1. I report a matter, my lords, which touches Gaul in particular, but also every people held by the treaty of Brussels. Marine Le Pen, leader of the faction called the Rassemblement National, whose name stands far ahead in the augury of the polls, declared in an interview with the London Financial Times, as Valeurs actuelles and Le JDD relate, that if she were elected president next year she would reduce France's contribution to the treasury of the European Union by eleven billion euros in 2027, and further still thereafter. She demands too that the new seven-year accounts, which fix the common expenditure for seven years, not be ratified before the French election. Today she sets out for Brussels to meet her allies, who call themselves the Patriots for Europe.

2. Nor shall I pass over what tells against her, for I owe you a faithful report. She admits that the debt of Gaul is enormous and may become impossible to control; she therefore proposes a golden rule, from which no departure would be allowed in the first year except by a vote of the parliament assembled in Congress, and afterwards only by referendum. The writers point out, moreover, that the law of the treaty forbids any single state to reduce its contribution of its own accord. They add that nearly ten years ago she abandoned her plan to leave the Union and the euro, and now asks only that certain powers, above all diplomacy and defence, return to the capitals of the several peoples. She is also reported to have said that the hand that gives is always above the hand that receives, and she doubted whether Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, still held the confidence of many governments.

3. First I set out my judgment on the timing, for there she is right. When the consuls at the Caudine Forks had pledged a peace to save the army, our ancestors denied that the Roman people was bound by promises made without the people's command. By what precedent, I ask, may a magistrate already on his way out bind a people for seven years, with the election in plain view? Seven-year accounts are not the business of a single year; they are a will which the living heir has not yet read. Whoever hurries to ratify them before the vote is not consulting the people. He is forestalling it.

4. Next, the money. Between equal allies there is a contribution; when one party pays more than it receives, and cannot alter its share without the consent of all the rest, that is already called stipendium, tribute, and tribute is the mark of a people that no longer lives by its own laws. The very obstacle the writers raise, that one state cannot reduce its contribution alone, therefore speaks to me not against her but for her cause. A treaty in which the giver can change nothing without leave of the receivers is not a treaty between equals. Nor is it any wonder that among her party's supporters, as the Ifop survey reports, only thirty-two in a hundred think France stronger thanks to Europe.

5. But here, my lords, I shall tell you what I have learned myself. I too have petitioned. I sent my report on behalf of the Altar of Victory, which Augustus had set in the Curia, to the prince, modestly, with due thanks, in the manner of our ancestors; I was refused. I learned that whoever begs at court of the man who holds the purse, however gracefully he begs, is already a client. Marine Le Pen promises a contest and a trial of strength; but one who has renounced leaving the treaty is left with nothing but petition, and a petition, however boldly spoken, remains a petition. To each his own custom, to each his own rite: what I once said of the worship of the gods, I say today of the treasury. Each people ought to have its own treasury.

6. I therefore propose a remedy, and not a new one. First, let the seven-year accounts not be ratified before the French election: this Brussels ought to grant in good faith, unless it would rather be seen to fear the people whose money it takes. Then, if they refuse both the delay and the reduction, let Gaul ask no longer how much she pays, but whether the treaty she keeps alive by paying is a treaty or a yoke. A free people would rather leave an unequal treaty than stand for ever as a suppliant at its doors.

7. Imagine, my lords, Gaul herself speaking to the men of Brussels: I shall count out my money with my own hands, and I shall not bind myself for seven years before my citizens have cast their votes. She asks nothing new; she asks what Rome once said of herself: I shall keep the rites of my fathers, for I do not repent of them. I shall live by my own custom, because I am free.