00:00Marc Batanger is the Belgian Workers' Party, first member of the European Parliament.
00:05He told me he believes the EU has ignored human rights.
00:10What we've seen in the Middle East since basically the genocide in Gaza, but also right now with
00:16the attacks on Lebanon and on Iran by the United States and Israel, is that they've
00:21basically been supporting these illegal wars.
00:23And so that's absolutely unacceptable.
00:25We cannot have these double standards where we speak about international law when it comes
00:30to, I don't know, Russia, but we basically support the worst violations of human rights
00:34and international law when it comes to Israel and the United States.
00:37The European Parliament is a broad church.
00:39We should explain there are obviously many parties and many, many different views.
00:43I wonder if, however, you could generalize and perhaps define the general sentiment towards
00:50what's happening in the Middle East among European Parliament members.
00:54I think there's this coalition, the majority coalition behind Ursula von der Leyen, who's
01:00the chairman of the, the chairwoman of the European Commission, so a little bit the executive
01:05of the European Union, who basically supports her stance.
01:10And her stance has been very pro-United States, very pro-Israel.
01:16So that is a disaster, I would say, for Europe.
01:19Because once again, that completely, like, I mean, why would people in Asia, in Africa,
01:24in Latin America give any credibility to the European Union if it cannot stand up for the
01:31things it claims to stand for, right?
01:33But then you also have, fortunately, political debate and you have people more towards the
01:39left of the hemicycle that are saying, listen guys, we cannot have this hypocrisy, we cannot
01:45follow US imperialism, we cannot ourselves be complicit in funding, for example, a genocide
01:52against the Palestinians or in closing our eyes when UN peacekeepers are bombed in Lebanon
01:57by the Israelis.
01:58So you have this debate, but it very much depends basically on how people on the streets mobilise,
02:04because we as parliamentarians obviously feel the pressure from public opinion.
02:08Ursula von der Leyen calls for peace.
02:10Is anyone listening?
02:12No, I don't think they are right now.
02:14And the reason, of course, is that if you, you know, bandwagon behind other countries, and
02:20in this case, the United States, then there's no reason for other countries to take the EU
02:25seriously.
02:26You know, if the EU wants to be taken seriously, it should on the one hand, you know, be clear
02:30on its principles and act upon those.
02:33And on the other hand, say, you know, we will diversify our relations.
02:38We stand for multilateralism.
02:40We stand for multipolarity.
02:42And we will discuss, we will intensify our relations with other countries, with, I don't
02:46know, India, China, Brazil, South Africa.
02:49We will not just be, you know, a junior partner to US imperialism.
02:55And that is clearly a choice that Ursula von der Leyen today has not made.
02:58And the EU establishment is yet to make.
03:01But there is, I do believe, a strong pressure coming from public opinion to say, listen,
03:05this war on Iran, this illegal war on Iran, these massacres in Lebanon and in Palestine.
03:10These are not our wars.
03:11We do not stand for them.
03:13And they're not in our interests because, you know, energy prices are going up and ordinary
03:16Europeans are paying for that.
03:17So, let's just say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say,
03:17let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say,
03:17let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say,
03:17let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say,
03:17let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say,
03:17let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's
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