Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, only a yes is a yes. It is urgent that our countries finally get out of the rape culture, the one that pushes us to change sidewalks at night, the one where men give themselves online advice to drug and rape their partners, the one that teaches us fear from childhood. In my country, France, every year 94,000 women are victims of rape or attempted rape. Yet, for a long time, the wrong questions have been asked: "Did she struggle?", "Why did she stay?" As if there was a good way to respond to absolute violence. The reality is quite different. Entire lives break in silence, a silence too long ignored, because it does not correspond to the image we want to make of violence, because it shakes deeply rooted relations of domination. So we looked elsewhere and left victims alone, women alone. Feminists have long warned. Such violence is not isolated and is part of a system of patriarchal violence. Despite this, in several European countries, consent is still not at the heart of the law. Let's be honest, this debate is not technical. It is a political choice, a choice that has very concrete consequences for those we are supposed to protect. So yes, this text counts, because it draws a clear line: If there is no yes, there is no consent. I want to thank here all those who have fought and are fighting for the law to change everywhere: tireless activists, victims and everyone else. For them, let us finally take our responsibilities, to finally move from the culture of rape to that of consent.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to make a point of order on the basis of Rule 202. What are we talking about tomorrow? Possible bans on entry for life without serious legal grounds, return centres, genuine lawless zones outside the European Union, cooperation with the Taliban regime or the detention of children. We were shocked by the photo of little Liam in the United States. It is this model, this policy, that you want to see applied in Europe. Do we collectively accept the idea that the confinement of children is a tool for managing migration? Think about it before you vote tomorrow. And remember who actively collaborated to get that deal. The EPP negotiator has allied himself with the worst of the European far right, notably AFD. I would therefore like to refer to Rule 72 of the Rules of Procedure, under which the vote should have been held in April. For such a sensitive text, it is unacceptable, Mrs Metsola, to speed up the procedure, to deprive us of a real democratic debate. Ladies and gentlemen, I say this with seriousness. Tomorrow, each and every one of us will have to answer a very simple question. Which Europe do we want? Which Europe do we want? That of rejection, hatred, confinement? You still have a few hours to think, so think carefully...

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union, in accordance with our Treaties, is built on values: Freedom, equality, dignity. Today, these values are flickering, threatened by the extreme right and the conservatives, who are just waiting to weaken them. When a government enshrines discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people in its constitution, when it restricts access to education, health, family life, these are not symbols, they are fundamental rights that are receding. Every citizen deprived of recognition is a citizen whom Europe abandons. Every euro of EU funds used to consolidate this discrimination is an attack on justice and European cohesion. The rule of law does not defend itself à la carte. The European Union is not a market without rules. European funds are not a blank check. Without conditionality or a clear political reaction, what is being achieved today in Slovakia will be an oil stain all over Europe. Acting for fundamental rights today in Slovakia means ensuring that the Europe of tomorrow will remain a Europe of values, not exclusions.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today we are again having a debate on immigration. When it is not the far right, it is the EPP that initiates this debate. Hateful of the calendar, you allow extreme right-wingers to express their hatred of each other in the aftermath of the European Commission’s presentation of its anti-racism strategy. Great performance! For months, the rhetoric has been the same in this assembly: migratory threat, wave, submergence ... Always the same fantasized expressions to justify the application of a deeply inhumane migration policy. The migration policies desired by the far right and part of the right in this Chamber are awfully similar to what the United States is experiencing today: an all-powerful immigration police and authorities trampling on the rule of law. The videos that reach us are terrible: families frightened, separated, lives suspended, endangered, 32 deaths in custody in 2025, at least 9 victims of shooting in four months, including Renee Nicole Good. We do not want an ECI bis in Europe; Fortress Europe is already here. It is the one that causes the deaths of thousands of people in the Mediterranean Sea every year. The cooperation and agreements you want to establish with third countries amount to supporting dictators and regimes torturing exiles. The return of the borders you dream of mainly targets racialised people and is sometimes accompanied by violence and arbitrary detentions. The world you claim to describe does not exist. You only stir up fears. I am fighting against this ideology today in the negotiations on the Return Regulation. I will continue to fight for the dignity of exiles and fundamental rights to build a Europe of reception and human rights.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at the moment in Iran a revolution is being suppressed in blood. The few images that reach us are appalling. Dead bodies piled up at the gates of morgues, wounded by the thousands, abominable scenes. These crimes are not new. The repression of the mullahs has been systemic since 1979. We have not forgotten the Women, Life, Freedom movement in 2022, 2019, or 2009. We have not forgotten the courage of the Iranian people. Despite murders, executions, prisons and threats, one thing is certain, one does not rule eternally by fear. In the face of this cry for freedom and dignity, we must support civil society and women who refuse to submit to the patriarchal laws of this clerical dictatorship, protect rights defenders and urgently open safe avenues of asylum for those in danger. A few days ago we received a video of a protester. With a bloody mouth, she chanted: I'm not afraid, I've been dead for 47 years. For her and for all others, support Iran's democratic future, without mullahs or the Shah's dictatorship.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, when the Pact was adopted, we were already concerned about the lack of solidarity, the weakness of fundamental rights guarantees and the risk that they would remain a dead letter. The first elements of the annual report, as we can guess, on the Solidarity Reserve confirm this: Most Member States are classified as ‘under migratory pressure’ and therefore exempt from hosting. Finally, only nine countries need to show solidarity. This system is neither fair nor sustainable. It weakens solidarity and our ability to welcome with dignity. This is precisely why our group opposed the Pact: because it creates the illusion of a solution while reproducing the same imbalances and shortcomings, and further weakening the right to asylum. We will continue to defend a reception policy based on human rights, solidarity and the creation of legal pathways to end suffering at borders. We will continue to reject a Europe that delegates its responsibility to authoritarian regimes and bases its migration policy on fear and violence. Our line is clear: humanity and dignity. Yours, alas, remains "fear and rejection".

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, protecting women and children? Yes, from the far right. In Poland, restrictions on the right to abortion by the far right have plunged thousands of women into distress. Some died because they were refused an abortion, even when their lives were in danger. In Viktor Orbán's Hungary, maternal mortality reaches 12-15 deaths per 100,000 births. This is twice as high as the EU average. So that's your protection of women! One in seven lesbians has been assaulted in Europe. One-third of trans people who went through conversion therapies attempted suicide. And all over Europe, these tortures are taking place in the wake of your transphobic and homophobic agenda. Two-thirds of LGBT children are harassed at school. Who protects queer children? So, who really threatens women and children in Europe? Those who withdraw rights, turn a blind eye to violence and use their lives for their filthy racist propaganda. To protect is not to exclude. To protect is to guarantee health, equality and freedom. When the far right advances, let us not be fooled, our rights recede. And we feminists will always be there to defend our rights against the reactionary international.

Mr President, EUR 2.9 million – EUR 2.9 million! – this is the total amount of the damage assessed by the Paris Criminal Court at first instance. This 2.9 million is what you, the RN, have embezzled from the European Parliament, it is what you have embezzled from the taxpayer – more than two thousand months of SMIC! The fraudulent use of public money is not your fantasies about NGOs and their indispensable work for democracy, the green transition and social justice. The only fraud, ladies and gentlemen, is to the right of this Chamber. The extremes of the right, which are exemplary, are in reality a caste of privileged people who are enriched on the backs of the citizens. The extreme right, not only rejecting others and spreading untruths, add to this proof that they are playing well against European taxpayers, against society, against all of us. The extreme right does not defend the people, they steal it to finance their hate project.

Mr President, EUR 2.9 million – EUR 2.9 million! – this is the total amount of the damage assessed by the Paris Criminal Court at first instance. This 2.9 million is what you, the RN, have embezzled from the European Parliament, it is what you have embezzled from the taxpayer – more than two thousand months of SMIC! The fraudulent use of public money is not your fantasies about NGOs and their indispensable work for democracy, the green transition and social justice. The only fraud, ladies and gentlemen, is to the right of this Chamber. The extremes of the right, which are exemplary, are in reality a caste of privileged people who are enriched on the backs of the citizens. The extreme right, not only rejecting others and spreading untruths, add to this proof that they are playing well against European taxpayers, against society, against all of us. The extreme right does not defend the people, they steal it to finance their hate project.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, during the last debate on the pride In Budapest, I was insulted in this Chamber by a far-right colleague, who asked me if I intended to come to this Parliament on a muzzle and a leash. Since this remark seemed to shock only a few people, let us make it clear: His words were LGBT-phobic, racist, sexist and unworthy of this assembly. We cannot and should not trivialize them. Let's talk about dignity. Ten days ago, in Budapest, 200,000 people marched. They rose, out of pride, out of courage, out of refusal to remain silent, against a regime that governs only through hatred. Meanwhile, in Istanbul, protesters were beaten and arrested simply for wanting to walk. Yet, as every year since 2015, these activists return to the streets, driven by their dignity and their thirst for freedom. To them and to them I mean: You are our courage, a light that nothing can turn off. Europe can no longer remain a spectator while its values are trampled on. It must defend our rights by deeds, not by renunciations. Because the far right is not backing down. She dreams of a world of silence and submission. But there are millions of us. We are proud. We will always fight for our dignity.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, during the last debate on the pride In Budapest, I was insulted in this Chamber by a far-right colleague, who asked me if I intended to come to this Parliament on a muzzle and a leash. Since this remark seemed to shock only a few people, let us make it clear: His words were LGBT-phobic, racist, sexist and unworthy of this assembly. We cannot and should not trivialize them. Let's talk about dignity. Ten days ago, in Budapest, 200,000 people marched. They rose, out of pride, out of courage, out of refusal to remain silent, against a regime that governs only through hatred. Meanwhile, in Istanbul, protesters were beaten and arrested simply for wanting to walk. Yet, as every year since 2015, these activists return to the streets, driven by their dignity and their thirst for freedom. To them and to them I mean: You are our courage, a light that nothing can turn off. Europe can no longer remain a spectator while its values are trampled on. It must defend our rights by deeds, not by renunciations. Because the far right is not backing down. She dreams of a world of silence and submission. But there are millions of us. We are proud. We will always fight for our dignity.

The French translation was incomprehensible, but I think that in fact what you meant was incomprehensible and deeply insulting. So it is better that there are small translation defects sometimes.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, Pride Budapest was banned. But in the face of this desire for censorship, civil society and the green municipality have shown courage and resilience in the face of arbitrariness. I will remember my first Pride all my life. Understand that I am not alone, that everything will be fine, feel this pride, this militant joy. All queer young people must be able to live this happiness. To prohibit a Pride is to prohibit the struggle for dignity. It is a deliberate attack on the rule of law and fundamental rights. And if the European Union is silent, if the Commission simply condemns without acting, then we will be complicit. Commissioner, it is time to open new procedures. European money must not serve those who trample on our values. On June 28, I will be in Budapest to walk with pride, to say that our rights are not negotiated. And I want to say this to LGBT youth in Hungary and all over Europe: What you are going through is political. Your existences disturb because they are free, because they are courageous and proud. Hold on, you're not alone, we're fighting for you, we're fighting with you.

You talk about protecting children, you see LGBT people as a threat to children in the European Union? Second question on the protection of children: Today, there are 2 million children who end up with one of their parents who is not recognized. For example, if I move tomorrow, I can lose all my rights to my daughter. Do you think it's protecting children to leave children like that, from homoparental families, without the most basic rights with their parents?

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, without healthy oceans, humanity is at risk. The European Commission's announcement of an ocean pact is a positive signal. But there's an emergency. Yes, the oceans suffocate: plastic, pollution, overfishing, disappearance of artisanal fishing, the time is no longer for promises but for concrete action. Today, this pact is a declaration of intent without a clear timetable or involvement of the first concerned, in particular artisanal fishermen. As with the Green Deal, it will only make sense if it leads to binding, ambitious and fair laws. The climate emergency and the collapse of biodiversity demand it. It is unacceptable today that 86% of Europe's marine protected areas are still subject to industrial activities. Protecting means prohibiting overexploitation and not placing a green label on areas open to destructive extraction or fishing. As the right and the far right unravel the achievements of the Green Deal, threatening our collective future, we must show political courage and coherence. We will therefore judge this pact piecemeal and we will mobilize so that it serves biodiversity, territories and artisanal fishermen, not industrial interests. Europe must prove that it is capable of acting for the oceans and therefore for our future and that of our children.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, what is currently happening in Turkey is serious. The arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, the repression of the May 1 demonstrations, the mass arrests, all testify to a worrying authoritarian drift. Yet despite the fear, despite the violence, Turkish society continues to stand. I am thinking of these students, these students, these women, these trade unionists, these citizens who take to the streets, who sing, who resist. I am thinking of those who have spent days in prison, those who are still locked up. I am thinking of those who will be at the Pride in Istanbul when it has been banned for eleven years now. Their courage, their dignity, their determination are not only admirable, they are a call to hope for a better world. A reminder that, even in the deepest darkness, there are lights that never go out. There is, at the heart of repression, a society that resists, that invents, that rises up. A society that, day after day, proves that freedom never really dies as long as there are still voices to defend it. This Turkey is the one we must listen to, the one that fights for democracy, justice and freedom.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is with seriousness that I am addressing you today to defend one of the fundamental values of the European Union: equality between all human beings. Once again, Viktor Orbán and the far right have decided to ignore this value by deciding to ban the Pride march in Budapest next June. It is the entire LGBT community, but also all people who are victims of discrimination, who are still targeted, harassed. Viktor Orbán's illiberal regime has decided to attack equality and love through hatred and rejection. Once again, it is all minorities who see their lives threatened. The extreme right is synonymous with hatred. The extreme right is synonymous with rejection. The far right is synonymous with racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia. No displeasure to the far right, we exist. Then let us rise, let us be indignant. Let us never stop fighting for our rights, for our freedoms, for equality between all. Our loves are stronger than your hatred. If the battle is tough, it is necessary. So I will be on June 28 in Budapest, alongside all the people who have to fight every day for their dignity.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, mayors in prison, a population on the streets and a regime that responds with repression. Since the arrest of its mayor, the city of Istanbul has risen, and with it the whole country. Thousands of young people take to the streets, shouting a simple but powerful word: ‘Justice!’ They ask for nothing but respect for the vote, democracy, the right to a better future. And how does the regime respond to them? With batons, tear gas, arrests. These demonstrators are not criminals. These are the voices of a country that refuses fear, that refuses to see Turkey sink into authoritarianism. The images are intolerable: students dragged to the ground, universities surrounded by police, families crying in the anguish of disappearance. Since when did defending democracy become a criminal? Since when is the defence of one's fundamental rights punishable by imprisonment? These people show immense courage. To those who have the courage to take to the streets and listen to us today, I say thank you. We cannot remain silent. Today, they are shouting ‘Justice’ in the streets of Istanbul. Let's not let them scream in the void!

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, do you know this face? This is Justyna. I met her two weeks ago in Poland. Why show your face today? Because, like many women around the world, Justyna shows extraordinary courage to protect women’s human rights. She is an outstanding abortion rights activist, convicted in 2023 for helping a woman to have an abortion in her country. In Poland, it is almost impossible to have a legal and safe abortion. Everywhere, sexual and reproductive rights are at risk. Everywhere, our lives, our bodies, our families, our choices are called into question. It can never be repeated enough, but where it passes, the extreme right does damage, for years. The right to abortion is a fundamental right. Women like Justyna put themselves at risk every day to acquire, preserve and restore it. However, the Commission did not consider it appropriate to mention this in its roadmap on women’s rights. We can never repeat it enough: our bodies, our choices. Commissioner, I am counting on you to defend this right courageously during this term of office, with as much courage as Justyna. For Justyna and everyone who fights every day, thank you!

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, democracy in Turkey is being trampled on. Since 2016, 149 elected mayors have been removed and replaced by government-appointed administrators. In 2024 alone, ten new mayors suffered the same fate, accused without foundation of terrorism, because in Turkey being elected does not guarantee being able to govern. I came back from Istanbul, where I met women and men who fight every day for their rights. Today, I would like us to think of these women who open shelters to welcome women victims of violence, of these LGBT activists who resist despite threats, of these journalists, these lawyers, these activists who know that one word too many can lead them to prison and who speak anyway. Repression is everywhere, in the streets, in the courts, in prisons where thousands of opponents languish. But in the face of fear, there is courage. Faced with the imposed silence, there is resistance. The European Union cannot remain silent. We must demand respect for the rule of law. The fight for freedom does not stop at a border, because solidarity has no passport.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, barriers, barbed wire, divisions. This is the obsession of part of the European political class. Wherever states have erected walls, they have sown only suffering and despair. Today, about sixty walls dot the globe with concrete scars. Over the past twenty years, physical barriers have multiplied at the borders of the European Union, in Hungary, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria. 13% of the EU's land borders are now closed. Walls, therefore, as the only political perspective, everywhere. Look at this wall between the United States and Mexico erected under Bush, ever higher under Trump, more than 1,000 kilometers of steel and mistrust. This wall that, every year, hundreds of thousands of people seek to cross, driven by the hope of a better life. And here in Europe, it's the same story. Ceuta and Melilla, for example. A closed door, looking away. These barriers don't solve anything. They break lives, they extinguish dreams and kill. Let us remember 24 June 2022 in Melilla: tear gas, rubber bullets, migrants trapped between fences, wounded, abandoned, without care... 23 lives mown. And how many others in Europe? The walls don't stop the footsteps. They're stretching out the roads. They push the exiles towards more perilous paths where the shadow of the slave trade lurks. Nor do the walls stop the humanitarian and climatic disasters, the wars, the persecutions that are taking place all over the world. I said it yesterday in another speech and I would like to reiterate it today: No one leaves their country, their landmarks, their family and loved ones by choice. Walls do not protect, they separate, they dig ditches between peoples. They feed fear and hatred. Since walls are not enough, now cameras, surveillance drones and a whole digital arsenal are deployed at Europe's borders. But people will keep trying. Allowing them to cross borders is only a question of humanity and solidarity. This fortress Europe is not mine. My Europe is one of a dignified and unconditional welcome, of human rights and equality. We will never accept the escalation of security measures against exiled people, as the right and the far right of this Parliament demand. Billions going up in smoke every year, for what protection? For what result, if not death and despair? Let's finally stop moral apathy. Europe must choose humanity, solidarity, bridges and reject walls.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today I wanted to send a message to those who refuse to see the truth. I want to remind you of one truth: The exiles do not leave their country for pleasure. They don't leave because they want to. They're fleeing. They are fleeing war, misery, persecution. They are fleeing because to stay is to die. On 19 July 2023, Fati and Marie, her six-year-old daughter, are found dead of thirst in the Libyan desert. They were trying to reach Tunisia. The father, separated from them in the chaos of exile, said "I would have preferred to die with them. I would have preferred three corpses to be found in the desert.” Is this our humanity? Is it this fatality that we accept by looking away? The only dignified response is the creation of safe humanitarian corridors. The only answer is legal and safe routes, which provide an escape route to deadly crossings and break the chains of criminal networks. The only effective response is to ensure that EU money spent in third countries in the name of migration management is not used to finance human rights violations. We have a duty to act. We have the power to act, to choose between indifference and action. Never again must we allow men, women and children to die of hope.