Category: VERBATIM

Speech in the debate on Russia

Your reasons are clear, Mr Putin: your economic difficulties, the constant rise in your unpopularity, your inability to make peace in Syria after winning the war there and the rejection of your overly long reign by the middle classes are driving you to want to terrify your opponents and turn away your public opinion’s attention by the noise of marching boots which leads to nothing.

Speech at the plenary session in the debate on the Chinese sanctions

You have committed yourself to this, Mr Xi Jinping.

In this draft investment agreement, you say you want to ratify the ILO conventions.

So do it, Mr. President.

Op-ed published in “Sud Ouest” on 11 April 2021

By Bernard Guetta, Member of the European Parliament, member of delegation of the French presidential majority

In this opinion piece which “Sud Ouest” publishes, the former columnist and Member of the European Parliament, Bernard Guetta shows that the President of the Republic has “a card to play” to get reelected.

In European view – Wielfried Martens Center for European Studies

It is now impossible to examine the world’s largest country without acknowledging the new realities which have changed the situation there. The first is that the idea that Russia irresistible is no longer as compelling as it was even two or three years ago and that this has called into question, and even weakened, the Russian president’s authority. The second reality is that it would certainly not be in the interests of the world’s major democracies to allow Russia and China to combine forces against them. The third is that the botched attempt to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 has raised his status to that of an alternative to the incumbent president. However, the most striking of these new developments is that Russia is at a loss as to how to respond to the democratic protests in Belarus because the options available would have major implications for both Putin and Russia itself.

Statement on Myanmar at the Foreign Affairs Committee

There are two things involved in this inadmissible coup by the Burmese generals: the nobility of some people, and – have no fear of words – the infamy of others. In defence of the elections, of their freedom, of democracy and of their human dignity, some people take to the streets, armed only with their courage and fuelled only by their indignation.