French Member of Parliament Christine Arrighi strongly criticized the government’s decision to ban the planned Free Iran rally, calling it “humanly and diplomatically irresponsible.” Speaking at the Free Iran World Summit in Paris on June 20, 2026, Arrighi questioned the legitimacy of the move and suggested it reflected pressure from Tehran.

As President of the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran, she rejected claims that the rally posed security risks, pointing to the peaceful nature of similar gatherings in Berlin and past events in Paris. Arrighi argued that despite official denials, the decision ultimately aligned with the Iranian regime’s interests.

She stressed that France would eventually have to reassess its stance and recognize the legitimacy of the Iranian Resistance and its supporters. Reaffirming her backing for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Arrighi described Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan as a clear roadmap toward a secular and democratic republic.

Highlighting the courage of the Iranian people and Resistance Units, she said efforts to suppress such events reveal the regime’s growing fear and fragility. Addressing activists directly, Arrighi expressed confidence that their movement is already advancing and that its democratic vision will ultimately prevail.

French MP @ChArrighi: We all have in common the work toward establishing a secular and democratic republic in Iran, with a particular interest in the role of women in political leadership. #100KFreeIranRally #OurChoiceMaryamRajavi https://t.co/wIH4YpYmXw

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 20, 2026

A translated version of Christine Arrighi’s speech follows:

Dear Iranian women and Iranian men, dear friends of Ashraf 3 over there, so many of you watching us and fighting.

Dear friends of the Iranian Resistance.

Ladies and gentlemen, who have come from all over the world for this historic event.

Beyond my duties as a French deputy and president of the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran, if I have the immense honor of addressing you today, it is on behalf of all the sister committees from different parliaments in Europe and North America who have their representatives here.

We speak different languages, and we certainly, I am even sure of it, have diverse political sensitivities.

But we all have in common that we have dedicated ourselves, each and every one of us in our respective countries, to the liberation of the Iranian people.

To the liberation of the Iranian people from the yoke of a ruthless religious dictatorship.

A people who have suffered for so many years the torments of a bloody repression and war.

We all have in common working for the establishment of a secular and democratic republic in Iran, with a particular focus on the role of women in political leadership—which is also one of the reasons for my membership in the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran.

At a time when the complex Iranian question is in an international deadlock and finds no real solution in the endless conflict between the mullahs’ regime and the major powers of all sides, this immense demonstration could not better demonstrate that the Iranian people have their say.

These are the words we hear from Iran through the executions of the brave activists of the Resistance Units, and of the young insurgents arrested after the horrific massacre of last January that shocked us all.

These words mean “no” to war. It is “no” to complacency and to endless negotiations that are constantly reconsidered—and the latest one will be as well.

But “yes” to the uprising. “Yes” to the liberation of the Iranian people, supported by their independent Resistance, to overthrow this brutal regime.

This is what Maryam Rajavi has never ceased to declare for more than twenty years, and what all of us, the parliamentary committees, have supported in order to bring your voice to the policymakers of our countries.

It is for these reasons that we have supported her Ten-Point Plan for a free Iran.

Your demonstration is, above all, an embodiment of the hope that the people, united in their diversity, carry in a common front of solidarity for the overthrow of all forms of dictatorship and the restoration of a democratic and secular republic.

This is what we strongly support within our ranks and in the ranks of the various political groups in the French National Assembly and in all parliaments worldwide.

So today, gathered here in Paris by the tens of thousands, you embody this free Iran.

Let us continue to act to erase the darkness of the mullahs, so that a bright future may come for the children of the homeland of Iran.

I was supposed to deliver these words today at Place Vauban. But, as you know, this demonstration was banned.

So, I tell you, my heart aches for my France.

My heart aches for my France, my France, the homeland of human rights.

My heart aches for my France, which bears on the pediment of all its town halls these three words: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. These three words for which, for years, the Iranian people have been fighting, and which we should support today more than ever.

So, we are told that this demonstration was banned because of a [risk of] disturbance to public order.

Two years ago, I participated in a joyful demonstration in the streets of Paris, without there ever being any mention of a potential disturbance to public order.

Not long ago, there was a demonstration in Berlin which demonstrated that fighting Iranian women and men who seek to [drive out] the mullahs’ regime can gather without any disturbance to public order.

So, where do these words come from, which justified the police prefect’s order?

This is the question I am asking the French government today.

Because indeed, even though these discussions had been underway for more than two months, the route had been defined, then redefined, then escorted, then negotiated, and while we were waiting for a final receipt, just a few minutes before [its issuance], the ban arrived.

And we learned from the press that moments before, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke with the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Quai d’Orsay said these words: “We never requested the ban on this demonstration.”

But of course—thank goodness, Jean-Noël Barrot, that you did not request the ban on this demonstration.

You did not request it because it was the Iranians who requested it, it was the mullahs who requested it; but you, you decided it.

And frankly, today, in the situation in which the Iranian people find themselves, banning such a demonstration [in] support [of] this people whom the mullahs want to crush in Iran is truly—both humanly and, I say it, diplomatically—irresponsible.

Because France will have to renew diplomatic ties with Iran.

And it is obvious that it is not with the mullahs’ regime that France will have to renew diplomatic ties, even though the war has stopped.

France will have to build [bonds], support, and help all those who gathered not so long ago at the National Assembly—even though they do not necessarily speak the same language or defend exactly the same political views—who gathered despite their differences to present a united front against this bloody regime.

So, France, my homeland, will have to look at things differently, and will in any case have to bow before the Resistance and all those who are here and embody it, because tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in any case, it is you who will be in power.

So, I say tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, but in reality, I think it is starting today—you are already there.

And it is because you are already there, and the mullahs’ regime knows it, that in its feverish state [and] faced with a weak government—and I say this, weighing my words—[it] has tried and is trying to prevent all of your demonstrations.

So, rest assured, I know it deep down inside myself: you are in power.

Not really in [the conventional sense of the term], but the reality is that you are, and soon we will be able to accompany you, and you will be able to welcome us to Iran.

Thank you.