Speeches

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I shall now read you a few lines. These are the amendments proposed to this resolution by far-right MEPs, and these are just a few examples: “Recognizes that the ideology of transgenderism poses a threat to the status of women in the EU and globally by blurring women’s identity, allowing a man to freely appropriate a woman’s identity; [...] opposes the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports competitions; ... provide a precise definition of women and girls as biological realities. Hatred as a driving force, again and again. More than an ideology, it is an example of a real obsession. And this backlash Transphobic has an impact on the lives of trans people in Europe and around the world. For example, the risk of making a suicide attempt for trans people is eight times higher than for a cisgender person. As a reminder, this resolution aims to establish Parliament's priorities for the negotiations that will take place in the framework of the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. But now, every file, every subject in this Parliament is a pretext to unfold the worst-case agenda for the far right. Together with my progressive colleagues, we wanted this resolution to be inclusive, intersectional, protective of sexual and reproductive rights. You wanted it to be an identity and an exclusionary one. Everywhere, you go against the rights of women, migrants, LGBT people and minorities in general. That is why I am proud of the text we are proposing to you today, and I invite you to support this resolution and to continue our fight for equality.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to say a word to the far right: Our kids are fine. Their only problem in life is your hatred. Today is a special day for the European Union. We LGBT people see the bulwark that Europe must be for the guarantee of our fundamental rights weakened by the arrival of the far right to the vice-presidency of the Commission. We LGBT people know more than anyone else what the extreme right in power means, and today's speeches have shown it to us again. This means questioning our families, the filiation of our children; stigmatization, violence, the backsliding of our hard-won rights. Neofascism has no place in a Commission that is supposed to protect our rights. The European Agency for Fundamental Rights sounded the alarm this summer: Violence against sexual and gender minorities is increasing in Europe. So I would like to say here that I will fight, for five years, for all the Italian lesbian mothers who have had their rights questioned, for the Hungarian activists who are victims of anti-LGBT legislation, for those who suffer the torture of conversion therapies, and for all the victims of homophobia and transphobia. We won't bow our heads. Compromise with the far right sends a clear signal today: Our rights, our lives are not your priority. It is time for Europe to act for our rights.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen: “Patriarchy no longer exists.” These are the words of the Italian Minister of Education in a tribute to Giulia Cecchettin, the victim of a femicide in 2023. Unleashing its xenophobic agenda, the European far right presents us with a European society rid, finally, of patriarchal society and patriarchal arbitrariness. This propaganda puts women and girls at risk. Yet the numbers are there. In Europe, one in three women has experienced or will experience physical violence, sexual violence or threats. In Europe, one in six women has experienced sexual violence, including rape. In Europe, one in five women has experienced physical or sexual violence from their partner, family member or other household member. Male violence is everywhere, all the time. This violence is systemic. Seven years after #metoo, gender-based and sexual violence is still pervasive. They strike all circles, in all countries. The emergency? Building a society where being a woman is no longer a factor of physical risk or discrimination. The emergency? Shifting from a culture of rape to a culture of consent. The emergency? End impunity, finally! Shame must finally change sides.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, in recent years, Poles have mobilised massively, they have risen up against the Constitutional Court’s decision to reduce access to abortion. They stood up against the deaths and imprisonment of women who wanted only one thing: to be able to fully enjoy their sexual and reproductive rights, in complete safety. What happened in Poland with the black protests and the women’s strikes should inspire us. They demonstrated that by means of mobilisation it was possible to reverse the situation. By going to the polls on a massive scale, the Poles have succeeded in overthrowing an illiberal regime that has been in place for eight years. Why did it have to come to this? How is it that one of the most open and forward-thinking countries on abortion since its 1956 law has been able to switch in this way to become one of the most restrictive? This is due to the rise to power of the architects of an illiberal regime. When far-right leaders come to power, they attack women’s and minorities’ rights first. We have had evidence of this in Poland, and we have had evidence of it in other European countries on other topics relating to the rights of women, minorities, LGBT people, such as conversion therapies, sex and emotional education, sexual and reproductive rights. In this regard, Simone de Beauvoir said: “Nothing is ever definitively acquired. It will only take a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question. For the rest of your life, you will have to be vigilant." We will be vigilant.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to talk to you this evening about this trial in Mazan, France, about the strength of Gisèle, a 72-year-old woman who will face 51 of her attackers for four months, after having lived through hell for almost ten years. Men aged 26-73, firefighters, nurses, bakers, engineers, neighbors, friends, colleagues, husbands, fathers. What this trial shows us is what feminists have always said: Gender-based and sexual violence is the work of gentlemen from all walks of life. Men who are the pure product of patriarchal ideology and rape culture. Men who question the very notion of rape, because her husband supposedly consented for her. Because if it's his wife, he can do whatever he wants. Because there would be rape and rape: the one with the intention to commit it and the one without the intention to commit it. This trial is that of a system. Today, I'm thinking about her. I also think of Rebecca, Philippine, Alicia, Giulia. Too many brutal news stories, unbearable violence, reminding us of the urgent need to fight against gender-based violence, because this violence is systemic, because patriarchy is destroying, everywhere in the world and on our continent too. I welcome the adoption, at the end of the last mandate, of a first common European framework on sanctions. But these news stories remind us of the importance of going further and having clear tools and definitions, especially when it comes to the definition of rape. The time of patriarchal domination must be over. So today, let's join forces to protect the victims and finally ban the aggressors.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the time available to me, I would like to speak to you about Zakia Khudadadi, an Afghan athlete who won a medal at the Paralympic Games for the refugee delegation. Zakia had to flee the Taliban regime three years ago because she was a woman, because she had a disability, because Hazaras, but also because she wanted to live her passion fully: Taekwondo. You will also hear about Parwana Ibrahimkhail, a feminist activist arrested, abducted and tortured by the regime for participating in a demonstration. Parwana, whom we met yesterday here in this Parliament. There are many women politicians, teachers, activists, artists fleeing the patriarchal hell established by the Taliban. Since 2021, they have been waging an infamous war against women and minorities, be they ethnic or gender. Dehumanized, erased, oppressed, deprived of dignity, women are relegated to a status of things. It is urgent that we collectively fight against gender apartheid. The European Union must address this issue in international forums by allowing its recognition as a crime under international law. The lack of a regulatory framework in this area is a major gap in our European and international law. As successive generations of women and girls around the world are subjected to institutionalised and systemic violence, domination and oppression, we must act on behalf of oppressed women and minorities around the world by welcoming them unconditionally into the European Union. I hope that the applause we gave to these women yesterday will be the starting point for full and concrete support in their struggle. Now is the time for us to change the things we cannot accept.

Mr President, Commissioner McGuinness, ladies and gentlemen, the attack on the synagogue in La Grande-Motte, the increase in anti-Semitic acts, death threats and bomb threats in front of mosques in Lyon, Madrid and Munich, LGBT-phobic attacks everywhere, and the ever-increasing number of such attacks, such is the Europe that is emerging before our eyes. And these are just some examples among many others. In my first speech to this House, I wanted to stress the urgency of the situation, the urgency to act in an increasingly fragmented Europe. When hatred and rejection hover over us, we must fight them. What we want is a European project promoting coexistence and equality, a project in which everyone can be him, without fear and without hatred. The trend is towards hostility and inward-lookingness, with a far right increasingly present in this Chamber, unfortunately, feeding on this growing hatred, a far right ready to spread its venom all over Europe, criminalizing LGBT people here, exiles there, pacting with Putin's Russia and unfolding its project of a deeply unequal and exclusionary society. In order for the motto of the European Union, 'united in diversity', to be respected, I expect this Parliament to apply strict rules on hate speech, for you, the Commission, to be intransigent towards states that do not respect our common rules and the fundamental rights of each and every one, and for those who exploit hatred for political ends to be swiftly punished in order to feed a deadly project for our continent.