Debate: Formal sitting – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Date: THURSDAY, 27 JANUARY 2022
Speaker: Charles Michel
Language: FR

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to begin by expressing my admiration and my gratitude to you, Ms Margot Friedländer. Admiration for your courage and commitment to bear witness as you do today. It commands our respect and it forces each citizen, each of us here today, to reflect on our own commitment to defend and improve the society and the world we live in. And allow me to express our gratitude, dear Margot Friedländer, for your words of wisdom. Your commitment has brought you to this Parliament today, the home of European democracy, to commemorate the Holocaust, when Europe’s Jewish people were targeted for annihilation. Holocaust, Jews, home, democracy, Europe. Allow me to say a few words about some of the convictions that link these powerful and resonant words. The Holocaust was a European tragedy. Some people, especially the younger generation, may see this event as remote and abstract, even mythical: a global commemoration of a unique, symbolic and long-ago tragedy. Yet it was on European soil that this unimaginable crime was perpetrated – perpetrated by Europeans against fellow Europeans. The result of unbridled hatred. And we Europeans are all heirs to this history – our history. And you are all the guardian of this memory, our memory, this Europe and Europeans, all of us here today, a special responsibility: the responsibility of guardians. They are sparse, and this responsibility becomes all the more consequential because unfortunately, we will not always be accompanied by survivors to bear witness. Ladies and gentlemen, Europe is the home of European Jews, exactly like it is the home for all Europeans. Europe would not be what it is today without the contributions of the Jewish people over many centuries, contributing to our societies, to the sciences, economy, culture and to the vibrancy of our European intellectual life. Europe is home for Jewish people. That’s why today, with anti-Semitism resurgent in Europe, the idea that Jewish people are under attack just because they are Jews is absolutely unbearable. And it’s why the strategy that the European Commission adopted last year to combat anti-Semitism and to secure a future for Jewish life in Europe is so vital. And this plan includes support for the creation of a network of young European ambassadors to promote the memory of the Shoah. Ladies and gentlemen, this Parliament is a House of European democracy. Anti-Semitism is a denial of democracy. When we defend Jewish life, when we promote Jewish life along with the life of all communities in Europe, when we fight discrimination, when we protect minorities, we defend European democracy. Defending European democracy means fighting anti—Semitism and all discrimination. Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, it was therefore no coincidence that those who planned, organised and perpetrated the genocide of the Jews were also those who in 1933 burnt down the Reichstag, the German parliament. This building was symbolically restored some 60 years later and re-inhabited by the Bundestag, when democracy was restored throughout reunified Germany. Combating anti-Semitism today means combating the hate speech and the conspiracy theories that have taken root and thrive, especially online. And this Parliament, the Forum for European democratic public debate, is a place where this essential battle is being waged. Finally, I’d like to return to the Holocaust and to the crucial role that this event plays in shaping our European spirit, our European vision. The European Union is the strongest and most decisive response to the tragedy of the Second World War: a project of peace, of solidarity, of shared prosperity, a political project, forward-looking and founded on solid values. And it is this tragedy, the Holocaust, that has instilled us Europeans with a special sense of duty: the duty to defend and to promote respect for human dignity and freedom here at home and throughout the world. The duty to fight all that discriminates, all that weakens, and all that dispossesses or even excludes, as the Jews have been in our European history. This duty, this fight, is no different than the fight for democracy. They are one, they are the same. Dear friends, it’s precisely because we have experienced the unspeakable horror of the Holocaust that today we work so intensely for Europe, its home to democracy. Democracy: this is our struggle. For democracy is never fully won, never won forever. But it is the worthiest of battles. It requires commitment from all of us, just like the tireless commitment shown by you, Margot Friedländer. Chère Madame Friedländer, nous voulons vous dire, avec toute la solennité requise, notre admiration, notre gratitude pour le message poignant, puissant, qui nous fait frissonner, qui nous inspire de l’émotion, nous inspire aussi de l’espoir et de la force. Merci.