This Thursday, August 6, in Ismailia, northeast of Egypt, French President was the guest of honor of the Egyptian President and Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi for the inauguration of the second channel Canal Suez. Under a huge tent or heat prevailed, the two men are installed side by side as two very familiar partners. A parade of ships and military aircraft, including 3 French Rafales delivered recently to Egypt, opened the festivities. The atmosphere resembled a mix between a national holiday and the Paris Air Show.
A propaganda clip punctuated a blockbuster musical recalled the “will of God” that would have allowed the construction of this scale infrastructure. More definitely, it is “the generosity of the Egyptians,” who have subscribed “in just 192 hours” last year to almost $ 9 billion of bonds, which helped finance the project. The president’s speech was more Sissi economic nationalist. Yet these great works, there is only launched a year, has doubled the capacity of this major artery of world trade with revenues expected to increase from 5 to 13 billion by 2023.
What Hollande came to do in this High Mass in honor of Egypt? To explain his presence, the Elysee first advance historical reasons: it’s a French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who designed the Suez Canal in 1869, later nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser. But the motivations of Francois Hollande, who travels for the first time in the Middle East region, are primarily economic. He plays the role of ambassador of national aviation and armament industries. For, in February, Egypt became the Hexagon a strong partner in this field. She bought not less than 24 Rafales, Dassault combat aircraft, a multi-mission frigate (FREMM) and missiles for a total of 5.2 billion euros.
First contract to export
A real boon for Dassault. The French industrial flagship has won its first export contract after six failures in ten years. It’s also a chance for France: these contracts with Egypt represent two thirds of French arms sales to 2014, 8 billion in total. What justify the exercise of representation to which comes the president who also brought in his luggage teammates choices: Eric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation winner of this commercial partnership, Hervé Guillou, president of DCNS and Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA sitting one row away.
The Economic Partnership however is not understood. A graduate young Egyptian who lives in Cairo and is suprised by the choice of “President of the homeland of human rights” to do business with Sissi. Because the marshal came to power in 2013 after the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, is not really a democrat. Since his election with a Stalinist score of 96.9%, Sissi governs without parliament has introduced legislation restricting the freedom to demonstrate and imprisoned 41,000 people, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch.
At first, however, Holland had demonstrated a critical mind. Guest in Tunisia in 2013, he condemned, taking tweezers, taking power by the army in Egypt is “an admission of failure.” ‘We have obligation to do that the Egyptian people can again find hope in democracy, “he added. Today, L’Elysée considers that Sissi is legitimate and even suggests the pivotal role of the country in the Middle East fight against terrorism. It is also a Sissi argument. In his inaugural speech, he recalled “the fight against terrorism to represent a correct image of Islam” and “against terrorist groups, those I call the wicked. “
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