“Fight”, fear, discoveries… The European deputies have returned to Strasbourg

At the European Parliament in Strasbourg,

A little tune, theOde to Joy Of course, and here we go. The 720 MEPs elected or re-elected at the beginning of June officially took up their duties this Tuesday morning in Strasbourg. In a scattered order and sometimes a little late. The opening of the plenary session at the European Parliament was at 10 o’clock, not 10:10!

The newcomers, more than half of the hemicycle, may have been a little surprised by the place. It is not difficult to get lost in the immense Louise-Weiss building and the incessant hubbub of its corridors. Here parliamentary attachés are chatting, there the media are running after an MEP they have finally recognized…

“The first thing I said to myself when I arrived here was that this place had the means to accommodate the Neirab camp, the camp where I was born,” says Rima Hassan. The first Franco-Palestinian MEP to be elected had swapped her usual keffiyeh for a more discreet pendant representing her origins. But regardless of the symbols, she intends to make her voice heard on this subject.

First day at the European Parliament in Strasbourg for Rima Hassan, who answers the media questions here.
First day at the European Parliament in Strasbourg for Rima Hassan, who answers the media questions here.– T. Gagnepain

“I am combative. In the speaking time that was devoted to my group (The Left) today, we denounced the ongoing genocide. Unsurprisingly, we were booed by the right. The Palestinian question is already present and must be even more so. Beyond speeches, we must obtain concrete results.”

For this, she will count on the support of Manon Aubry, re-elected as head of the European left. “I am a little emotional coming back here,” admits the former head of the list of France Insoumise (LFI). “I see myself five years ago, for my first term. I was 28 years old and I was among the youngest. I remember being very quickly impressed by the grandeur of the hemicycle. Everything is magnified a thousand times! You can very quickly become disconnected from what brought you here. In our voice, the voice of all those who suffer from budgetary austerity, of farmers who suffer from free trade agreements… So I told the new members to always remember who and what they were here for.”

“An absolutely dramatic period”

“The old hands take the new ones by the hand to tell them that it’s not that hard and that we’ll get there. Yes, there’s a bit of a back-to-school feel to it,” summarizes Renaissance elected official Bernard Guetta with a smile. Before quickly taking on a more serious tone when discussing the priorities of a “crucial” five-year term.

“We are entering an absolutely dramatic period. Because it is quite possible that Donald Trump will be elected president of the United States. And if that is the case, he will try to reach an agreement with Putin on the backs of the Ukrainians but also of all Europeans. If we do not know how to accelerate the creation of a common European defense, we will be in a bad situation,” assures the former journalist, joined by his colleague of the same side Pascal Canfin.

“We have to ensure our security (…) We have to face external threats, Russia and perhaps Trump, but also internal ones. I’m thinking here of the rise of the extreme right,” he explains, taking up one of the themes dear to the left. Response from those concerned? Jordan Bardella, who joined a new group founded by the controversial Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, preferred not to answer questions from 20 minutes“Maybe later,” he said when Marion Maréchal was “expected” the first time and simply did not want to stop the second time.

On the environmentalist side, Marie Toussaint had all the time in the world between two (endless) votes. “Yes, we are facing very significant threats, whether it be war or the rise of the extreme right. But we must not forget the climate risk, the ravages of which we see every day. It is really time to act. One of the real challenges will be to find a political project to deal with all of this. Otherwise, we are screwed. It will be a mandate of resistance and combat.”

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