Tag: france

Turkish Navy Ships Menace French Frigate in the Mediterranean

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France alleged Wednesday that on June 10, the French frigate “Courbet” was subject to hostile maneuvers by Turkish naval ships off the coast of Libya. 

In a move that French Defence Minister Florence Parly described as “very serious,” Turkish warships targeted the “Courbet” after it requested to search the Turkish cargo ship “Circkin,” believed to be carrying illegal weapons.

France claims three Turkish naval ships were escorting the “Circkin.” In response to French requests to check the ship’s cargo, the Turkish ships engaged their naval targeting radar three times, a move Minister Parly described as “extremely aggressive.” 

The French “Courbet’s” NATO mandate does not include the pursuit of ships and it was forced to abandon attempts to check the cargo of the Turkish “Circkin,” reported French daily Le Figaro.

“This is an extremely aggressive act that is unacceptable by an ally against a NATO ship,” the French Defence Ministry stressed on June 17. “We consider this an extremely grave matter… (and) we cannot accept that an ally behaves this way, that it does this against a NATO ship, under NATO command, carrying out a NATO mission.”

France is present off the coast of Libya as part of its engagement with NATO’s Sea Guardian operation. NATO describes Sea Guardian as a maritime security operation “aimed at working with Mediterranean stakeholders to maintain maritime situational awareness, deter and counter-terrorism and enhance capacity building.”

Turkey has rejected France’s allegations, with a senior Turkish military official stating that the French frigate failed to establish communications with the Turkish ships during the incident and reiterating that “Turkey is fulfilling its obligations as an ally today as always.”

“If one takes into account that the French warship was refueled by our side before the alleged incident, it is clear how inappropriate and intentional the allegation is,” they said.

NATO has since announced it will launch an investigation into the matter. On June 18, NATO Secretary-General Jans Stoltenberg explained the investigation aims “to bring full clarity into what happened.”

The incident comes in a time of tension between Ankara and Paris, whose relationship has deteriorated since 2016 over issues regarding refugees and human trafficking, as well as arrests of French journalists. 

France and Turkey’s rising tensions

Tensions have run high between Turkey and its EU NATO partners for months as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embraced a more aggressive strategic posture. 

In October 2019, Turkish-backed militants launched an offensive to secure a 30 kilometer “safe zone” along the border for Syrian refugees in Turkey to return. The offensive led to the death and displacement of thousands of Syrian Kurds, a key ally of NATO in the fight against Islamic State. 

Within the Mediterranean, France has previously accused Turkey of using the NATO flag on its warships outside of official operations, including to escort cargo. The use of NATO insignia outside of operations is forbidden. 

Paris has also escalated its opposition towards Turkish interventions in Libya, angering the Turkish regime. Tensions between Turkey and France over the conflict in Libya are driven by their support for rival leadership groups. 

Turkey, with Qatar and Italy, supports the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) whilst France, along with Russia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), supports the rival forces led by Khalifa Hifter. 

Turkey is facing criticism due to its involvement in transporting weapons and mercenaries to fight in the ranks of the Saraj government. France has slammed Turkey’s supply of arms to the GNA and hostile actions in the Mediterranean as undermining NATO’s work and attempts to negotiate and uphold a ceasefire. 

BBC issued an investigation revealing further proof that a Turkish ship delivered weapons to the Libyan Government of National Accord fighting within the capital, Tripoli. This move violates international resolutions and undermines the agreement from January’s Libya peace summit in Berlin, in which countries pledge to better enforce the arms embargo. Many parties allege Turkish military intervention has further fueled the already critical Libyan conflict.

Ankara continues to violate all international conventions and the Libyan arms embargo, France claims. The European country says Turkey was exporting heavy weapons across the Mediterranean to Tripoli. This exposed it to the direct clash with the EU’s Irini operation, set to monitor the commitment of the various parties to the UN arms embargo.

NATO members are divided over how to approach Turkey’s operations in Libya, with some member states believing that Turkey’s engagement will lessen Russia’s influence. Paris has been firm in its message to fellow members that “more Turkey does not mean less Russia.” 

Meanwhile, France is accused of being one of the many Arab and Western countries supporting the opposing Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

France denies supporting Haftar, but Turkish state media claims France has previously given him aid to fight Islamist militants. France did not publicly criticize the countries that support Haftar, the outlet claims, although France continues to criticize Turkey’s position.

 

Read also: France Repatriates 10 Children of ISIS Fighters From Syrian Camp

French Media Accuses Turkey of ‘Poisoning the Atmosphere’ at NATO Meeting

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The explosive claims by French media come after Minister for Defence Florence Parly told a June 17 meeting of NATO defense ministers that “we can no longer pretend that there is not a Turkish problem.”

France earlier accused Turkish navy ships of engaging in “extremely aggressive” behavior in the Mediterranean, alleging the ships engaged their targeting systems as a threat to the French frigate “Courbet” during a June 10 incident off the coast of Libya. 

An unnamed attendee told Le Monde that the NATO meeting was “very tense.”

Turkey hit back at France’s allegations of aggression prior to the NATO meeting, claiming French “support for the rebel commander Khalifa Haftar has worsened the crisis in Libya and reinforced the suffering of the Libyan people.”

Turkish military adventurism in Syria and its continued willingness to supply arms to Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA), despite a United Nations arms embargo, has led French diplomats to warn of the “extension of the Ottoman Empire to the west of the Mediterranean.” 

Rising tensions between Turkey and France

The tensions between Turkey and France are long-running. In 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that a “crisis of solidarity” existed between Turkey and NATO. At a December 2019 NATO meeting in London, a number of European states including Germany and Italy supported French criticism of Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria. 

Further increasing tensions within the bloc, Turkey has opposed plans to increase defense measures in Eastern Europe. Designed to counter Russian influence, Turkey is demanding that NATO designate the Kurdish militant group YPG terrorists in exchange for its support. 

Despite the difficulties NATO is facing, a diplomatic source told Le Monde that “Turkey will always have its place in NATO.” 

France Repatriates 10 Children of ISIS Fighters From Syrian Camp

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On Monday, the French Foreign Ministry announced it has brought another ten children of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters back to France, adding to the 18 repatriated since March 2019. 

In the June 22 communique, France thanked local authorities for their cooperation and said the children are now in the hands of French medical and security services. 

“France has carried out the return of ten French minors, orphans or humanitarian cases, who were in camps in northeast Syria,” said the press release from the foreign ministry. 

“These children have been turned over to French judicial authorities, are receiving medical treatment and have been taken in by social services,” the ministry added.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria foreign relations commission co-chair Abdulkarim Omar confirmed via Twitter that a French delegation took charge of the “orphaned and humanitarian cases” in the city of Qamishli.

The International Crisis Group says 13,500 foreign women and their children are living across three camps in northeast Syria, and 300 of them are believed to be French. 

The issue of repatriating children taken to or born into the Islamic State’s so-called “caliphate” in Syria is fraught with logistical and policy challenges.

Human rights campaigners argue the French and other foreign governments have a duty of care to the children of foreign fighters. According to activists and members of their extended families, France should repatriate minors immediately, removing them from the physical and psychological dangers they face in the camps. 

“It is eminently possible to repatriate these families, there is no practical barrier to it, all that is needed at the moment is the political will to do so,” Mat Tinkler, the director of international programs and policy at Save the Children, told The Guardian in February. 

Disease and malnutrition are rife in the makeshift refugee-cum-prison camps like the notorious Al Hul, aid agencies report. Three children drowned after a rare summer downpour hit a camp in Idlib on the weekend, destroying tents and possessions and highlighting the tenuous and dangerous position of children living in Syrian camps. 

The French government maintains that the children’s parents should be forced to face justice in Syria, and said children will continue to be repatriated on a case-by-case basis. 

Foreign governments have cited the logistical and security challenges of accessing the camps as reasons for not providing assistance to the children. The Australian government, for one, said it is not willing to risk the lives of soldiers or Department of Foreign Affairs staff to rescue “hardcore” terrorists who “have the potential and capacity to come back here and cause a mass casualty event.”

The pro-Kurdish authorities who run the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria where the camps are located have urged foreign countries to repatriate detainees as they do not have the resources to hold them indefinitely. 

They have also escorted a number of foreign citizens, mainly women in children, to neighboring Iraq to facilitate the repatriation process and reduce the risk of repatriation for foreign governments. 

Read also: Caesar Act Sanctions: Another Blow to Syria’s Collapsing Economy 

 

Lebanese Blogger Calls out French Fashion Industry Racism

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Samar Seraqui de Buttafoco is elegant, chic, stylish, and a sustainable fashion entrepreneur who lives in the 7thArrondissement of Paris.  

On paper, the blogger originally from Lebanon, sounds like the quintessential Parisienne, but according to a conversation with her manager posted to Instagram, she was not “Parisian enough” to grace the pages of the as yet unnamed French fashion magazine.  

Outraged by the latest rejection, the influencer shared the message with her over 100 000 Instagram followers, sparking strong reactions and support from other Arab and women of colour in the fashion industry.  

The Rejection  

“Well, that won’t work for (the anonymous magazine), not Parisian enough, you’re a certain type. Next time for sure…” Seraqui de Buttafoco’s manager said.

The Lebanese-born woman replied, “I forgot that Parisians are white,” to which her manager responded, “I know, shameful.” 

“The beautiful words of fashion,” a clearly upset Seraqui de Buttafoco responded.  

In the caption accompanying the exchange, Seraqui de Buttafoco said she has been subjected to a “systematic racism” by the French fashion industry that constantly “casts her aside” but has remained resilient, and unshaken by such rejections. 

“If one day, I have a daughter I’ll call her Simone, like Simone Veil, and many other Simones who have given me the desire to be Parisienne, above and beyond your stereotypes which are so far from the reality in French society,” the influencer said in a message clearly bound for the unnamed magazine in question. 

“I do have that “je ne sais quoi,” the elegance not to name you,” she added in a final parting shot.

The former political journalist rose to prominence through her wildly popular style blog “Une Libanaise a Paris,” (A Lebanese in Paris) and is now creative director of her own ethically produced t-shirt brand “Das Mots” (The Word). Seraqui de Buttafoco and “Das Mots” have been featured in publications like Vogue Arabia, Vanity Fair France, and Elle, and while she has abandoned her blog, maintains a strong following on Instagram and Facebook. 

The Reaction 

One of the people to come out in support of Seraqui de Buttafoco was her friend and French style icon, model, designer, and aristocrat Ines de la Fressange. 

“Parisians are rarely born in Paris, and this brand is stupid and does not deserve you!” she replied to the post.  

“I am half Argentinian, with Czech, Polish and Colombian blood,” De la Fressange, considered by many to be the quintessential “Parisienne,” added. 

The French-Moroccan blogger and founder of ‘Beatnik Creation’ Hassana Rabeh, said she was shocked by the fact such racism still exists in the French fashion industry. 

“I’m actually in the metro and it’s surprising, the majority of Parisians don’t look like the clichés that brands and magazines try to sell us,” she sarcastically pointed out in an Instagram story on the topic.  

“How many French bloggers of Arabic origins do you see…who are invited to big fashion shows, who do collaboration with major brands?” she asked in another story.  

“One day maybe it will change,” exclaimed hopeful Paris based actress and model Hajar Abourachid. 

Fashion Instagram page, “J’adore la France” (I love France) commented its support for Seraqui de Buttafoco and said that page had been created to provide a more accurate image of what a “Parisienne” woman really is, and to prove that “French girls are not only blonde white and skinny.” 

“Thanks to Samar [Seraqui de Buttafoco] for speaking about the racism that many women who work in fashion and want to participate in campaigns where the aesthetic is said to be “Parisienne,” are victims of. This type of talk and response is shameful and should be denounced,” it said.

The growing prevalence of pages like “J’adore la France” show that French society is starting to recognise and value its inherent diversity. Recent rallies against the death of George Floyd, and French man Adama Troare’s death in custody have shone a light on the dark, often hidden but insidious nature of racism in French society — a country built on liberty, equality and brotherhood where people, in theory “don’t see race.” 

Protests in cities across France, alongside individual incidents like the one highlighted by Seraqui de Buttafoco have forced wider society to take notice. It remains to be seen if they can actually open up the conversation about systemic racism in French society and bring about genuine change.

Read also: Tunisian Parliament Votes Down Bill Calling for Apology from French Colonists

Rich Countries Seek Priority Access to COVID-19 Vaccine

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In order for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to save as many lives as possible, it would require rapid distribution, and to those countries struggling with the highest infection rates. The chances that will happen are slim, say several experts who see an increasingly competitive race for first-access to a potential vaccine.

“We have this beautiful picture of everyone getting the vaccine, but there is no road map on how to do it,” the Associated Press was told by Yuan Qiong Hu, a senior legal and policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders in Geneva.

Hu predicts that the existing structure, in which companies establish patents at every step of vaccine development, will hamper the distribution and development of a vaccine that could be made available to all. “We can’t afford to face these multiple layers of private rights to create a ‘people’s vaccine,’” she told the AP.

Three phases

Several possible vaccines are under development across the world thanks to global efforts, with around a dozen in the early stages of testing. Vaccine development requires any potential remedy to go through a three-phase process that tests the efficacy of the drug while ensuring that side effects do not pose unforeseen risks.

In the first phase, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. If the vaccine proves successful without any significant health risks among the participants, the process moves to the second phase.

In phase two, the clinical study expands to a group of people who are part of the risk group for whom the vaccine is intended, which in COVID-19 cases would be older people and those vulnerable because of pre-existing illnesses.

The third and final phase tests the vaccine on thousands of people to ensure safety and a proven efficacy to avoid false positives and detect possible allergic reactions or side effects.

Private investment

Several wealthy countries have spent millions to support the rapid development of possible vaccine candidates and ensure a potential vaccine could be manufactured on a large scale. In exchange for these investments, these countries are expected to receive vaccines before others.

The British government has declared that the first 30 million doses of a possible vaccine under development at Oxford University will be earmarked for British citizens. The US became entangled in a diplomatic row with France over the potential future distribution of a French vaccine candidate to which the US expected first access because of its investments.

AstraZeneca, a drug manufacturer that intends to produce Oxford University’s vaccine, has signed an agreement with the US that would guarantee 300 million doses for the US, to be delivered as soon as possible.

The same manufacturer struck a deal with four EU countries to also supply them with 300 million doses. Drug manufacturers appear to be actively goading governments into making early commitments to buy yet-unproven drugs, playing countries against each other as they stand to make giant profits.

While pharmaceutical companies have pledged to provide a not-for-profit version of their vaccines, it is becoming clear that the world’s richest will be the first to receive the vaccines, even if other countries need them much more. Another example of the perverse nature of privatized medicine, it will be the richest, not the sickest, who will receive priority in this global crisis.

France Finds Syria’s Rifaat al-Assad Guilty of Money Laundering

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On June 17, a French court found Rifaat al-Assad, the 82-year-old brother of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, guilty of money laundering. The judiciary  sentenced him to four years in prison and he will have all his French and London-based properties seized after he used Syrian state funds to purchase the real estate.

Court case

According to the court documents, between 1984 and 2016, al-Assad acquired property in some of France’s most prestigious neighborhoods and amassed a fortune of roughly $113 million. The French court established that much of al-Assad’s wealth came from Syria, even as he himself claims the Saudi king had offered the fortune as a gift.

Spanish authorities, in a 2017 anti-money laundering operation, seized 500 of his properties estimated to be worth roughly $785 million.

Al-Assad will appeal the sentencing and will not enter detention until his appeal has been processed. Bashar al-Assad’s uncle was also ordered to pay $33,680 to Sherpa and Transparency International France, the two anti-corruption NGOs that first brought al-Assad’s practices to the attention of the French court in 2013.

Sherpa’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, told Reuters that “this ruling shows that nobody escapes justice and there is no impunity.”

Rifaat’s past

Rifaat al-Assad was listed as Syria’s vice president until 1998, but lost most practical political power after being accused of a 1984 coup attempt when his brother, Hafez al-Assad, was suffering from heart problems. The Assad-aligned Alawites had been excluded from a council entrusted with ruling Syria, leading some high-ranking officers to throw their support behind the president’s brother, Rifaat.

Rifaat al-Assad led an army of 55,000 to take control of Damascus and disarm Syrian troops but Hafez used his seniority in the Assad family and his recovery to force Rifaat and his allies to abandon the coup attempt. According to News Arabia, Rifaat left for exile with $300 million of Syrian state funds, which he later claimed was a gift from the then-crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah.

Palace intrigue

Similar to the current palace intrigue over the Makhlouf family, Rifaat had access to state funds through the business empire of his son, Sumer. Like Rami Makhlouf, Sumer was part of the business elite that ensured the Assad family received a cut of all economic activity in the country.

When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, Rifaat positioned himself as the logical successor to the Syrian presidency after having held the vice presidency for decades. But his claims while exiled in France produced no significant opposition to Bashar, who ascended to the presidency as their father had intended.

Rifaat became known as the “butcher of Hama” for his part in the bombardment of Hama, where thousands of civilians died. He had called for Bashar to step down during the Syrian civil war but his little remaining influence proved to be insufficient to achieve his objective.

France Deems Turkish Ambitions in Libya ‘Unacceptable’

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On June 10, a Greek navy ship approached a Turkish cargo vessel in the high seas off the coast of Libya. The European ship, tasked with upholding the Libyan arms embargo, approached the vessel and sent a message requesting to board and inspect the suspicious cargo ship. This is a standard procedure that regulatory ships have repeated 75 times in recent months, but this time it yielded unprecedented results.

The cargo freighter did not respond; instead a Turkish warship appeared that told the Greeks to back off. With no mandate to forcibly board the freight ship, the Greek naval ship was forced to retreat without any inspection. French President Emmanuel Macron called the act “unacceptable” as the event adds fuel to an escalating diplomatic row between France and Turkey.

UN mandate

An EU spokesman on June 11 was reluctant to give details about the events, instead referring to the head of “Operation Irini” in Rome, which hosts the task force monitoring the Libyan arms embargo.

The renewed focus on the repeated breaches of the UN embargo on the supply of arms to Libya had earlier resulted in UN Resolution 2526, which mandates a naval force with daily inspections of vessels approaching and departing the Libyan coast.

The task force aims to stop the flow of arms in exchange for Libyan oil by inspecting naval trade, with the results of these inspections going to a UN panel of experts tasked with evaluating the situation. While the arms embargo faces no opposition in diplomatic circles, in practice most foreign actors involved in the chaotic conflict breach it daily.

French response

With a fresh round of peace negotiations approaching, military operations on the ground are accelerating as both sides hope to make “gains” which they can then use in negotiations. Macron had earlier highlighted Turkish “broken promises” as the new GNA gains appear to be the result of a large-scale Turkish intervention that has introduced new aerial capabilities for the Tripoli government through the use of drones.

News confirmed the horror of the Libyan conflict yet again on June 12, when UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed deep shock over the discovery of mass graves in the country. But the Turkish intervention last week that prevented UN inspection of one of its vessels presents a new escalation according to the French.

“The Turks are behaving in an unacceptable manner and are exploiting NATO. France cannot just stand by,” a French official stated, while another added that France had concerns over the “even more aggressive and insistent stance from Turkey, with seven Turkish ships deployed off the Libyan coast and violations of the arms embargo.”

Further chaos

France nominally supports both sides in the conflict. As part of the UN, it recognizes the Tripoli GNA government, but France also supports Libya’s eastern LNA faction led by leader Khalifa Haftar. Macron hosted Haftar at the Elise Palace in March and has attempted to mediate a cease-fire, but with Haftar’s forces in retreat after several GNA victories, the conflict has changed.

As the GNA advances, it has brushed aside calls for a cease-fire, as the LNA did when they were at their strongest. The inconclusive back-and-forth between the two factions has led to a radical escalation of foreign troops, mercenaries, and weaponry, all in a clear breach of the embargo.

The chaotic conflict has turned Libya into a lawless state where already desperate refugees hoping to reach Europe face exploitation and die by the dozens in Libyan slave markets and refugee camps or drown in the Mediterranean Sea.

What was initially a civil war fought by Libyan militias using civilian cars and light arms has devolved into a proxy war featuring Naval frigates, fighter jets, anti-air batteries, and drones. What was once an internal conflict over the future of the country has become a sandbox for a proxy-war between foreign nations, where the Libyans themselves have little to do with an eventual resolution.

EU Human Rights Court Rules in Favor of BDS Movement

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France has violated the freedom of expression of activists of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS) that aims to protest Israeli apartheid. The ruling is significant as the EU is seeing increasing repression of pro-Palestinian activism, which Israeli lobbyists paint as antisemitic.

French courts had earlier convicted the protesters of “incitement to economic discrimination” after a group of eleven protesters held a demonstration at a supermarket in the small town of Illzach in 2009.

The protesters had handed out leaflets calling for a boycott of Israeli products which French courts, including its top court, upheld as a crime and sentenced each member to pay a €1,000 fine.

Court ruling

The European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) then took the case as “Baldassi and Others v. France,” named after Jean-Michel Baldassi, the leader of the small group of protesters.

On Thursday, June 11, the EHCR unanimously found (PDF) that “incitement to differential treatment is not necessarily the same as incitement to discrimination” and that French courts had violated the protesters’ right of freedom of expression established in article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After eleven years of ongoing court cases, the EHCR ruled that France must pay each protester €380 to compensate for loss of income due to the court cases, €7,000 for non-quantifiable damages, and €20,000 jointly to cover costs and expenses inflicted on the protesters in their eleven-year legal battle.

BDS response

Rita Ahmad of the Palestinian-led BDS movement said about the ruling: “This is a major legal blow to Israel’s apartheid regime and its anti-BDS lawfare. At Israel’s behest, European governments, especially in France and Germany, have fostered an ominous environment of bullying and repression to silence Palestine solidarity activists.”

Ahmad highlighted the link between Black Lives Matter protests in the US and the BDS movement’s anti-colonial position, saying “at a time when European citizens, inspired by the Black Lives Matter uprising in the US, are challenging the ugly legacy of European colonialism, France, Germany and other EU countries must end their racist repression of human rights defenders campaigning for Palestinian human rights and for an end to Israeli apartheid.”

Ahmad also emphasized the role of European silence on Israeli human rights and international law violations. “Europe is deeply complicit in Israel’s occupation, siege of Gaza and slow ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians.” She promised further activism in Europe, saying that “for as long as this complicity continues, BDS campaigns will too.”

Tunisian Parliament Votes Down Bill Calling for Apology from French Colonists

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The small centrist Al-Karama bloc proposed the bill and its 19 members wore shirts bearing the slogan, “Murder and torture, the brutality of French colonialism” during the 15 hour parliamentary debate. 

Only 77 of the 217 member assembly voted in favour of the legislation that demanded “compensation to the Tunisian state and to all those who suffered the pain of colonization.”  

“We are not animated by any bitterness or hatred, but such apologies will heal the wounds of the past,” said Seifeddine Makhlouf, President of the centrist Al-Karama party.  

The bill fell well short of the 109 votes required to pass. Its failure has been put down to deep divisions in the parliament, and concerns it could harm the country’s relationship with the former colonial power who remains its number one trading partner.  

“We are not going to feed Tunisians with such motions,” Osama Khelifi, from Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunis) argued, alluding to Tunisia’s heavy economic and political reliance on France. 

Another factor in the bill’s downfall was Makhlouf’s criticism of Tunisia’s independence president Habib Bourguiba, whom he described as “the servant of France.” Bourguiba was a charismatic ‘father figure’ who led Tunisia to independence and served as the country’s first President from independence in 1957 to 1987, when he was peacefully deposed at age 84.   

“We are for the most part the children of Bourguiba, who led the liberation struggle of the country after long years of imprisonment and deportations and built modern Tunisia by generalising education and by emancipating women,” Tahya Tounes MP Mustapha Ben Ahmed said, in response to the criticism.

Global push against racism, glorifying colonialist figures

The bill comes in the wake of a global wave of anti-racism protests that have reignited conversations about France’s role in slavery and colonial past. The Republic, built on the values of egalité (equality),and fraternité(brotherhood), has witnessed large anti-racism protests and is being forced to address the reality of racism in a country that sees itself as “colour-blind.”   

“France is not blind to racism. France thinks it’s blind to racism,” University of Tours African diaspora researcher Maboula Soumahoro told France24 in February. 

“Because slavery was illegal on the mainland, people in France have the impression that this hyper-racialised history that is characteristic of the modern world only concerns the Americas, when in fact we have our own history,” Soumahoro explained.  

The French Republic’s universalist principles, in conjunction with the realities of the country’s colonial past, have created an environment where racism persists, but is downplayed by politicians and the mainstream media — which, in spite of France’s large Maghrebin and African communities, remains dominated by white voices. 

“The result of this contradiction is a form of universalism that is itself not universal, tainted by a sense of superiority and a tendency to depreciate other cultures,” according to, Carole Reynaud-Paligot historian and author of the “Racial Republic: Racial paradigm and republican ideology” 

“Racism is derived from this context of domination, a context that is still at play today, most notably in France’s relations with the so-called developing world,” Paligot told France24. 

“Racism is derived from this context of domination, a context that is still at play today, most notably in France’s relations with the so-called developing world.” 

Outside of France, statues of slave traders and colonial figures have been torn down by protestors across the globe. Statues of Christopher Columbus, who discovered the Americas, then enslaved, suppressed and massacred its native peoples, have been beheaded, set alight and destroyed in two US cities. While British demonstrators in Bristol tore down and threw the statue of British slave trader Edward Colston into the city’s harbour on Sunday.

Read also: Tourism Losses and COVID-19 Spending Stress Tunisia’s Budget

European Leaders Hide COVID-19 Deaths

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Belgium has faced international criticism for its high COVID-19 death-rate, but Belgian scientists claim that the rest of the EU are under-counting or under-reporting fatalities.

Professor Steven van Gucht, head of Belgium’s scientific COVID-19 response team has been under fire from both national and international actors for using a counting method that the British Health Foundation describes as the “fairest way to compare COVID-19 deaths internationally.”

Van Gucht has felt the pressure from Belgium’s business community and political leadership who have urged him to change the method of counting, “but we refused,” van Gucht told Deutsche Welle. Infection rates appear to be slowing in Europe, allowing for a deeper look into the numbers behind the pandemic’s impact on Europe.

Excess Deaths

It now appears that Belgium is one of the few European countries that has accurately reported the scale of the crisis on its citizens, while most have downplayed their numbers. “Official covid-19 death tolls still under-count the true number of fatalities,” the Economist concluded when they compared “excess deaths,” the increase in deaths compared to a five-year average.

In Belgium, this April saw the most deaths since the country was under Nazi occupation. While many other countries will have reached similar milestones they have not been revealed because of the structural under-reporting by national leaders.

Despite the scrutiny and mistrust surrounding COVID-19 data from China and Iran, data presented by the “revered ladies and gentlemen” that rule Europe have received no such scrutiny. That was a mistake, new data reveals, as most European leaders appear to have downplayed thousands of deaths in their countries.

Systematic under-reporting

Between March 14 and May 15, Britain’s government reported 45,298 coronavirus-related deaths, while the true number appears to stand at 59,100, meaning that Boris Johnson’s government is not reporting almost one in every four deaths.

The Dutch “intelligent lock-down” apparently has been supported through less than complete numbers, as Prime Minister Mark Rutte has only reported 60% of the country’s death-toll, ignoring 3,745 fatalities out of a total death-toll of 9,405 between March 16 and May 17.

In Italy almost half of all COVID-19 deaths have not been reported as such, with the country’s official tally standing at 12,178 deaths between February 26 and March 31, while the real number appears to be 24,031. Based on the data provided by the Economist, besides Belgium, only France and Spain come close to reporting their actual numbers.

Why it matters

This systematic misinformation could have dire consequences as citizens do not see the true scale of the tragedy that has befallen their country, and will not hold their leaders to account.

The patchwork of different approaches across Europe appears to have developed a perverse competition over which country ‘outperformed’ the others, creating an incentive to downplay numbers.

As an example, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been enjoying rising popularity for himself and his center-right party. Instead of facing criticism for the country’s failure to prevent the deaths of over 9,000 citizens in a single month, the Dutch appear to have been lulled into a false sense of confidence in their elected leaders.

As a result a government that failed to adequately prepare and wasted valuable time in implementing lock-downs will likely not face any political ramifications.

Little criticism has emerged over the government’s decision to allow a large-scale festival in the country’s southern provinces while Italy was already implementing its first lockdown in Lombardy. Within a month it became clear the decision had led to a large outbreak in the country’s south.

Weeks later the Dutch PM still upheld that the country was in the “containment phase” and was touting “herd immunity” as a strategy even as thousands had already become infected. On March 21, Dutch health officials were shipping patients to northern provinces as hospitals in the south were flooded by COVID-19 patients in need of intensive care.

Consequences

By the end of March the number of cases was doubling every week and health officials announced that 2,400 intensive care beds would be needed, more than double the Dutch total capacity of 1,150.

Because the true death-rate was never revealed, the government’s failure to prepare adequately for a pandemic after a decade of its own austerity-led reductions in hospitals and medical staff never became a political issue.

While any attempt to misinform the public is roundly highlighted and mocked whenever Donald Trump engages in it, the misplaced reverence for European leaders has created a dangerous precedent where leaders are not being held to account for similar acts.

The false sense of confidence in Europe’s leaders could easily mean that even a second wave of infections will not lead to any significant criticism or consequences for the national leaders who used distorted data to justify a rush to reopen the economy.

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