The freedom to caricature the Prophet Muhammad: this claim, reaffirmed by Emmanuel Macron, during the national homage to assassinated professor Samuel Paty, earned him a flood of criticism in various parts of the Muslim world.
Initiatives against France, like calls for a boycott of French products, broke out in several countries in the Middle East this weekend.
What can be the economic consequences of this action?
We take stock.
Where do the boycott calls come from?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the first politician in power, and for the moment the only one, to have officially relayed this call.
"Just as in France some say
do not buy Turkish brands
, I am addressing my nation from here: above all, do not pay attention to French brands, do not buy them," he declared.
Until the Turkish leader spoke, boycott requests had mostly multiplied via social networks, under the hashtags #Boycott_France, or #Boycott_France_Products.
In several countries, companies have taken a stand.
In Qatar, the distribution chains Al-Meera and Souq al-Baladi announced this weekend that they would "withdraw" French products from stores until further notice.
In Kuwait, some sixty cooperative societies, which are major distributors, have emptied French products from their shelves - "namely cheeses, creams and cosmetics", said the vice-president of the federation of cooperatives, Khaled. al-Otaibi.
Some 430 travel agencies in Kuwait have also suspended bookings for flights to France.
Kuwait, October 23, 2020. Images of Kiri and Babybel cheeses removed from shelves in the country circulated on social media / AFP / Yasser Al-Zayyat
In other countries, party leaders have echoed the call for a boycott.
Thus, in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front (opposition) asked citizens to no longer buy French products.
The leader of the Algerian Islamist Front de la justice et du développement party, Abdallah Djaballah, did the same.
Are they representative?
Ahmet Kiras, Turkish lawyer and local leader of the opposition CHP (left) party, observed a "marginal" movement on Sunday.
"In a Carrefour in the center of Istanbul, mimolettes, camemberts, the Laughing Cow and French wines were always in their place," he says.
And to mock: “I see badly the militants of Erdogan burning their Peugeot or Renault cars.
"
For Frédéric Encel, doctor in geopolitics, lecturer at Sciences-po and professor at Paris School of Business, “it's a micro phenomenon”.
He deplores "a form of infantilization with regard to the citizens of Muslim states".
“We consider that their biggest problem in life is what is happening in Paris… It's reductive.
"
"I do not think that it is the immense mass of the populations of the region which rises with only one man against France", abounds Didier Billion, deputy director of the Institute of international and strategic relations (Iris), who calls "not to darken things unnecessarily".
Newsletter "It pays me"
The newsletter that improves your purchasing power
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
After Turkey's position, will other countries follow?
"I do not see Kuwait or Qatar officially launching a boycott call, it is not in their traditions, estimates Aurélien Denizeau, independent researcher on Turkey.
In these countries, public opinion weighs much less on power than in Turkey.
Conversely, Erdogan, "at the head of a more democratic power, must give pledges to his conservative electorate".
"For economic reasons, governments will ensure that this action remains marginal," said Frédéric Encel, who raised the possibility of a European sanction.
“Most Muslim countries have a higher volume of trade with the EU than with China, the United States or India.
They cannot risk a possible sanction from their main trading partner.
"
How is France reacting?
Asked about the RMC radio, the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, launched an “appeal to companies to resist blackmail and unfortunately to undergo this boycott” of French products.
He felt that it was necessary "to put our principles before the possibility of developing our business".
Will French companies respond to the boycott?
The leader of Medef refuses to consider engaging in reciprocal action: "Let us not respond to stupidity with stupidity.
It is not about boycotting anyone, it is about sticking to our republican values.
"
Boycott of French products by Muslim countries: "There is no question of giving in to blackmail. We must put our principles before the possibility of developing our business" assures Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of Medef # ApollineMatin pic.twitter. com / 4Ny9FXL5e8
- RMC (@RMCinfo) October 26, 2020
"The boycott calls are pointless and must stop immediately, as well as all the attacks directed against our country, instrumentalized by a radical minority," the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The Quai d'Orsay mobilized the French diplomatic network "to remind and explain (
Editor's note: to other countries
) France's positions in terms of fundamental freedoms and rejection of hatred".
What could be the economic impact?
“Of course, this is bad news for companies established there,” said Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux on Monday morning.
But, "for the moment, the boycott is quite localized, one should not exaggerate either", he tempered, affirming that there was for the moment no need of public aid to support businesses.
The French Minister of Foreign Trade, Franck Riester, for his part mentioned Sunday evening “impacts impossible to quantify for the moment”.
The specialists we contacted are reassuring.
“The impact will be very small, judge Didier Billion.
These are consumer products that are targeted at the moment.
However, in general, the mass of the populations of these countries do not buy French products.
"
The volume of trade between France and Qatar, or between France and Kuwait, "is essentially related to the sale of arms," notes Frédéric Encel.
"And it is not the associations or the mosques over there that will be able to boycott the purchase of French bombers or Rafale", continues the author of "100 Words of War" (Ed. Presses universitaire de France, 2020 ).
“These are contracts that are negotiated over years!
"
Will Turkey, which is currently going through an economic crisis, be able to apply a concrete boycott of French products?
The business seems difficult.
France exports mainly industrial products - including Airbus - there, but "the habits of companies are so important that it goes beyond the political world", explains Stéphane Salvetat, secretary general of the Franco-Turkish Chamber of Commerce, at the microphone. of Europe 1.
In addition, trade between France and the States of the Near and Middle East is quite low: these countries absorb 3% of French exports, against 58.7% for members of the European Union, according to the 2020 report on the foreign trade of France.
A political issue more than an economic one?
The stake of the boycott is therefore above all symbolic.
When the appeal does not emanate directly from a government, "it is an effective and common method which makes it possible to show exasperation, without fear of sanctions", continues Frédéric Encel.
Of course, Turkey has finally made the bet of an official position, "but nothing very surprising", judge Aurélien Denizeau.
“Erdogan often uses this method: he provokes and diplomats smooth things over behind.
“Especially when foreign policy allows it to strengthen itself on the domestic level, specifies the researcher.
“The popularity of those in power has indeed reduced in recent months.
For Erdogan, the call for a boycott represents an opportunity to unite his religious and conservative electorate by posing as a defender of his country and, more generally, as a spokesperson for the Muslim world.
"
