This week, British-French relationship novelist and chronicler Julian Barnes (Julian Barnes) wrote in Le Monde (Le Monde) that both parties found that “it is easy to fall into the role of accuser or victim of humiliation”. The transaction is usually done with the impression of a past time of decades or even hundreds of years. other.
Rear 27 people were killed in the strait, These stereotypes are completely visible, no matter what the parties say it will be higher than Blame game, Or to use what Emmanuel Macron calls the “instrumental” immigration crisis, it is almost impossible to resist sniping.Possibility of a neighbouring dispute brewing on a post-Brexit fishing license will eventually erupt Block Calais This weekend will only add to the feeling that this is a relationship on the verge of neurasthenia.
Politics is primitive. Emmanuel Macron, Fighting for a place in the April presidential runoff will not allow the immigration crisis to slip away from him. Boris Johnson also has many interests. His mysterious donor, Nigel Farage, is preparing a check to stir and threaten the right wing of the Conservative Party again. When 25,700 migrants arrived in the UK on a slow but steady stream of inflatable boats, Johnson’s backbenchers were working to resolve the issue of how Brexit would regain control of the British border.
According to French sources, the British Prime Minister felt very nervous about the Strait. In his private conversations with Macron, he repeatedly returned to the topic of immigrants and refugees. French diplomats said that 80% of Johnson was driven by short-term domestic politics.
Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel is in deep trouble, Accused of chasing headlines rather than real-world solutions. She promised to resolve the immigration crisis by the end of 2020, but she clearly failed.
Politically speaking, the easiest way for both parties is to blame the two sides of the strait or play the role of the victim of offense.
Many officials-the military and diplomats-are actually eager to keep this relationship functioning, and are desperately trying to do so behind the scenes. For example, they are still looking for opportunities to cooperate in defense, including areas such as Mali, because they know that defense has always been a strong glue in French-British relations. But apart from the remarks of Brexit Minister David Frost or Macron’s election attack dog Clement Born, the glue did not stick.
FrenchFaced with their allegations of delays in strait migration, they pointed out that just look at the death toll of Mediterranean migrants in the past six years. If the solution is as big as a tabloid headline, then it will be discovered.
It is estimated that more than 20,000 people have died in the Mediterranean, and more than 1,300 have died this year alone.
But the UK is fighting back, saying France It should not be a failed country like Libya, but more work should be done to shut down human smugglers. If Paris fails to stop the flow of migrants, London has threatened in the past to cut financial support for French border police. In turn, the French complained that the UK without an identity card regulates a labor market and immigrants can easily integrate into it.
Faced with this labor market, French opposition politicians, not the government itself, are questioning the Le Touquet Agreement, a bilateral treaty that allows officials of the British border guards to conduct passport checks in France, and vice versa. The French National Human Rights Advisory Committee recently stated that its provisions “make France the police department of British immigration policy.”
Allegedly, this made sense before Brexit, because the UK is bound by the EU Dublin Convention, which stipulates that asylum seekers must apply to the UK’s first country. Europe Where they lived. With Brexit, this obligation disappeared.
France is also bored with ethics lectures from Britain. In the past year, France has received 83,000 asylum applications, compared with only 31,000 in the UK. In 2020, the United Kingdom registered 5.78 asylum seekers and refugees for every 10,000 residents, compared with 16.93 in France, 19.52 in Germany and 60.57 in Greece.
But unilaterally tearing up the Le Touquet agreement—actually an immigrant beckoning to Britain—will drop a bomb in this relationship.
Macron also realized that he needed the rest of Europe to stand on his side. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recently complained that the salient aspect of the UK’s global map is that it erases Europe. However, Europe’s preparation is lagging behind France’s tendency to equate European national interests with French national interests is limited.
For example, Germany is busy preparing a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is about to visit Spain. This is her wise choice for her first visit to an EU country.
Both sides insisted on their own words, and neither dared to cross the boundary.
