It is very important for me to be able to take part in a meeting where delegations from several European countries are coming together in a situation that is naturally highly alarming and worrying not only for the workers and peoples of our continent, but actually for the whole world.
For several months, the situation has been escalating. We are witnessing what  can only be called a march towards war. The capitalist system of exploitation, which is running out of steam, is pushing humanity to the  brink. Barbarism is currently taking place before our eyes in Ukraine, Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

For this system, which is at an end, it is no longer enough just to exploit and plunder. Today they need more, and that is why governments on both sides – Putin in Russia,  Zelensky in Ukraine and his supporters subservient to NATO, the USA, Scholz in Germany, Starmer in Great Britain, Macron in France –  all participate in the military escalation. Comrade Gotthard said: 1 million victims, young Ukrainians, young Russians, sent to the battlefield. A high-ranking American officer already referred to this as a ‘meat grinder’ in April 2022, 1 million victims, Russians and Ukrainians. But that is not enough for the butchers on both sides, the war must continue.
Meanwhile, the profits of the Russian oligarchy are skyrocketing. As the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, declared in December last year: ‘We have to recognise that war is a great opportunity for French industry, for the French arms industry.’

At the same time, several tens of thousands of Palestinians have already died in Gaza under atrocious conditions. An entire population  suffers under a murderous blockade; it is suffering what must be called a genocide, organised with the complicity of all our governments. The German government under Olaf Scholz has decided to expand arms deliveries to Netanyahu’s genocidal government, Starmer in the UK continues to supply weapons, the government under Macron continues to supply weapons, and the US government has supplied weapons worth tens of billions of dollars. We know that without these weapons and military equipment, the genocide would not be possible.

Yes, our governments are accomplices and it is our governments that the resistance of the peoples is directed against.

This resistance is more necessary and legitimate than ever. The same governments that are fuelling the march to war are cutting all budgets at the same time. In France, the deputies are currently discussing the budget in the National Assembly.
Against the people of my country, the government – which is illegitimate because it is made up of the parties that were defeated in the last legislative elections – is cutting all social budgets: hospital, school, social security budgets. All of this is to be cut. There are two budgets that will not be cut: the army budget and the police budget, because the French government needs to step up repression.

Everyone who has been fighting against the genocide in Palestine and the war in Lebanon for several months has been systematically intimidated, threatened and subjected to repression.
Of course, we cannot remain silent about this situation; people want to live everywhere. They do not want war. Despite the repression that I have just mentioned and which has been going on for a year now,  there are massive demonstrations in France, and everywhere, against the genocide in Palestine and against the government of Macron and Macron’s complicity with the Netanyahu government.

And that played a major role in the outcome of the last parliamentary elections.

I would like to finish with one thing. The priority is the fight against our governments, against these war-mongering governments. Now more than ever, it is up to us to continue our exchanges, to continue the current discussions in order to join forces. And there are many who are saying: stop the war, stop the war in Ukraine, stop the massacre in Palestine, stop the arms deliveries. Let us resist, let us unite, let us gather against our governments. This fight must be waged now. It is necessary now.