French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech to present his strategy to fight so-called radicalization on October 2, 2020 in Les Mureaux outside Paris. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP/File photo.
Here we review some contradictory positions taken by French President Emmanuel Macron while dealing with the protests in France and Iran.
On Friday the Secretary General of Iran’s Judiciary Human Rights Office Kazem Qaribabadi denounced the double standards shown by Macron in his statements when, on the one hand, he commented on the ongoing protests in France and on the other hand, when he gave an opinion on the street riots that took place a few months ago in Iran, which were supported from abroad, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini from underlying diseases while in police custody.
The French leader was one of the first Western leaders who openly supported the riots in Iran and incited social disorder in the name of so-called freedom of expression and assembly.
However, now that France is immersed in protests following the murder of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, shot at point-blank range by an officer at a traffic checkpoint last Tuesday in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, the French president is appealing for calm.
In an obvious double standard, the French and Western media define the protests in France as riots, unrest, subversion, rebellion, and similar frames; however, they refer to the violent protests in Iran instigated by the West last fall, as peaceful demonstrations.
Despite supporting the wave of vandalism that destroyed hundreds of public properties in Iran, Macron condemned the so-called violence against institutions in France, calling it unjustifiable.
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The French president blamed social media platforms for the protests in France and warned that he will restrict them in an attempt to curb the protests. In comparison, the West, including France, lashed out at Iran for restrictions on the internet during the violent unrest and promised to facilitate access to the Iranian network to support the rioters.
On Friday, Macron announced the deployment of more police to suppress protests in France after assigned an unprecedented number of law enforcement and armored vehicles in the streets of the country, while he labelled the Iranian authorities’ response to the unrest as repressive and, in that spirit, called for more sanctions against Tehran.
Police and riot police have arrested more than a thousand demonstrators in five consecutive days of mass protests against racism and police violence in France.
Instead of listening to the claims of the outraged, President Macron has accused the protesters of instrumentalizing Nahel’s death and points at social media platforms to stop the protests.
(HispanTV)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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