The first salvo was launched on Monday August 16 shortly before 9 p.m. Barely minutes after Emmanuel Macron’s speech, speaking from Fort Bregançon on the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have regained power, the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, exiled in Russia, reacted on Twitter. “Wow, it’s real” (“Oh, it’s true”), he wrote, taking up one of the messages mentioned by the President of the Republic: “We must anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows. ” What, according to Mr. Snowden, to rename the President of the Republic “Emmanuel Le Pen”.
A reference to the speech of the French extreme right and its representative, Marine Le Pen, but also of a part of the right, more concerned by a possible migratory crisis to come than by the humanitarian drama which is playing out in this country of ‘Central Asia. That the head of state, aware of the confusion caused by his words as images of Afghans clinging to the wings of planes to flee Kabul fuse, reaffirmed Monday evening that France “Does and will continue to do its duty to protect those who are most threatened” still weighed little, Tuesday, for the representatives of the left offended by the presidential tone.
“Emmanuel Macron’s response to the Afghan drama is a shame for France”, was indignant Eric Piolle, mayor of Grenoble and candidate for the primary of Europe Ecology-Les Verts (EELV) for the presidential election in a video posted on Twitter. Seeming to challenge the State, the city council, as well as its environmental counterparts, in Lyon, Strasbourg, Besançon or Tours, today say they are ready to respond “To France’s duty of humanity” to welcome Afghans who will seek refuge in France. “The duty of humanity [en] Afghanistan Macron version (the rampart!). Sordid “, insisted Clémentine Autain, member of the 11e constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis for La France insoumise (LFI), while another “rebellious”, the MEP Manon Aubry, blurted out: ” Sorry ? The only people to protect in this situation are the Afghans who are fleeing war, repression and horror. Even in terms of the most basic of humanity, Emmanuel Macron fails in his task! “
On the same line as Merkel
At the Elysee this controversy is judged “Unfair”, while France is trying “H-24” to bring out the threatened Afghans, it is explained. Forty-five people exfiltrated from Kabul are moreover, arrivals late Tuesday afternoon at the Parisian airport of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.
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