“Let the Iranian people freely decide their future by preventing our rulers from sticking their fingers in the jam jar because their interests are strong,” Jean Pierre Brard, a former member of the French National Assembly (parliament), said during a conference in the parliament on February 7. The event was in solidarity with the current uprising in Iran, supporting the Iranian Resistance and rejecting any form of dictatorship. The full text of Mr. Brard’s speech, translated into English, revised, and edited, is as follows.
We have a history. We never come from nowhere. This history tells us that there are core values, those that are set in stone. Here, by the main entrance where there is the Universal Human Rights Declaration of 1789. Read it again. It still illuminates the path of today, including when things are going badly. You will read it again, and you will find morale, hope, and the knowledge that you must always look ahead, whatever the difficulties of the moment. Because, of course, the sensitivities are different, but the convictions are the same when it comes to the essentials. Philippe quoted General de Gaulle, and we must hold on. Ingrid said earlier that Maryam Rajavi never surrendered, nor did De Gaulle. You know, the States and I am thinking about the future of Iran with our friends from the PMOI precisely because it is not a small wind that is blowing but a gust of wind. And as General de Gaulle said, States have no friends, they only have interests, and today, there are some.
It’s not only the PMOI that thinks about the post-mullahs. There are all those who have sensitive interests. Some are sensitive to the scent of perfume, others to the smell of oil. And so we are preparing for the future.
I will tell you a verifiable anecdote. This is not the last night’s dream. Dominique de Villepin, a brilliant intellectual, was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he was meeting in Tehran with his Iranian counterparts. And here we are talking about serious business. On the Iranian side, we must get rid of the PMOI. And on the French side, you have to do business. Jean Jaurès, a great figure in this place [parliament], said, “What is revolutionary is to seek the truth and to tell it.” And I was on a radio one day with a former French ambassador in Tehran when Dominique de Villepin was there to discuss. And through his indiscretions, I knew that there was a subject that was of great concern to the French government.
The uprising started almost 5 months ago; Iranian people, especially women, have moved the world with their courage & bravery in face of injustice, inequality, & discrimination.
This is the courage of a generation standing in face of death, arrests & torture.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/CgWCuhpH3K— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 7, 2023
It’s done. It was to make room for Total to exploit oil, of course not mineral water, in competition with the BP, which had to be eliminated. On the radio, I said, “Mr. Ambassador, can you confirm that during this meeting, it was a question of the place of Total to the detriment of BP?” he did not answer, of course. But at the end of the interview, the ambassador told me, “You were very hard on me.” I said, “Ambassador, was it true or true?” And there, a silence. You know how it must exist in the deafening depths of space. So it was a confession already. All this is o tell you that he thinks about the future too. Like all those who think only of money, not of the good of humanity, not of the right to be happy, not of the right to learn, not of the right to take care of oneself but accumulate capital. Well, they are already at work to try to prepare tomorrow’s solutions without the Iranian people, without taking into account the sacrifices made by these people who have sprinkled the Persian land with their blood, which entitles each of those who live on this ground to be free tomorrow.
So you know, when you ride a bike, you have to inflate the tubes. Otherwise, you feel the chaos. It’s terrible, but when the tire is a little old, at that time, there can be punctures. And when your bike is flat, it’s very annoying, especially if you’re on a hill. And what are you doing? Are you trying to fix it, and with what? Let’s repair the holes in an inner tube with a piece of rubber called a patch. Well, there are some who have found patches, but they haven’t studied the matter well because often, you can’t ride a bike with only patches.
So there they found a luxury patch, a luxury, a royal patch.
You know, we French people know that restorations have never been very successful. Ask the manes of Louis X eight and Charles X, Louis-Philippe, then Napoleon, whom Victor Hugo lovingly called the little one. All that, they ended up in what André Chassaigne called the garbage cans earlier. Garbage cans, you know, it’s like in my town of Montreuil, in Neuilly. There are luxury trash cans and poor trash cans. Well, the one I mentioned was more luxurious. But the Shah, or his son, even if they are a luxury trash can, would still be a trash can. But we really have a duty to show solidarity with the Iranian people right to the end. Because you know, often it’s not those who make history who profit from it, but it’s those who write it, that is to say, the winner, like the Americans I was talking about earlier.
And they obviously write it. Who has a good role? They are the ones who stole the outcome of the fight. And I think our duty is to support the Iranians in what I think is the final phase of the final struggle. It does not mean short, but where victory is at the end of the fight, but also to help the Iranian people and abroad. Iran’s external friendships are very important. Let the Iranian people freely decide their future by preventing our rulers from sticking their fingers in the jam jar because their interests are strong.
I, who took part in the fight against sects, found myself accused of supporting a sect. Not just any, the one led by Mariam Rajavi. But, of course, this is all a lie. We were attacked, but in the holy scripts, Ingrid, I speak under your control. It is said somewhere that we do not throw fruit; we do not throw stones. Pardon the tree that bears no fruit. Are you validating? So be it.
So there you go, be careful. Let’s think of today; let’s be united, but let’s think of tomorrow so that the people who shed their blood can live free by raising their heads and raising their children according to their convictions—freedom on all levels, the freedom to believe or not to believe. A woman equals a man. The right to be able to live from one’s work, to be educated, and to be cared for. If we had participated in this, we would have done what we had to do.