President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has been awarded the Semper Opera Ball’s Dresden Medal of St. George in recognition of his efforts to serve peace in Africa, Germany’s DPA news agency reported Saturday.
A German delegation will hand over the medal to El-Sisi on Sunday in Cairo, said a statement by the union organizing the Semper Opera Ball, the largest classical entertainment event in German-speaking Europe.
The statement praised El-Sisi’s endeavors to build bridges for peace in the crisis-hit North African region, eulogizing him as “a statesman holding the torch of hope and encouraging an entire continent.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis received the medal in 2009 and 2017, respectively.
The badge of the medal is a replica of another medal dating back to the Baroque period. It depicts St George killing a dragon, symbolizing the victory of good over evil. The original medal is displayed at the Green Vault Museum in Dresden.
