Marie-Hélène Miauton
columnist
Published on November 3, 2024 at 11:13. / Modified on November 3, 2024 at 11:14.
On an official trip to Morocco, President Macron spoke before the two Houses of Parliament gathered for the occasion. He did not fail, as has become the disastrous habit among Europeans, to castigate the guilty past of his own civilization and to glorify that of his host. He began by recalling that: “the hubris and mechanical strength of European states imposed themselves on the four corners of the world. And, even as a protectorate, Morocco did not escape the ambitions and violence of colonial history.” This can be understood, obviously, but not followed by this other statement: “The years of Al-Andalus made Spain and the south of France a breeding ground for exchange with your culture. The Giralda of Seville, the blue churches and the ornate patios of the South still remain the sumptuous architectural testimony.”
Thus, every few minutes, Emmanuel Macron condemns French colonialism but praises that of the Arabs, blind to the symmetry between the two eras. From the year 634, the expansion of Islam by Arab horsemen began in Syria, Egypt, Iran, the Caucasus and India. Then it will be the Maghreb and Spain where deliverance will not come until 1492, that is to say after 780 years of foreign occupation punctuated by severely repressed revolts. The period called “Al-Andalus”, the one in which the Arabs settled in most of Spain and on the Mediterranean coast of France, therefore also resulted from an invasion, neither gentler nor less violent. than that of the European colonizers in the 19th century in the other direction. It expresses the hubris of a conqueror determined to take over the entire European peninsula by force of arms.
Le Temps publishes columns, written by members of the editorial staff or external people, as well as opinions and columns, proposed to personalities or requested by them. These texts reflect the point of view of their authors. They in no way represent the position of the media.
France
