Will frexit follow Brexit?

This idea has been in the air for a long time.

But unlike Britain, she has never been dominant in French society.

Therefore, the leader of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, this year, on the eve of the new presidential elections, abandoned it for the first time.

The current head of state, Emmanuel Macron, on the contrary, is called the European president.

In defiance of Le Pen, he always defends the idea of ​​a common space, which should protect some common values, constitute a common force (hence the idea of ​​creating a European army), protect and help in times of crises.

Sounds beautiful in words.

But all these arguments have crashed about the realities of Brexit and the covid pandemic.

Supporters of France's withdrawal from the European Union have revived again.

They point out that Paris relied too much on Brussels for everything.

It was there that, on behalf of the EU, major international trade agreements were discussed and signed, which deprived national enterprises and agricultural products of preferences.

In the face of fierce competition, the cost of production in France was too high, so companies began to move their factories to Asia.

In 2018, the country closed its last own production of disposable masks.

Stocks in warehouses have not been updated for the last ten years.

And when there was an urgent need for protective equipment, there was nowhere to take them.

The European authorities were also unable to help.

They generally left Italy to the mercy of fate - at least this is how the Italians themselves viewed the inertia of Brussels.

As a result, Russian military doctors arrived to help them.

In the European warehouses, however, there were no masks or medicines for everyone, each country closed within its borders, forgetting about the ubiquitous indicative solidarity.

Suddenly it turned out that most of the pharmaceutical production in Europe is also concentrated in Asia, 80% of sanitary goods are produced outside the continent.

The epidemic that came from China allowed Chinese companies to get rich last year, while European countries are in deep crisis.

Frexite supporters blame Brussels for this.

A year ago, France believed that its health care system was the envy of the whole world.

At the height of the epidemic, it turned out that the situation was catastrophic.

Hospitals have ceased to cope with the influx of patients, intensive care units are overcrowded.

Some of the patients had to be taken to neighboring countries.

And all because all these years, from 2010 to 2019, there was a sharp cut in funding in the healthcare sector, in total it was cut by € 11.7 billion. And when the thunder struck, it turned out that there were not enough beds. doctors are not enough, and their average salary is 19 percent lower than in 37 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes France.

The headquarters of this organization is in Paris.

And the followers of the Frexit idea blame Brussels for this, since the EU demanded from the member states to optimize costs in the name of improving the conditions of universal competition.

The European authorities themselves turned out to be slow and sluggish not only in providing practical assistance to states, but also in providing financial support.

The joint budget was adopted with great difficulty, they argued a lot, geographically divided into blocks, pulled the blanket over themselves.

And now those who are in favor of France's exit from the EU fear that the loans taken by the country will have to be paid several generations in advance, and the amount, taking into account the interest, will almost double.

For comparison, they cite the example of the now independent London, which found the money itself to save itself.

And in terms of the rate of vaccination, it went around the whole of Europe.

In the EU, about 10% of the population is vaccinated, in the UK it is already 35%, even in the adored partner of Europe - the United States - and even more people were injected - 28%.

Europe lived in dreams of a fair general distribution, equal for everyone and such that it would be possible to beautifully talk about how the whole bloc began to take root in all countries almost simultaneously, but certainly at the same time.

And then I dreamed of smiles, joy, the restrictions lifted by the summer and the continental general salvation with humanitarian supplies of excess doses to the poor and to African countries.

A bright future, hugs, sounds of flying corks and a river of champagne.

And it turned out somehow clumsy.

Delays in deliveries, scandals, fights over drugs, refusals to inject drugs, side effects, deaths and new lockdowns.

For example, even schools have been closed for two weeks in long-suffering Italy.

In France, it is stable at 20-30 thousand new patients a day and confusion that it is not possible to slow down the epidemic.

So what is the use of this united EU then?

Proponents of tight integration have always said that inside is better than outside the bloc.

The UK has shown by its example that everything is possible, there is also life outside the European Union, and the economy of Foggy Albion, contrary to the forecasts of skeptics, did not collapse.

And now the newspaper Le Figaro writes that the EU does not allow to build anything of its own, does not protect either from the financial, or from the economic, or from the sanitary crisis, the United States imposes its model of behavior and its interests on bound by obligations countries, while they themselves can easily unilaterally order to withdraw from tortured agreements, endangering European security.

They freely fine and punish European companies whenever they want.

The EU has become a gigantic, clumsy bureaucratic machine that paralyzes work and is just a distraction.

In this, of course, there is some truth, but I still disagree, because there are still many advantages in a single space.

They cannot be ignored.

Many countries, for example, Poland, at the expense of European money (124 billion euros since 2004) has excellently rebuilt the country's infrastructure, roads and has become an industrial workshop of the European Union.

Nevertheless, the mistakes and miscalculations of the EU leadership revived the topic in France, which was completely extinguished after the election of Macron.

In the camp of the right, they started talking about the need to return sovereignty.

Republican leader Christian Jacob began to point out that the French had lost a lot and became completely dependent on the Americans and Chinese, even for scientific research.

The country still does not have its own vaccine, but French scientists took an active part in the development of the American one.

Forums were organized at which they began to discuss in which areas independence should be sought.

Issue thematic brochures.

Brexit itself was celebrated at the end of January with a party for 500 people in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Towards midnight (the time of the final withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU), the British anthem played in the hall, after which the guests raised French flags over their heads and blew up the silence with shouts of "Frexit!"

I repeat that so far no France is going to go anywhere, its economy is closely tied to the internal European market, but it is obvious that the topic of sovereignty can become one of the central topics in the next year's presidential elections in France.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.