European
Parliament, Brussels, P9 CRE-PROV(2020)12-17(4-075-0000).
Frau
President.
To come
to the concrete themes with which we concern ourselves today. The leadership of
the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has been set free. It appears that
they have been dealt with at every point in time in accordance with Egyptian
law. I therefore ask myself the more general question of wherein this
parliament lies the antipathy against Egypt. Will a much more stringent
standard be applied to Egypt than to other countries, or is a fundamental
rejection of the Egyptian state put forward here? Egypt stands opposed to the
extremism which threatens us all – an extremism which also endangers the Coptic
community in Egypt.
While
Turkey continues to attend to instability in the Near East and beyond, Egypt is
to be counted as one of the few steadfast states which is in fact opposed to
Turkish expansionism. Egypt plays a decisive role in Libya and there are
Egyptian forces fighting the Syrian militias smuggled in from Turkey. The Islamist
extremism, which sows death and destruction worldwide, has inflicted deep
wounds, quite especially in Egypt. The Moslem Brotherhood nearly forced Egypt
to its knees. The Egyptian state opposes itself to all of these menaces, while
at the same time it drives forward progress in the areas of economy and
education for its citizens, and it forms alliances with like-minded countries
so as to attain somewhat more stability in the entire region.
Yet
we here conduct endless discussions so as to be able to criticize Egypt. A
judicial procedure is not enough for us. We encourage the opposition to the
Egyptian government, a government which acts in our interest, in the interest
of our security. And this uninterrupted criticism weighs upon our relations in
Cairo and is quite clearly not in our interest. We on that account must think
realistically and pragmatically. Egypt is exposed to serious threats to its
security due to extremism – from within as from without.
It
therefore matters to us all to constructively criticize Egypt – and according
to different opinions – to accompany, instead of constantly rejecting.
[trans: tem]
