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Source, Reuters
“This is not about succumbing to blackmail,” said Medef president Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.
Tensions between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron between Turkey and various Arab countries to boycott French products was the main topic on France’s agenda. French Employers Association “We support the government,” said the French trade minister against Turkey’s call for a boycott “would be retaliation,” he said.
“This is not about succumbing to blackmail,” Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of the French Entrepreneurs Movement (Medef), said in remarks to the RMC broadcast about the boycott calls.
More than 750 thousand companies are members of Medef, which was founded in France in 1946. 90% of the members are small and medium-sized companies. Medef is lobbying French companies across the country and abroad, and is considered one of the most established business movements in France.
Bézieux stated that ‘it is necessary to defend republican values’ and said: “There comes a time when we have to put principles before the possibilities of developing our business. We are in full solidarity with the French government and I urge companies to resist this blackmail and, unfortunately, to accept this boycott for now. ” .
On the question of whether the calls for a boycott of France will be answered with a boycott of Middle Eastern products, Bézieux said: “Let’s not respond stupidly. The boycott is out of the question.
French Minister: ‘We do not retaliate against Turkey’
French Trade Minister Franck Riester also said it is too early to say what the impact of the boycotts will be. “For now, we are just following what will happen in the next few days,” Riester said. Riester said they are in contact with companies that sell food products such as ‘Bel, Lactalis and Danone’.
Source, EPA
French products were removed from some shelves in Yemen.
Riester, the RTL radio statement in response to calls to boycott Turkey “will not retaliate against Turkey,” said.
Referring to the tension between France and the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya in recent months, President Erdogan said: “I am calling my nation now, just as it is trying not to buy Turkish brand products in France. Do not buy French brands.
French Minister Riester, “Our agenda does not retaliate,” said, noting that talks and relations with Turkey will continue.
The Turkish Embassy in France also said that the French Foreign Ministry shared on Sunday From the Twitter account “The calls for boycotts against French products deviate the positions that France defends in favor of freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and the rejection of any hateful calls,” he said.
It is claimed that food products and luxury brands and companies that sell cosmetic products that are more popular in Middle Eastern countries may be affected by boycott calls.
Islamic Council of France: ‘Consider the interests of your country’
The president of the French Islamic Council (CFCM), Mohammed Moussaoui, also called on Muslims in France to “protect the interests of their country” against the boycott campaign.
Moussaoui said calls for boycotts would create a “divide” and could be “a step backwards.”
“France is a big country, Muslim citizens are not persecuted, they can build mosques freely, live their beliefs freely,” Moussaoui said.
Speaking to France Info, French political scientist Prof. Bertrand Badie commented that “in the current situation, the results may not be worrying.”
Turkey, as among those calling for a boycott of French products such as Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, there is unity in Qatar.
According to official sources, France’s trade volume with these countries is not very large. According to the ministry report that shares annual foreign trade data, France’s exports to Qatar in 2019 were 3.2 billion euros.
In the same period, exports from France to Germany were 70.1 billion euros. Countries in the Near and Middle East represent around 3% of French exports. Exports from Paris to the countries of the European Union are 58.7%.
Source, EPA
Some French cosmetics were also withdrawn from sale in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.
Sciences Po Institute professor Frédéric Encel believes that the boycott decision is “unsustainable” for these countries. Speaking to French broadcaster 20 Minutes, Encel said: “If this boycott continues, these countries may face sanctions from the entire European Union. This is not a sustainable situation for them.”
Encel, who drew attention to the “first calls for a boycott of French products” from the Middle Eastern countries, said that this reaction should not be exaggerated.
Boycott in Arab countries
French hair care and beauty products in some supermarkets in Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen and Qatar were taken off the shelves after French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to display cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Source, EPA
French products were also removed from the shelves in Amman.
The Kuwait Association of Consumer Cooperation Associations called for a boycott of French products.
A hashtag about the boycott of the French supermarket chain Carrefour in Saudi Arabia became the second most popular hashtag on social media on Sunday.
Some politicians in Egypt also launched a boycott campaign against French products.
Similar protests were observed in Libya, Syria and the Gaza Strip.
While Macron posted “We will never submit” on his social media account about these protests, the French Foreign Ministry declared that boycott calls made by “a radical minority” were “baseless.”
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