00:00Now, let's cross live to the man himself, Fernand Cathayza, EU parliament member from Luxembourg.
00:07I'm glad to have you join me right now, Fernand.
00:09Now, let me ask you first, did you expect such a decision from your faction?
00:17Good morning and thank you for having me.
00:18I must say I was considering this.
00:22Yes, I thought it was likely that I would be expelled from the group because we had differences on the issue of the conflict
00:29for very many months already.
00:32I have always been outspoken and have said that we need diplomatic solutions,
00:37that we also, as Western countries, have to recognize our own responsibility for the conflict.
00:43And so the relationship between me and other members of the group was not very good.
00:49So I expected indeed to have to suffer the consequences of that decision.
00:54Now, expansion for a simple trip to Russia.
00:57Isn't that a big, a bit extreme?
01:01Why do you think such a decision was made?
01:05Well, I think that it is specific to ECR in some way because there are some delegations in ECR
01:12that are particularly, I would say, outspoken of the conflict
01:15and have some very pronounced anti-Russian stances, like, for instance, the Baltics, the Polish, the Scandinavians.
01:24They are more, I would say, focused on this issue than other delegations.
01:31But I think that this expulsion is a sign also for the general attitude towards Russia in the European Parliament.
01:40Not all, not all groups, I must say, but most of the groups and in the Western societies.
01:44We are in a situation where sometimes I would think that we could touch upon war hysteria or something like this.
01:54We are not rational in many of our attitudes.
01:57I think a rational attitude would be to discuss with Russia, to find a diplomatic solution
02:02and not to manoeuvre ourselves in a situation where we are escalating the conflict with enormous risks.
02:10Now, you gave an interview to our channel when you were in Moscow
02:14and you stressed the need for dialogue with Russia.
02:18Now, to what extent is this view shared in Brussels?
02:21Not much, I think.
02:24But let me say that in the official EU agreement, this view is not shared very much.
02:32I think that most officials in the European Union would exclude this,
02:36starting with Mrs. Callas as the high representative for foreign policy.
02:40But I don't think that the general public shares this.
02:43I mean, I have been to Russia.
02:44The press has reported about it in a very negative way.
02:47But people in this tweet come to me, congratulate me, shake hands, tap me on the shoulder.
02:54It's unbelievable, actually.
02:56So, for me, it is clear that there is a divide between the official circles in the European Union,
03:01which have a very anti-Russia stance, and the general public, which is much, much more moderate,
03:07and would really wish to see some dialogue with Russia,
03:11so that we could sort out our differences in a civilized way.
03:16Now, we saw repeated targeting of politicians advocating for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war across the EU,
03:24an attempt on the Slovak prime minister's life, the annulment of elections in Romania,
03:30pressure on Hungary, criminal case against Le Pen in France,
03:34and the branding of AFD in Germany as extremists.
03:37The list goes on.
03:39What kind of a pattern are we seeing here?
03:43Well, we have a general problem in the West with interference in democratic processes
03:48and also limitations in the freedom of speech.
03:52You don't have a democratic society if you don't have freedom of speech,
03:56and this is actually endangered here.
03:58I cannot even believe what I'm seeing because we have been advocating freedom of speech for many years.
04:05Now we are creating in the European Union instruments such as the Digital Services Act
04:10in order to limit it and to exert censorship.
04:13We are many politicians in the European Union who oppose this,
04:17many civil society movements also who try to oppose this.
04:21It is very dangerous because if we want to be credible in our attitude also towards other countries
04:27and say we are democratic, so we can, in that case, we cannot go on like this,
04:32limit freedom of speech, interfere in democratic elections,
04:35we have to come to reason again here in the West.
04:39And if there are tendencies like this, we have to oppose them clearly
04:42in order to defend our own credibility.
04:45All right. In an interview last week, you discussed with us the ongoing peace process.
04:50However, we saw terror attacks against trains and drone strikes against Russian air bases.
04:56How do such acts impact their hopes for negotiations?
05:01I don't think that they are properly reported here in the West.
05:04Maybe now in the United States because the attacks on the airplanes,
05:08on the strategic air fleet has implications on the START treaty
05:12because there might be, I'm not really sure about all the details now of what happens,
05:18but in my judgment, there might be an element of perfidy
05:21because you cannot use drivers who do not, civilian drivers who do not even know what they do.
05:28You cannot attack planes that are on display because an international arms control agreement
05:35has fixed that situation like this.
05:38So you take advantage of a disarmament treaty.
05:41I do not approve this.
05:42And of course, any attack against a civilian in an armed conflict is not acceptable, wherever that might be.
05:48I think that is a method that a state should never, never use in order to promote its objectives.
05:54It's absolutely unacceptable.
05:55Now, while Washington has been advocating for a peaceful resolution for several months now,
06:02European politicians adopted new sanctions and called for a huge ramping up of armed supplies.
06:08Now, what do you make of these approaches and where can it lead to?
06:13Well, I don't think that there will be much success in this.
06:17If Washington, at some certain point, would really decide not to supply any more weapons or much less weapons,
06:25we as Europeans cannot really step in to the same extent.
06:28We can do some deliveries.
06:31We can also provide money, of course, but we cannot replace the United States to the same extent.
06:37So I think that if Washington would take such a decision,
06:40it would more quickly lead to the end of the armed conflict.
06:43But, of course, I don't know whether they are going to take such a decision, when they would take it.
06:49But the consequences would clearly be that Ukraine would be terribly weakened on the battlefields.
06:55Can you share with us what scenarios do you have of your political future?
07:01Yes, well, I have several options, of course.
07:04First of all, let me tell you that I remain committed to diplomacy and to honesty.
07:08So I'm not going to change my personal attitude in any way in order to promote a career or whatever.
07:14I don't care about this.
07:15I want to be considered as an honest person by everybody, by you and by my partners in the West.
07:22I don't lie.
07:23So that's my basic line.
07:25So I have the option of being either an independent MEP or maybe to try to create an own political group in the European Parliament
07:34or maybe to go to another political group, but clearly on the condition that I can talk freely in my mind
07:40and that I don't have to lie because I don't want to do that.
07:45I remain committed to diplomacy.
07:47I remain committed to good neighbourly relations and to stability, peace and stability in international relations.
07:53And I'm not going to change that.
07:56And we thank you for standing on the side of truth.
08:00Fernand Cathayza, EU Parliament Member from Luxembourg, thank you so much for all you do.
08:07Thank you for having me.
08:08And I hope to be again in Moscow very soon on this time with a diplomatic mission,
08:14with a mandate so that I can help resolving conflicts.
08:17Thank you very much.
08:18We'll be ready to welcome you in here.
08:20Right.
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