Franco-British tensions: what is Boris Johnson playing?

Louis de Raguenel and Gauthier Delomez 3:20 p.m., November 26, 2021

INTERVIEW

How did we get here ? Relations between France and the United Kingdom have been greatly strained in recent days, first by the conflict over fishing which pushes dozens of French fishermen to show their anger, then by the migration crisis and the tragedy that occurred Wednesday evening in the English Channel. On this subject, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron which he then relayed on Twitter, where he asks France to take back the migrants who arrive on its soil.

For Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert-Schuman Foundation, Boris Johnson "is in bad faith".

"From the start, his agenda has been a domestic political agenda and not at all intended to solve a very difficult problem, which he has helped to create by the populist measures he has taken," he said in the statement. '

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Emmanuel Macron "surprised" by methods which "are not serious"

If the British Prime Minister says he does not regret this letter, President Emmanuel Macron, traveling to Rome, expressed his "surprise" at methods which "are not serious". The French government did not appreciate the British proposal, but to harden the tone, in diplomacy, it is necessary to be certain to put its threats to execution as entrusted to it a minister to Europe 1. It is quite the reverse of this that happened on the issue of fishing.

On the file of the migration crisis, Emmanuel Macron decided to cancel Friday morning the invitation made to the British Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, to come to the meeting in Calais on Sunday, alongside the Ministers of the Interior of the European Union.

By doing this, the Head of State is taking the risk of giving the English a good reason not to help France in this matter.

"We can only solve this problem together", underlines Giuliani

On a diplomatic tension scale going from 1 to 10, Jean-Dominique Giuliani estimates that we are "at 5 or 6". "What Boris Johnson shows, like his Minister of the Interior, is that he is not a loyal partner, it is new and regrettable. He is unscrupulous", he asserts at the microphone of Romain Désarbres. The President of the Robert-Schuman Foundation sees in this behavior, "which is doing well domestically so far", an "increasingly strong international isolation of the United Kingdom, and an economic failure to come that will not t is good news for no one, not for the European Union, not for the British ".

Among the measures mentioned, that of the French President to apply the principle of non-admission within the Schengen area.

A revision of these agreements is possible for Jean-Dominique Giuliani.

But the president of the European think tank insists on Boris Johnson's bad behavior: "We cannot work with tweets, letters of warning or statements, and especially not shameless lies (...). can solve this problem only together, and not in this way ", supports Jean-Dominique Giuliani.