Macron Stung by President Ilham Aliyev's Truth: French Minister Ordered to Skip Baku Visit

"Today's comments by President Ilham Aliyev about French hypocrisy and neocolonialism, made at the summit with small island states, hit the bull's-eye: they struck French President Macron hard. Emmanuel Macron was offended, so much so that he ordered his Minister of Ecology, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, to cancel her trip to Baku for COP29.

This directive was revealed by Pannier-Runacher herself. "After discussions with the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, it became clear that I would not be going to Baku next week," she said in parliament.

Are they offended? Poor things. Well, let them remember what Ilham Aliyev said at COP29 yesterday, right at the opening. If they called for a boycott and refused to come—so be it. COP29 in Baku has gathered more than 70,000 participants from 196 countries around the world—and we will surely manage without a few French delegates."

Recall that on November 13, during the Summit of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) within the framework of COP29, President Ilham Aliyev highlighted one of the key issues on the international agenda: neocolonialism and climate change.

"The so-called overseas territories of France and the Netherlands, especially in the Caribbean and the Pacific, are among the regions most affected by climate change. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and loss of biodiversity are serious threats to these territories. However, the voices of their inhabitants are often brutally suppressed by the regimes in their metropolitan centers. These include the peoples of the French colonies such as New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Mayotte, Wallis and Futuna, Corsica, Reunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy, as well as the Dutch colonies like Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. Let us applaud the residents of these territories. Even today, in the 21st century, they continue to suffer under colonial rule.

From 1946-1947, the United Nations recognized French Polynesia and New Caledonia as Non-Self-Governing Territories, yet the process of their decolonization is still delayed. Between 1966 and 1996, French Polynesia suffered severe environmental degradation due to 193 nuclear tests carried out by France. France is responsible for massive soil and water pollution, as well as radiation contamination in the region, with radiation levels exceeding 4,900 percent. If we also consider the 17 nuclear tests France conducted in Algeria during its colonial occupation, we begin to understand the extent of the damage this country has inflicted on the global ecosystem.

The list of France's crimes in its so-called overseas territories would be incomplete without mentioning the recent human rights violations committed by its regime. President Macron's government killed 13 and injured 169 people during a legitimate Kanak protest in New Caledonia this year. Another 1,700 people were arrested. In the protests in Martinique and Guadeloupe this year, 38 people were arrested. Despite all this, France has not been condemned by the European Commission, the European Parliament, or the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. This is political hypocrisy. The European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)—two institutions that have become symbols of political corruption—share responsibility with Macron’s government for the murders of innocent people. All political prisoners in France should be released immediately," President Ilham Aliyev stated.