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A presidential official says the controversial gesture was an inevitable part of protocol on a state visit.
French President Emmanuel Macron awarded his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, France’s highest award in his state visit to Paris this week, a presidential official said, adding to the controversy over the trip. tremendously controversial.
Activists who had warned Macron not to roll out the red carpet for el-Sisi were already infuriated by the French leader’s refusal to condition deepening defense and trade ties with Egypt on his respect for human rights.
Macron decorated el-Sisi with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor during the visit, a French presidential official said Thursday, insisting that the gesture was an inevitable part of protocol on a state visit.
“The award ceremony is one of the traditional elements of state visits, which are rare, with only one or two a year in France,” a French diplomatic source who asked not to be identified told the AFP news agency.
“And since they are heads of state, they receive the highest distinction,” said the source.
Images of the ceremony emerged only after they were released by the Egyptian presidency. It was the Egyptian delegation that filmed the event.
The award ceremony was not on the official agenda given to French reporters.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the Elysee Palace in Paris during his official visit to France. [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters]
French media were also banned from filming other stages of his visit to Paris, including his arrival at the presidential palace for a state dinner and his meeting with the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
French broadcaster TMC later aired images found on the website of the Egyptian presidency.
Other heads of state who have received the Legion of Honor have included the kings of Spain, the Netherlands and Morocco, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who received the Legion of Honor in 2006.
France also awarded the award to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2001, although Macron initiated proceedings to strip him of honor due to the Syrian civil war. Al-Assad himself returned it after Paris participated in the air strikes against Syria.
The activists had voiced their displeasure at El-Sisi’s three-day visit that ended on Tuesday and said France should do more to raise concern for the 60,000 political prisoners who are estimated to languish in Egyptian jails.
Before the visit, a dozen human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, said that France had “long welcomed President al-Sisi’s brutal repression of any form of dissent.”
Egypt and France have enjoyed an increasingly close relationship under the rule of former army general el-Sisi, with common interests in the Middle East and a shared suspicion of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
El-Sisi came to power in 2014 after the 2013 ouster of then-President Mohamed Morsi by the military then led by el-Sisi.
Those caught up in the crackdown include supporters of the ousted Morsi, as well as left-wing and liberal activists.
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