the street. When your antifa friends attack law enforcement with Molotov cocktails; We never hear you. When victims are razed savagely, you are never present. I don't know what you've done before in your life as a police officer. You, you make great words behind your desk! But I was brave with my colleagues, I faced the Islamist terrorists that you never denounce. I have defeated the thugs you always defend and I have always stood by those who protect us in demonstrations, where you want to trash everything. So I have no lesson to learn from you. For you, human rights are the rights of thugs. For me, human rights are those of the victims and those policemen and gendarmes of the French Republic whom you are sacking, insulting and smearing the honour of. I, the uniform, have worn it, the courage, I have defended it, and I would like to see your record, because neither in your life nor in your politics do I feel that you have done anything.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as a police commissioner who has devoted my life to fighting crime, I consider that the spectacular results achieved in El Salvador in terms of security deserve at least our interest, rather than denunciation, your systematic denunciation, as is the case in this report. It is true that, before being a parliamentarian, I walked the streets of the cities of France, I was going to chase thugs, I faced refusals to comply, burglars, aggressors, and I was useful to my society, to the French Republic which gave me everything. So since 2019, El Salvador has grown from one of the most violent countries in the world to one of the safest in Latin America. The homicide rate has increased from more than 100 to less than 2 per 100,000 inhabitants. These figures would make heads of State blush, including my own, because unfortunately, savagery is raging in my country. Gangs that were terrorizing the streets were neutralized. Millions of Salvadorans now live in rediscovered security. More than 93% are satisfied with President Bukele's security record. Forty thousand prison places were created in seven months. In my country, it took almost eight years to create just 7,000 of the 15,000 that Mr Macron had promised. Can you imagine? So I ask a simple question: Why are we talking about El Salvador today, now that violence has receded? I do not remember any urgent debate here, any widespread indignation in this House. Yet, at the time, the victims already existed, the victims we never talk about, who are so often forgotten. Who was talking about the terror of gangs, bereaved mothers, threatened children, neighborhoods taken hostage? This "double standard" questions. Does Bukele's government bother because it succeeds so much where others have failed? I stress that security is a fundamental right, as is freedom. Maintaining good relations with our Latin American partners is essential, and it is not with injunctions, neither through an ideological prism, nor through hatred of this country that we will succeed.

Mr President, while the country is still recovering from a twenty-year war between the Taliban, Daesh and democratic power, Afghanistan is hit by an unprecedented and deadly earthquake. Like many, I appreciated that this debate put women at the heart of the humanitarian issue; These women, victims on the same footing as all civilians, but sometimes refused to be touched by religious dogmatism. But in this country, as in so many others, women were victims long before natural disasters and will unfortunately remain so afterwards. Indeed, the real earthquake is happening right here. It is Europe's complicit abandonment of entire regions of the world, or worse, of regions handed over to Islamists. This is the outspoken, uninhibited support, as in Syria, for terrorist leaders who once hit France in the heart, like other countries in Europe – notably Spain and, once, the United Kingdom. Let us not wait for natural phenomena to revolt. Women, like many other minorities - especially Eastern Christians - are systematically the victims of all these new regimes that profit from your political cowardice, from the hypocrisy that reigns in this Parliament and in our institutions. In conclusion, allow me to salute the memory of our soldiers, our French soldiers, but also European soldiers, who lost their lives in Afghanistan to fight to the end of their forces against this Islamism.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, it has been more than six months since Bashar al-Assad fell, replaced by a government based on jihad and radical Islamism. After many months, Parliament is finally considering the fate of Christians, who are logically persecuted. For the past six months, religious minorities, especially Christians, have been in danger of death. Their number has increased from 1.5 million to around 400 000 since last year. And what is the European Union doing? It supports a power that, under the guise of alternation, leaves the hands free to the Islamists. Syrian President Ahmed al-Charaa’s three-piece suit does not replace his jihadist side, which he has never left. This also applies when he is received, with a red carpet, at the Élysée by Emmanuel Macron – this was on 7 May. Although he managed to blind the French President, his troops on the ground are still perpetuating their deadly project: persecution, looting, murder. We warned of the deadly danger of European support for the al-Nusra Front – i.e. Al-Qaida. By what miracle did jihadism become politically correct in your eyes? At a time when, in France, a commission of inquiry and a campaign on Islamist entrism is finally opening – yes, I know, it makes the ears of the gauchos bleed – it is time for Europe to carry out its examination of conscience. It is a former police officer who saw his compatriots executed by armed Islamists from Kalashnikov on the evening of 13 November 2015 who speaks to you, and it hurt me to see my president receive a jihadist at the Elysee.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I do not understand. While my country, France, is plagued by ‘narcoracailles’, narco-traffickers, narco-terrorists and narco-banditism, you persist in maintaining the process of Albania’s accession to the European Union. However, Albania is not a reliable partner. It remains undermined by corruption, by foreign influences – notably Turkish – and by criminal networks firmly established throughout Europe. I do not know, however, if you read the reports from Europol, the European Police Cooperation Agency, but they are very clear: Albanian criminal groups are among the most threatening to our security. They are deeply involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering and the illicit arms trade. Moreover, let us recall that the weapons used in the 2015 Bataclan attacks in my country – which killed 131 people – came largely from the Balkans. They had transited through smuggling routes, in respect of which Albanian networks played a decisive role. This reality persists. Read the reports, ma'am. Europol is still alerting in 2025 about the persistence of this traffic from the Western Balkans to the EU. Finally, Albania remains a major producer of cannabis, an entry point for heroin trafficking from Afghanistan and another key player in cocaine networks. The Albanian mafia is ubiquitous in these criminal circuits. In these circumstances, bringing this country closer to the European Union would be a serious political mistake and would directly jeopardise the security of Europeans, particularly the French.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as coordinator of the Patriots for Europe Group in the Subcommittee on Human Rights, I propose to add an oral amendment to the resolution on Mali, the text of which, in our view, does not denounce Islamist terrorism with sufficient clarity. This amendment aims to pay tribute and honour the bloodshed of our 58 French soldiers, as well as that of our European partners who fell in the fight against Islamist terrorists in Mali and for the freedom we all defend here in this Parliament. I therefore propose the following wording: "Whereas the European Union and several Member States have made efforts and lost lives in the fight against jihadism, at the request of the former Malian authorities, including 58 French soldiers, five Dutch soldiers, two German soldiers, a Spanish soldier and a Portuguese soldier". Thank you. This will be a strong signal to our soldiers who, often so young, are committed to our freedoms and fall to defend democracies.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as far as I am concerned, this report calling for Montenegro's accession to the European Union is no. First of all, the European Union is not a big braderie where we are going to welcome Turkey, Ukraine, Kosovo, all those countries that are not ready and where we are already struggling to operate at 27 in this difficult colocation. And I'll explain it to myself. In terms of security, Montenegro remains the home of powerful criminal networks, drug trafficking, smuggling and money laundering. Its judicial and police institutions remain largely exposed to political pressure, corruption and foreign interference, including from Russia and China. Arms trafficking and the illegal possession of weapons per capita are a serious threat that we will not be able to contain in our continent, which is already highly exposed, as in my country, to arms trafficking, which causes deaths, in particular through drug trafficking. Economically, the situation is equally worrying. Montenegro is heavily dependent on non-European external investment, particularly from China, and its public debt exceeds 70% of GDP. Its productive fabric is fragile and its strong dependence on tourism makes it vulnerable to external shocks. In these circumstances, integrating this country into the single market would only exacerbate economic distortions and endanger our businesses. And that would be of no service to us or to the European Union. We have to be serious.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at this very late hour, the report we are debating here makes a clear observation: Kosovo is facing serious structural problems, endemic corruption, pervasive organised crime and continued strained bilateral relations with Serbia. However, let me tell you that he is turning a blind eye to major security issues. Reported to its population, Kosovo has sent a disproportionate number of jihadists to join Daesh and more than 250,000 illegal weapons are freely circulating in the country. These weapons are already circulating freely in our streets, in France, my country of election, which paid a high price for them, since some of the weapons used in Kosovo were also used in the attacks on the Bataclan, committed with weapons from the Balkans. So there is a real subject when it comes to weapons. Despite this alarming reality, you wish to continue to push the integration process with Kosovo ever further. Worse still, the European Union, with the consent of Parliament, has liberalised the visa regime with the Kosovars, even though five Member States still do not recognise its sovereignty. Parliament therefore adopted a report setting out Kosovo's deep fragilities, showing how far it is from the criteria of stability and the rule of law, while pushing for its accelerated integration. What I want to tell you is that we are already struggling to do colocation at 27: If we welcome Member States that do not meet our criteria for the rule of law or our criteria for European standards, we will not be able to continue to have a European Union with the values we hold.

Mr President, since 2016, European taxpayers have paid almost EUR 9 billion to Turkey under a migration agreement. 9 billion, for what result? A dangerous strategic dependence, a de facto submission to an increasingly authoritarian regime that threatens our interests, our security, our political stability and even locks up its political opponents, such as the mayor of Istanbul. President Erdogan uses migrants as a lever to blackmail Europe while pursuing a policy of re-Islamisation - when he made it appear that he had left the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood - and, moreover, interference in our neighbourhoods. This country does not share our vision of democracy or our civilizational project. Stop shining a light on this country's membership since 1987. Have the courage to tell Turkey that it will never return to the European Union. It is time to return the money to the Europeans. These billions can and should be used to protect our borders, to support our carers, to support our security forces that are on the front line in our countries of election, including my country, France, and also to help our farmers, not to finance a regime that turns its back on us. Today, Europe is the only continent in the world that pays for its own weakening, which leaves the island of Cyprus, which is part of the European Union, illegally occupied by the Turks. This slow political suicide must finally stop. Europe must protect its interests.