The diplomacy of the caprice of Tinpot Napoleon

[ad_1]

President Emmanuel Macron, a man who thinks he is a cross between Napoleon Bonaparte and Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, quickly went into hyper-turning mode when news of the Channel tragedy broke on Wednesday evening.

‘I will not allow [the Channel] become a cemetery, â€he said, as the bodies of 27 migrants, including three children and a pregnant woman, were found in the water.

But transforming the narrow strip of sea between Calais and Dover into a cemetery is precisely the consequence of the grotesque policy implemented by Macron himself.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that he and his ministers are not content with just allowing the export of migrants to Britain, but that they are, in fact, in collusion with the vile smugglers to maximize their profits. profits.

Macron’s biggest shame is that even though his Brexit-inspired hatred is now proven to cost lives, this Tinpot Napoleon shows no sign of abandoning his bizarre crusade against us, even though Boris Johnson might delude himself otherwise. We see him with a bust of Napoleon in 2019

If you needed definitive proof, look no further than these astonishing images in yesterday’s Mail of French police literally turning their backs as migrants launched a dinghy on a beach in Wimereux, north of Boulogne, a few just hours before the tragic drownings.

Of course, Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this disaster, but suggested it was the UK’s fault, telling Boris Johnson that he expected “the British to cooperate fully and refrain from using a tragic situation for political ends “.

Rather ironic from a man for whom the politicization of anyone and anything to his advantage is all he knows.

The truth is, Emmanuel Macron seems to have been driven almost mad by Brexit. This shattered his illusion of the European project in a long march towards an ever deeper integration with an ever more influential French leadership (his own, of course).

The departure of Britain – Europe’s second largest economy – shattered its dream of a “United States of Europe” and sowed the seeds of growing discontent with Brussels in parts of the bloc, with talks on Polexit (Poland) and anti- EU sentiment is increasing in the Netherlands and Austria.

Of course, Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this disaster, but suggested it was the UK's fault, telling Boris Johnson he expected

Of course, Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this disaster, but suggested it was the UK’s fault, telling Boris Johnson that he expected “the British to cooperate fully and refrain from using a tragic situation for political ends “.

But it is Britain’s rejection of the EU’s technocratic giant that is unfathomable and unacceptable to Macron. In the years since the EU referendum in 2016, he lost no opportunity to kick us at every turn, displaying mean and irrational behavior that demeans his office and pokes fun at politics. .

And not just on migration.

His rejection of the UK-made Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine as “near ineffective” in the elderly earlier this year was rooted not in scientific fact but in bitter revenge.

Britain had beaten France in the race for a vaccine (the French company Sanofi later abandoned its trials) and also procured millions of doses of other potentially viable vaccines before the EU and launched its program vaccines.

Macron’s comments on the Oxford / AstraZeneca jab undermined its use across Europe and delayed adoption. It is surely coming home now with rates of infection, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise.

And now, in the aftermath of the Channel tragedy, I believe Macron finds himself with even more blood on his hands.

I have a friend who is a French policeman and he tells me that for him and his colleagues, Calais has become a nice little livelihood for those who are happy to carry out additional patrols. Many allowances and special payments are released through volunteering – “that you pay,†laughs my friend.

President Emmanuel Macron, a man who thinks he is a cross between Napoleon Bonaparte (above) and Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, quickly went into hyper-spinning mode when news of the Channel tragedy broke on Wednesday evening.

President Emmanuel Macron, a man who thinks he is a cross between Napoleon Bonaparte (above) and Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, quickly went into hyper-spinning mode when news of the Channel tragedy broke on Wednesday evening.

That is, funded by the British taxpayer, using part of the £ 54million so far diverted to French coffers to help patrol the coast.

But this “patrol” is hardly difficult. This mainly involves watching the migrants board their inflatables. A sharp knife would be enough to put these boats out of action, but the police are prohibited from intervening.

Sometimes the word comes down to being more proactive, because politicians or journalists are visiting. When this happens, groups of migrants are put on a bus with great fanfare and, once out of sight, are dropped off in Calais city center to try again another day.

Indeed, to maintain the flow of migrants to the beaches and boats, their slums are regularly dismantled, pushing the inhabitants into the hands of smugglers.

The French call it Operation Poseidon, named after the Greek god of the sea – and this is quite shocking because it provides “customers” for the traffickers’ trade. Residents of Calais and the surrounding area are dismayed by what happened off their coast this week – French lifeboat crews describe it as mass murder.

But in Paris and beyond, while there is an introspection into the human rights aspects of the issue of migrants and this tragedy, few people think Macron is to blame, and the heavily subsidized media certainly leaves their mark. president get away with it.

But make no mistake: if anyone is responsible, it is Emmanuel Macron and his government.

Even as the dark search for bodies continued, yesterday, other boats left from the north of France and the gendarmes stood idly by.

Boris Johnson is said to be seeking a “reset” in Anglo-French relations, hoping to work on “joint efforts” to overcome this human tragedy. I’m afraid this is wishful thinking.

Macron has long calculated that Brit-bashing is good policy – and he faces a much trickier than expected 2022 re-election campaign. Anti-British rhetoric, he says, is the key to retaining the voices of those unhappy with his national achievements.

His inner circle – a tight-knit group of ideological enthusiasts from Europe employed as confidential advisers and ministers – see success in righting 1,000 years of historic wrongs, in which the treacherous Albion has generally gained the upper hand.

It is a recurring theme in a French elite which has never understood why the French have had a lower status than the British on the world stage.

This is what fuels Macron’s thirst for power and revenge, pushing him to new heights of irrationality. This has been called “the diplomacy of anger”.

He argued deeply with the Swiss over a failed bid to supply jet fighters; he chose a huge public fight with the Australians and the Americans over a submarine deal from which the French were cut; and he never ceases to lecture the Poles, Hungarians and Czechs on their challenge to the supremacy and righteousness of the EU.

But his overriding obsession is causing trouble for Britain.

In Dublin, the French embassy is busy proclaiming France as Ireland’s closest European neighbor, adding to tensions over the already strained deal with Northern Ireland.

In Edinburgh, its diplomats assiduously court the SNP.

Its Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote to the EU to demand that Britain be punished for denying fishing licenses to French boats – a baseless feud that has at times ended in an all-out trade war, including threats of cut off the electricity supply to Jersey under British control. .

Meanwhile, French diplomats are insisting on rigid interpretations of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, a toxic document that only seems to guarantee endless conflict and inconvenience, which is as damaging to Europe as it is to Great Britain. Brittany.

His next presidency of the European Council, starting in January, will only allow him to stir up more mischief by campaigning for a common EU defense policy in competition with NATO, which he described as “brain dead.” “.

All this hides the truth from French voters: as he prepares to face the electorate in the first round of the presidential election on April 10, Macron is floundering.

And he sees Britain as the easy scapegoat for all of his failures at home.

But his greatest shame is that even though his Brexit-inspired hatred is now proven to cost lives, this Tinpot Napoleon shows no sign of abandoning his bizarre crusade against us, even if Boris Johnson might otherwise deceive himself.

Jonathan Miller is the author of France: A Nation On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (published by Gibson Square Books).

[ad_2]

Comments are closed.