Faced with the humanitarian drama announced in Afghanistan, Emmanuel Macron plays the balancing act – archyde

A ridge line. Still. During his brief televised address, Monday August 16 at 8 p.m. to speak on the situation in Afghanistan whose capital, Kabul, has been in the hands of the Taliban since Sunday, Emmanuel Macron has once again taken this narrow path. Called on by the left to live up to the humanitarian drama that is looming and warned by part of the right and the extremes not to be angelic in the face of the possible migratory pressure caused by this crisis, the head of state first responded to those who, like the leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, lambasted the presence of France in “Endless wars”. “Everything was highly predictable from day one”, wrote the leader of LFI, presidential candidate, in his blog Monday night evoking his “Loathing for those who have driven events to this point”.

France was, for thirteen years, engaged militarily in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2014. Alongside the United States, the country had “A clear objective: to fight a terrorist threat which directly targeted our territory and that of our allies”, explained the President of the Republic before affirming: “In Afghanistan, our fight was fair and it is the honor of France to be committed to it. “ “France has only ever had one enemy: terrorism”, he insisted, refuting the idea that this kind of intervention would aim to replace the sovereignty of the people or, as Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) and presidential candidate, said, To ” satisfy the interests of power [des Etats-Unis et de leur bras armé, l’Otan] “. “We will not forget our soldiers. We will not forget our dead. ninety in total “, concluded the Head of State, solemn.

Towards the populations directly threatened, Emmanuel Macron did not fail to highlight the efforts made by France in recent weeks to evacuate French nationals as well as Afghans who worked for France and are, therefore, directly targeted. “ It is our duty and our dignity to protect those who help us: interpreters, drivers, cooks and many others ”, listed the president. In detail, more than 600 Afghans who worked for the French embassy or its affiliates such as the Alliance Française have already been repatriated to France, said one at the Elysee. To this must be added some 800 civilians, as well as their families, who worked for the French army and joined French soil. Several dozen other people who supported the army are still in Afghanistan. “For them, we remain fully mobilized”, assured the Head of State. Since July 8, the expulsions of Afghans refused asylum rights have also been suspended. This concerns about thirty people per year, one specifies at the Ministry of the Interior.

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