On February 17, 2023, a grand rally of freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance (NCRI and MEK) was held at Max-Jozef-Platz, in front of the security conference in Munich.
Several German Parliament members and political personalities attended the rally, which addressed supporting the Iranian people’s demands for freedom and democracy.
Jean Pierre Brard, former Member of the French National Assembly, gave a speech to the demonstrators at the rally.
A reflection of Mr. Brard’s speech is as follows:
Dear German and Iranian friends.
It is a great honor for me to welcome you on behalf of the French Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran.
Since the moral police of Tehran’s terror regime murdered the young Mahsa Amini on September 13 last year, the heroic people of Iran from all walks of life and in all parts of the country have been in revolt. That’s not new. Since the establishment of the theocratic dictatorship 44 years ago, popular resistance has never stopped.
The patriots of Iran paid a very high price with their blood, and everyone still remembers the mass murders in the prisons of the dictatorship in 1988. Liberation can only come from the people. Despite murders, torture, and blackmail, the struggle to defeat the bloody autocrats continues to unfold. The Iranians and their National Council of Resistance need international solidarity to isolate the regime more and more seriously.
Today, we’re not just witnessing demonstrations against the dictatorship, but rather an uprising, even more, a revolution that is making its way to the liberation of the citizens of these great people, which has always forged its own way since ancient Persia and its great history.
The sacrifice of the Iranian nation has been tremendous, but thanks to the courageous efforts and the role of women and youth in the first place, freedom is on the horizon. Thanks to the roadmap of the NCRI and the ten-point plan presented by Madam President Maryam Rajavi, the prospect of democratic Iran is clear and credible. As our French Revolution in 1789 paved the way for it, everyone will have the right to free speech; any men will have equal rights, and everyone will be recognized as such, regardless of which ethnic group they belong to. And everyone will have freedom of belief.
Through blood and suffering and through their sacrifices, the Iranians bring their contribution to a new stage in the emancipation of our humanity.
Thanks to the courage of the Iranians and the resistance movement across the country, the ayatollahs will soon disappear from this tragic period in Iran’s history. But the fight will have to go further. The states that have been so complacent with the tyranny of the ayatollahs are ready to help to save part of the Islamic Republic’s apparatus. That’s not new, either.
We are here in Germany. What happened at the end of Hitler’s terror regime? Admiral Dönitz tried to prolong and save the Nazis. As General de Gaulle once said, states have no friends, only interests. This is still true today at the top of international politics, with the usual cynicism of statesmen who never really and seriously deal with human rights. These are mostly just pretexting for hidden goals that are never laid out clearly and honestly on the table.
The big states and their big corporations are very concerned with the future of Iran. What are you interested in? Human rights and democracy in Iran? Not at all. It’s rather the vast wealth of Iran: oil, gas, copper, coal, zinc, lead, etc.! That’s why there’s been a lot going on in recent weeks about alternatives to the mullahs’ regime. They are waiting and ready in the starting blocks to support a new regime.
It is not about meeting the needs of the Iranian people, but rather how can Total, BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil plunder Iran’s wealth and confiscate it for themselves. Politics and business are closely linked. Candidates for an alternative in Iran are already lining up. So ready are Shah Pahlavi’s son and his cousin. Last week, there was a demonstration by the Iranian monarchists in Paris. Press conferences and interviews were organized by these people in Washington last week. They and others are ready to plunder Iran, as they have done several times in the 20th century.
The Iranians did not offer so much blood and suffered so much to endure such an alternative. The martyrs did not give up their lives to satisfy personal ambition or greed for others to profit. There is a program and the NCRI with clear proposals, consistent and loyal to the current Iranian revolution in Iran, to overthrow the dictatorship and establish a new democratic Iran with freedom and prosperity in this hot and important period of Iran’s history. All friends of the people of Iran and their liberation from theocratic terror must continue to stand with our Iranian friends.
Now, a final word for our friends in Ashraf, those who were in Camp Ashraf and then relocated to Camp Liberty and are now in Albania. They have never surrendered. This is an example for us all. This is how freedom is going to come and stay for a longer period of time into the future of Iran. Thanks a lot.
