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Egypt's ex-ambassador Badr Abdelatty on an archive picture 2019 with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images
The Egyptian Badr Abdelatty is without a doubt an excellent diplomat.
For four years, from 2015 to 2019, he represented Egypt as ambassador to Germany and during this time he recorded one success after another for the regime of ex-chief of staff Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Thanks to Abdelatty's tireless efforts, Egypt received record sums of German development aid, support in taking out international loans and debt rescheduling, and, most recently, record amounts of German armaments such as coastal defense and submarines, although Egypt is a member of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the Yemen war, which the federal government doesn't really want to deliver.
At the same time, German criticism of Egypt in Abdelatty's time was rather muted and sparse - Sisi is increasingly brutal and authoritarian.
In court, hundreds of people were sentenced to death within a few minutes.
Tens of thousands are in custody for political reasons, and the number is rising - only last week, leading human rights activists were arrested shortly after talking to European ambassadors, an affront.
Badr Abdelatty often answered journalists' questions about human rights violations with a smile and then simply denied them: Egypt had its own form of democracy, human rights would not apply universally.
Diplomatic for: Germany should shut up.
Abdelatty often went on the offensive himself and urged journalists to report on the human rights situation in Germany;
Before the UN Human Rights Council, Egypt suddenly attacked Germany.
"The Federal Foreign Office's justifications are absurd"
It is therefore all the more surprising that Badr Abdelatty received an award in October and not from Cairo: the representative of the Egyptian regime was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, Germany's highest award.
The Green MP Kai Gehring, member of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, has now asked the Foreign Office for an explanation on an oral question.
The Foreign Office replied that Ambassador Abdelatty had done a great job of "intensifying scientific and cultural relations" between Germany and Egypt.
He campaigned for the establishment of the first German university of applied sciences in Egypt, and for the construction of the Akhenaten Museum in Minya, Upper Egypt, supported by the German Bundestag.
In addition, thanks to his efforts, an additional protocol to the German-Egyptian cultural agreement was signed in 2017, which put the work of the German political foundations in Egypt on a legal basis.
"The Federal Foreign Office's justifications are absurd," said Green MP Kai Gehring to SPIEGEL.
"Someone who is so obviously involved in blatant human rights violations should not be allowed to proudly wear the highest German award on their chest."
Berlin is repeatedly fobbed off by Egypt
In fact, the statements made by the Federal Foreign Office are surprising.
Because these are not exactly great successes for Germany.
In particular, the additional protocol to the cultural agreement is only a consolation prize for Berlin. It became necessary because, after many years of work, Cairo simply threw out the German political foundations.
The representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung had to flee almost overnight to avoid being arrested;
The process was made to local employees.
As before, almost none of the German foundations has returned permanently to Egypt - too risky, especially since their work is deeply political rather than cultural.
In other areas, too, the impression does not arise that Ambassador Abdelatty was particularly beneficial to Germany's interests.
The list of open issues between Berlin and Cairo remained long:
To this day, the relatives of two German tourists who were murdered by a suspected terrorist in Egypt in 2017 have been waiting in vain for clarification and compensation.
Cairo has so far been largely silent about the case of a spy who is said to have been recruited by Egypt at the time of Abdelatty in the Federal Press Office to spy on Egyptians in Germany.
Berlin's repeated demands to release at least the most prominent human rights activists have faded away without consequences.
Democratization or serious structural economic reforms in Egypt are also out of the question.
It is not the first time that the Federal Cross of Merit has had a questionable recipient.
Because ambassadors who have served in Berlin for a longer period usually automatically receive Germany's most important award, as long as no one vehemently objects.
The highly decorated Badr Abdelatty is now back in Egypt.
There he was promoted and is now Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs.
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