Right-Wing Extremist Le Pen Praises Egypt Military Dictatorship as “Model” for Dealing with Muslims

By Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 21 December 2020, www.thecommunists.net

Marine Le Pen, the French leader of the far-right Rassemblement national, has publicly praised the dictatorship of General Sisi as a model for fighting so-called "radical Islam". In an interview with Egyptian state media, Le Pen stated that the military regime “sets an example to the rest of the world, including France, of how to deal with poisonous ideologies". [1]

Likewise, she denounced the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terror organisation” and urged the global community to "confront them and their ideas". She also called France to take action against Turkey and Qatar and advocated collaboration with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Greece for such purpose. "We have to develop an action plan to isolate and deter our enemies to thwart their plans."

All that does not come as a surprise. Le Pen is the leader of the most extremist right-wing party in France, she is a well-known hate-monger against migrants in general and Muslims in particular. She has been also one of the most outspoken defenders of the racist magazine Charlie Hebdo [2] and she praised the racist teacher Samuel Paty. [3] Her father was not only the founder of her party but also a lieutenant in the French army during the colonial occupation of Algeria. He is known to have tortured Arab prisoners to death.

In other words, it is only logical that such a figure admires the dictatorship of General Sisi which overthrew the only democratically elected government in July 2013, crushed all resistance forces, killed former President Mohamed Morsi, slaughtered thousands of activists and keeps more than 60,000 people in prison. Surely, she would like to deal with Muslim migrants – and probably all opponents – in France in a similar way.

However, it is worth noting that Le Pen is not an isolated figure and what she says does not cause any public outcry in France. Why? Because she is only expressing explicitly what others are doing or thinking anyway. France President Macron, who has imposed a draconic lockdown against his own people (under the pretext of COVID-19) [4], is riding on the same road as Le Pen. In the last few months Macron waged an aggressive war against Muslims – in France as well as global. Since then, many Muslims have been arrested, mosques and cultural associations have been closed and Macron advocated the public presentation of the racist caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed. Unsurprisingly, this has provoked a global campaign to boycott French products. [5]

In addition, France has sent thousands of troops to Mali in order to combat an Islamist-led insurgency. [6] Paris is also engaged – together with Egypt, Israel, the UAE and Greece – in sable-rattling against Turkey as it wants to get control over the huge gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean. [7] As part of this policy Macron has also rolled out the red carpet for Sisi at his visit in early December and even awarded him the L’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur – the highest French honor – during a closed-door ceremony. [8]

We see, Le Pen and Macron are heading towards the same direction. The one might use a more provocative – one could also say more explicit – language than the other but essentially they are on the same page. Essentially they agree on a policy which can be summarized in the formula “Heil Sisi!”

It is worth noting that there are also a number of so-called “socialists” who essentially share a lot with the anti-Muslim and anti-democratic outlook of Le Pen and Macron. The “Communist” Party of Egypt, pseudo-Trotskyists like Alan Woods’ IMT, the PSTU/LIT and others shamelessly hailed the military coup of General Sisi in July 2013. [9] And many “socialists” in France aided Macron’s Islamophobic campaign by joining the public appraisal for Charlie Hebdo and Samuel Paty. [10]

What can we learn from this? Well, it is pretty clear: Don’t look at the superficial (ideological) clothes, look at the inner (political) values. There have been Christians who praised Hitler and others who died fighting against his terror-regime. There are “Muslims” who serve Arab tyrants and there are Muslims who stand up against them. And there are “socialists” who sympathize with reactionary politics of governments and there are socialists who fight such and stand together with the oppressed. There are “socialists” who support one or the other imperialist Great Power (e.g. the EU, Russia or China) and there are socialists who oppose all Great Powers. The RCIT and all authentic revolutionaries know which side to take!