The resolution on “the situation of journalists in Morocco, in particular the case of Omar Radi”, adopted this Thursday by the European Parliament (EP) is far from being unanimous within this institution. At the end of the voting session in favor of the resolution, the French deputy of the National Rally, Thierry Mariani, took the floor before his colleagues of all political stripes to point out the contradictions that taint the text hostile to Morocco.
“I will begin this speech by saying that we are meeting to condemn the practices of a country that curbs human rights, oppresses dissenting voices and participates in the destabilization of Africa. But then it would mean that we are talking about Algeria,” said the MEP with a firm tone before highlighting the hypocrisy and double standards of some political currents in the EP.
However, the European left never condemns Algeria and the European Union passes everything to him hoping for his gas. Instead, we debate Morocco, which is however one of the pivots of our strategic partnership in Africa,” said Thierry Mariani.
The MEP also recalled the need to respect the decisions of the Moroccan judiciary, instead of giving primacy to the reports of human rights organizations. “What is in this resolution? The statement that Mr. Radi is not a rapist. Like all of you, I don’t know. On the other hand, unlike the majority of this assembly, I do not consider that the decisions of the Moroccan justice, that the accusations of the victim of the rape, are worth less than the communiqués of Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch”, asserted the French parliamentarian. He was keen to stress that these NGOs are “like States, they have their interests and their limits”, while citing “the recent example of the practices of the NGO Fight Impunity (which) should have alerted each of us on the credit that we systematically give to NGOs.
