As news of the tragedy on the Channel reached late Wednesday evening, President Emmanuel Macron (a man who thinks he is a mix between Napoleon Bonaparte, Jupiter and the king, of the Roman gods) quickly slipped into hyper-spin mode.
‘I will not allow [the Channel] to become a cemetery,’ he declared, as the bodies of 27 migrants, including three children and a pregnant woman, were recovered from the water.
Macron has enacted grotesque policy that turned the small stretch of water between Calais-Dover into a sea graveyard.
The conclusion is that the minister and the other ministers do not just allow the immigration of migrants into Britain. They also collaborate with human traffickers to increase their profits.
The greatest tragedy of Macron is his inability to stop his hateful, Brexit-instigated hatred from destroying lives. A bust of Napoleon is shown with him in 2019.
If you needed definitive proof, then look no further than those astounding pictures in yesterday’s Mail of French police literally turning their backs as migrants launched a dinghy on a beach at Wimereux, north of Boulogne, just hours before the tragic drownings.
Of course Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this catastrophe but suggested it was the fault of the UK, telling Boris Johnson he expected ‘the British to co-operate fully and to refrain from using a tragic situation for political purposes’.
Ironic, perhaps? This is a man who knows that politizing anyone and everything to his advantage is all he has.
The reality is that Emmanuel Macron appears to have been almost driven insane by Brexit. This shattered the illusion that Emmanuel Macron had of the European project, which was on a long march towards ever greater integration with an ever more powerful French leadership (his own).
The departure of Britain — the second biggest economy in Europe — ruined his dream of a ‘United States of Europe’ and it sowed the seeds of growing discontent with Brussels in some parts of the bloc, with talk of Polexit (Poland) and anti-EU sentiment growing in The Netherlands and Austria.
Of course Macron not only refused to accept any responsibility for this catastrophe but suggested it was the fault of the UK, telling Boris Johnson he expected ‘the British to co-operate fully and to refrain from using a tragic situation for political purposes’
But it is Britain’s rejection of the technocratic EU behemoth that is unfathomable and unacceptable to Macron. Since the 2016 EU Referendum, Macron has not missed an opportunity to attack us. He displays a petty, inconsiderate, and uninformed behavior that degrades his office, and mocks policy.
Not just about migration.
His dismissal of the British-made Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as ‘quasi-ineffective’ in older people earlier this year was not rooted in scientific fact but in bitter revenge.
Britain was able to beat France (France’s Sanofi abandoned their tests). It also obtained millions of potential vaccines before the EU, and launched its vaccine program.
Macron’s comments about the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab undermined its use across Europe and delayed uptake. This is evident now with rising infection rates and hospitalisations, as well as the deaths.
In the aftermath of the Channel tragedy I think Macron now has more blood on his hands.
A French officer friend of mine is also a police officer. He tells me Calais has been a great little income source for both him and his fellow officers. Numerous special allowances and payments are unlocked by volunteering — ‘that you pay for’, my friend laughs.
As the Channel’s news broke on Wednesday night, President Emmanuel Macron (above), a man who likes to think he is a mix between Napoleon Bonaparte and Jupiter, the king among the Roman gods, quickly jumped into hyperspin mode.
That’s to say, funded by the British taxpayer, using some of the £54 million so far diverted to French coffers to help patrol the coast.
But this ‘patrolling’ is hardly arduous. It involves watching the migrants get on their inflatables. The police can’t interfere with these boats, although a knife might suffice.
Sometimes, it is possible to get more involved because journalists or politicians are coming. This is when groups of migrants get on buses with much ceremony. Once they are out of sight, they are taken to Calais and dropped off there for another day.
Their shanty-town camps are frequently dismantled to maintain the flow of migrants towards the beach and the boats. Residents then fall prey to people smugglers.
The French call it Operation Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea — and it is utterly shocking because it is providing ‘customers’ for the trafficker trade. The people in and around Calais are appalled by what happened off their coastline this week — French lifeboat crews are describing it as mass murder.
In Paris and elsewhere, however, people are not convinced Macron is responsible for the tragedy.
Make no mistake, Emmanuel Macron’s government is the one responsible.
Yesterday saw more boats departing from Northern France while the search for the bodies was on. Gendarmes stood by, unable to move.
Boris Johnson is reported to be seeking a ‘reset’ in Anglo-French relations, hoping to work towards ‘joint efforts’ in overcoming this human tragedy. It is possible that this wishful thinking may not be true.
Macron has long calculated that Brit-bashing is good politics — and he is facing a much trickier 2022 re-election campaign than anticipated. He believes that anti-British rhetoric will be the key to retaining the support of the disaffected about his domestic accomplishments.
His inner circle — a tightly-knit group of ideological Europe-enthusiasts employed as confidential councillors and ministers — see mileage in redressing 1,000 years of historic wrongs, in which perfidious Albion has usually come out on top.
It is a common theme within a French elite, which has never been able to understand why French people have a lower status on the international stage than British.
It is what is fuelling Macron’s lust for power and revenge, pushing him to new heights of irrationality. It’s what has been dubbed ‘tantrum diplomacy’.
He’s been deep in argument with the Swiss over a failed bid to supply jet fighters; he’s picked a huge public fight with the Australians and Americans over a submarine deal that the French were cut out of; and he ceaselessly lectures the Poles, Hungarians and Czechs on their defiance of the EU’s supremacy and righteousness.
However, his obsession with the United States is making it difficult for Britain.
In Dublin, the French embassy is busy proclaiming France to be Ireland’s closest European neighbour, adding to the tensions over the already fraught Northern Ireland Agreement.
Seine diplomats in Edinburgh court the SNP.
His prime minister Jean Castex has written to the EU demanding that Britain be punished for denying fishing licences to French boats — a baseless feud that has at times verged on an all-out trade war, including threats to cut electricity supplies to British-controlled Jersey.
French diplomats insist on strict interpretations of Brexit withdrawal agreement. This toxic document seems to only guarantee innumerable conflicts and inconveniences that will hurt Europe just as much as Britain.
His forthcoming presidency of the European Council, starting in January, will only allow him to stir further mischief by agitating for a common EU defence policy in competition with Nato, which he called ‘brain dead’.
Macron’s floundering is all the evidence he needs to hide the truth from French voters. Macron will face them in April 10, 2019, for the first round presidential election.
For all of his domestic failures, he views Britain as the easy target.
His greatest regret is his inability to stop his hateful, Brexit-instigated hatred from destroying lives.
Jonathan Miller is author of France: On the Verge Of Nervous Breakdown (Published By Gibson Square Books).