Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe the first question that arises in Côte d’Ivoire is that of democracy. Some people believe democracy is only of relative importance when it comes to Africa, that democratic procedures are a complex matter, that we have to give it time, but I personally believe that there can be no compromise with democracy and the question that arises for Côte d’Ivoire today is the same one that arises for Guinea, for example, where we now know that there are people in prison and that the system is not democratic. For almost a year now, a few of us in this House, in particular most of my colleagues, have been alerted to the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, which I really believe offers a perfect example of how not to do things. Firstly, a regime was allowed to take over by force, by armed force. Nothing was said about the persecution of opponents and journalists, or about the establishment of a racist constitution based on ethnic discrimination. Everybody just let it happen, as though they had not learned any lessons from Rwanda or former Yugoslavia. And now they are surprised to see General Gueï end up rigging the elections. First of all, I believe the European Union should welcome the fact that the new president, Laurent Gbagbo, is setting up a national reconciliation committee. We must also welcome the organisation of legislative elections next month, but we must insist that these elections are transparent and do not exclude any political force or any candidate. Equality between the political movements must be guaranteed. And indeed that is why President Gbagbo must not dismiss the possibility of holding presidential elections, as the direct follow-up to these legislative elections. But above all, we must, in my view, insist much more firmly on this racist constitution being declared null and void. The debate on nationality Ivoirian – that confused debate that tends solely towards introducing discrimination in favour of a country’s own nationality, something we are combating in our own countries, and whose logical conclusion is the practice of ethnic cleansing – must be used to totally oppose any reference or connotation to Ivoirian nationality and to have these removed from the Ivoirian constitution. I do not agree with all Mr Ouattara’s view – you need only see where I am sitting on this side of the Chamber – especially in the liberal and economic field, but I do believe that it is not acceptable, in any country whatsoever, and particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, to exclude Mr Ouattara solely because he does not have a mother and a father of Ivoirian origin. In the same way, I believe that the 14 parties that have been excluded must be reintegrated and play a full part in these elections. Otherwise it would mean that when someone like Mr Ouattara is excluded, second-class citizenship is de facto being introduced, and there would be two kinds of citizens and discrimination would eventually become established as a state system. The European Union must also make sure that none of its members establishes relations with its former colonies – and let me emphasise this – that are based solely on economic interests or geostrategic location. It was on the basis of such considerations that Hubert Védrine, the head of the French diplomatic service, actually went so far as to explain that from a certain point of view these elections were legal because they were founded on a constitution. If we take that line, let me say that we should in fact have accepted apartheid, given that it was entirely constitutional. Excuse me if I go even further and say that we should consequently have established better relations with Milosevic in former Yugoslavia. Let me finish by saying this: dictatorships come into being only because there are people who are destitute and who have no access to learning, no access to knowledge. So from that point of view I believe that it is essential that we urgently target our aid for those countries, in order to help them move towards a democratic system, at combating illiteracy, poverty and destitution. It is at that price and by giving assistance to these people that we will finally help them to set up a democratic system.

Political group: GUE-NGL