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Top Stories 8 MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2020
PARIS (AP) — It was almost as if Emmanuel
Macron forgot that Lebanon is no longer a
French protectorate.
Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this
week, France’s leader comforted distraught
crowds, promised to rebuild the city and
claimed that the blast pierced France’s own
heart. “France will never let Lebanon go,”
Macron said. “The heart of the French people
still beats to the pulse of Beirut.”
His critics denounced the overtures as
a neocolonialist foray by a European leader
seeking to restore sway over a troubled
Middle Eastern land – and distract from
mounting problems at home.
A meme circulating online dubbed
him Macron Bonaparte, a 21st Century
Emperor Napoleon.
But Macron’s defenders — including
desperate Beirut residents who called him
“our only hope” — praised him for visiting
gutted neighbourhoods where Lebanese
leaders fear to tread, and for trying to hold
Lebanon’s politicians accountable for the
corruption and mismanagement blamed for
Tuesday’s deadly blast.
Macron’s visit exposed France’s central
challenge as it prepares to host an interna-
tional donors conference for Lebanon: how
to help a country in crisis, where French eco-
nomic ties run deep, without interfering in its
internal affairs.
“We are walking on the edge of a
precipice. We have to aid, support and
encourage the Lebanese people, but at the
same time not give the impression that we
want to establish a new protectorate, which
would be completely stupid,” said Jack Lang,
a former French government minister who
now heads the Arab World Institute in Paris.
“We must “ind new, intelligent solutions to aid
the Lebanese.”
France’s ties with Lebanon reach back
at least to the 16th Century, when the French
Is France helping Lebanon, or trying to
reconquer it?
France’s ties with Lebanon
reach back at least to
the 16th Century, when
the French monarchy
negotiated with Ottoman
rulers.
monarchy negotiated with Ottoman rulers to
protect Christians – and secure in“luence —
in the region.
By the time of the 1920˜1946 French
mandate, Lebanon already had a network
of French schools and French speakers that
survives to this day — along with France’s
cosy relationships with Lebanon’s power
brokers, including some accused of fuelling
its political and economic crisis.
A surprising online petition emerged this
week asking France to temporarily restore
its mandate, saying Lebanon’s leaders have
shown “total inability to secure and manage
the country”. It’s widely seen as an absurd
idea – Macron himself told Beirut residents
on Wednesday that “it’s up to you to write
your history” – but 60,000 people have
signed it, including members of France’s
250,000-strong Lebanese diaspora and
people in Lebanon who said it’s a way to
express their desperation and distrust of the
political class.
Aside from a show of much-needed
international support, many in Lebanon
viewed Macron’s visit as a way to secure
“inancial assistance for a country wracked
with debt.
The French leader also managed to bring
the divided political class together, if brie“ly.
In a rare scene, the heads of Lebanon’s
political factions — some of them still bitter
enemies from the 1975˜1990 civil war —
appeared together at the Palais des Pins, the
French embassy headquarters in Beirut, and
“iled out after meeting Macron.
But to many, the visit was seen as
patronising. Some lashed out at the
petition and those celebrating “France, the
tender mother”.
One writer, Samer Frangieh, said Macron
gathered the politicians as “schoolchildren”,
reprimanding them for failing to carry out
their duties.
There were other, more subtle jabs against
France’s show of in“luence. While Macron
was touring neighbourhoods torn apart
by the explosion, the health minister in the
Hezbollah-backed government toured “ield
hospitals donated by Iran and Russia, major
power players in the region.
“I get the people who want the mandate.
They have no hope,” said Leah, an engineering
student in Beirut who did not want her
last name published out of concern for
political repercussions.
She spoke out strongly against the
idea, and against those who see Macron as
Lebanon’s “saviour”.
She said that risks worsening Lebanon’s
divisions, as Maronite Christians and French-
educated Muslims embrace Macron while
others lean away.
“He hasn’t resolved his issues with his
country, with his people. How is he giving
advice to us?” she asked.
In Paris, Macron’s domestic political
opponents from the far left to the far right
warned the centrist leader against creeping
neocolonialism, and extracting political
concessions from Lebanon in exchange
for aid. “Solidarity with Lebanon should be
unconditional,” tweeted Julien Bayou, head
of the popular Greens party.
Macron himself “irmly rejected the idea of
reviving the French mandate.
“You can’t ask me to substitute for your
leaders. It’s not possible,” he said. “There is
no French solution.”
But hemade a point of noting that he plans
to return to Lebanon to verify that promised
reforms are being undertaken on September
1, the 100th anniversary of the declaration
of Greater Lebanon – and the beginning of
French rule.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with a woman as he visits the Gemayzeh neighbourhood, which suffered extensive damage from an
explosion on Tuesday that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon. PHOTOS: AP
Emmanuel Macron waves as he visits Beirut, Lebanon