Electoral greed and bloody deals How did French newspapers criticize Macron's Gulf tour?

The French president is in Dubai, UAE, on his campaign tour of the three prominent Gulf capitals. At the top of his agenda were arms deals, commercial contracts, and the Lebanon crisis, topics through which he aspired to achieve a breakthrough ahead of the presidential elections. The French press received this with great indignation and criticism.

Last Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron began a three-day tour of the Gulf, which took him to Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. On the president's agenda, arms deals to the UAE and the meeting with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman were the highlights of the meetings. Likewise, the Lebanese crisis, which Macron has appointed himself as the advocate for, has also received a great deal of discussion between him and the princes of Arab countries.

At the internal level, analysts say that the first motive for Macron's visit is to achieve a political and economic breakthrough with countries that are rich in their economic and oil resources, amid the crisis that his country is experiencing as a result of the epidemic, and his eye on the presidential elections that he intends to enter with a file brimming with "last-minute successes." .

However, the French public opinion, as a whole, was not satisfied with that visit. This was expressed by the press, expressing a wave of criticism at the Elysee, accusing it of seeking to end the diplomatic isolation of the Saudi prince accused of his involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, as well as arming forces involved in the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.

Controversial deals and meetings

Macron opened his Gulf tour from Dubai, where he was received by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in one of the halls of the "Expo 2020" exhibition, in a meeting that included the signing of the largest agreement to sell Rafale aircraft to the Arab country. The deal included the purchase by the Emirates of 80 Rafale aircraft produced by the French company Dassault Aviation, with a value of approximately 17 billion euros.

The Elysee considered the signing of the agreement a "great achievement for the strategic partnership between the two" allies. The French news agency indicated that the Rafale deal will replace the 60 "Mirage 2000" aircraft that the Emirates acquired at the end of the nineties. Abu Dhabi is the fifth largest customer for the French arms industries, with previous orders amounting to 4.7 billion euros.

In addition to the Rafale fighters, Airbus said in a statement that an agreement had been signed to sell 12 Caracal military helicopters to the UAE. On Saturday, it signed in Jeddah a contract for the sale of 26 helicopters, 20 of the "H145" and 6 of the "H160", to the Saudi Helicopters Company. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Aside from the arms deals, Macron's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the most controversial. The French press considered this step to break the diplomatic isolation of the Saudi prince since the assassination of opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

In response to the embarrassment of that meeting, Macron, during his speech to reporters in Dubai, rejected his accusation that he legitimizes the crown prince, stressing that the multiple crises facing the region cannot be addressed by ignoring the Kingdom. The French president added, "We can decide after the Khashoggi affair that we do not have a policy in the region, and it is an option that some can defend, but I think that France has an important role in the region. It does not mean that we are complicit or that we are forgetting."

Internally, Macron tried to promote his Gulf tour as an economic and diplomatic opening for France, and a success for him and his government that comes ahead of the presidential elections to be held in 2022. Thus, he described his visits as "good for France" and creating "a large number of job opportunities" at a time when the country is struggling to get out of its crisis. After the pandemic, which disrupted the economy.

The press is angry with Macron

With all Macron's attempts to defend his choices, French public opinion has not digested these political improvements from his president. Thus, the press, the mouthpiece of this people, inundated with a wave of criticism against the president.

The daily Le Monde titled its file on the tour as "A meeting with his embarrassing allies. It published an interview in which it hosted Aggies Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, who expressed her regret at Macron's meeting with bin Salman." "Whether that is the goal or not, (this visit) contributes to the policy of rehabilitating the Saudi prince," she said, adding that "what pains me is that France, a country of human rights, is the instrument of this policy."

For his part, political analyst and journalist writer, Pierre Husky, criticized in his article on France Inter radio, saying: “We are in a world where the body of a journalist is cut with a chainsaw and at the same time we maintain our position as officials with whom we can talk,” in reference to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. At his country's consulate in Istanbul.

And he criticized the site "Madiabart" Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown , which shifty "avoid the leaders of the West to deal with him, until came to lifting the isolation shifty and it sells Rafale fighter jets to his UAE counterpart." In his article, the website stated that "Macron has been proving that he is a man of choices that not only contradict political logic, but which he considers shameful."