China, Iran, Turkey, Russia… The whole world has its eyes fixed on France, after the week of riots following the death of young Nahel, killed by a policeman in Nanterre last Tuesday during a roadside check.
Some of these countries, with sometimes tense relations with France, do not refuse any criticism.
While relations between Iran and the European Union have been particularly tense in recent months, Tehran is taking its revenge. The Iranian Foreign Ministry thus called on France to “end the violent treatment” of its population, “while respecting the principles of human dignity, freedom of expression and the right of citizens to demonstrate peacefully”… One foot of nose, which repeats almost word for word the statements of French officials during the violent repression of the social movement triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani further called on law enforcement and the French government to “show restraint”, and “pay heed to protesters’ demands”, while recommending that Iranians avoid “non-essential travel to France in the context of the current crisis”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had already repeatedly mocked France and its police, whom he accuses of Islamophobia, gave a layer of it Monday live on television. According to him, it is the “colonial past” and the resulting “institutional racism” that are at the root of the urban violence of the past few days.
He also feared that recent events would “lead to further oppression of Muslims and migrants” in France. The Turkish president finally compared the death of hundreds of migrants left without help off the Greek coast at the end of June, to the emotion aroused by the disappearance of the Titan, a submarine en route to the Titanic, which housed several billionaires.
A dichotomy where Recep Tayyip Erdogan perceives “the sign of the colonial, arrogant, inhuman mentality, based on the supremacy of the white man”. “Authorities must learn from this social explosion,” he concluded.
Banished from the international community since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, despite its return to the Arab League in May, Damascus has not failed to mock, too, the “colonial mentality” to the origin of the violence.
In Moscow, it was former President Dmitry Medvedev, who had become one of the regime’s ultras since the start of the war in Ukraine, who made his happy comment. On Twitter, he taunted Emmanuel Macron and the French government, suggesting it was time “to side with France” rather than multiply statements of support for Kiev (which he called “verbal diarrhea “).
Echoing rhetoric regularly used by Russia, he criticized “the money spent” in support of Ukraine, which could have served “ordinary French people”.
Macron has said several times that he is on the side of Ukraine. It may be time to put an end to this verbal diarrhea and side with France. The money spent in vain for the weapons intended for the band of the drug addict zelenski could have been useful to the French…
After a bus carrying Chinese tourists was targeted by stone throwing on Thursday in Marseille, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on its nationals to “caution”, even to postpone their stay in France. Beijing nevertheless remains measured in its treatment of the riots, which it addresses at a minimum.
Some see this as a consequence of Emmanuel Macron’s recent trip to Xi Jinping: while the French president wishes to present himself as one of China’s main interlocutors, the Chinese authorities could seek to spare him.
According to Courrier international, the crisis is nevertheless likely to have repercussions on tourism, France remaining one of the favorite destinations of the Chinese.