Macron angers Johnson over his handling of the migrant crisis at the Canal

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Emmanuel Macron sharply criticized Boris Johnson after the UK prime minister made demands on the cross-channel migrant crisis in a public message, with the French president saying Paris was cutting Britain out of an international meeting over the situation because it had not acted “seriously”. To try further discussions.

“You cannot communicate from one leader to another on these matters through a tweet and a message you put out to the public. On Friday, two days after the disaster in which 27 people were killed while trying to reach England from France in a small boat, Macron said.

“Our ministers will work seriously to deal with this serious issue with serious people,” Macron told a news conference in Rome, where he was signing a friendship treaty between France and Italy.

Macron’s anger is the latest sign that his relations with Johnson are again deteriorating to their post-Brexit lows despite indications before the tragedy that the two governments were improving their cooperation in a bid to prevent people from leaving the French coast.

Johnson’s letter called for reciprocal French and British naval patrols in each other’s territorial waters and for the repatriation of thousands of migrants arriving on English shores to France.

“If those who have reached this country are returned quickly, the incentive for people to put their lives in the hands of smugglers will be significantly reduced,” Johnson wrote Thursday evening.

The French objected to the content of the letter, which challenged French sovereignty and blamed the crisis on the gates of France, and for the manner in which it was promptly published.

The UK’s right-leaning Daily Express immediately ran a front-page headline on Friday that read: “British forces patrol French beaches.”

Macron confirmed that France had withdrawn the invitation of British Home Secretary Priti Patel to join European ministers at a meeting in Calais on Sunday to discuss the crisis. “Then we will see with Britain how we can act efficiently if they decide to be serious,” he said.

However, Grant Shapps, Britain’s transport minister, told the BBC he hoped France would reconsider.

French officials have complained that the British government is blaming Macron for the problems linked to Britain’s exit from the European Union and the migrant crisis for domestic political reasons. British officials, in turn, say Macron is tough because he will run for re-election in April and come under fire from his French nationalist opponents.

After Wednesday’s tragedy, the Elysee Palace said Macron told Johnson that the UK and France share responsibility for the migrant issue and that he “expects the British to cooperate fully and refrain from exploiting the tragedy for political ends”.

Johnson’s suggestion that countries sign a bilateral agreement to return asylum seekers arriving in the UK back to France – which Johnson said in a tweet Thursday night was the “biggest single step” the two countries could take to deter secret crossings – hit on a very sensitive topic for the French side.

France adamantly rejected the UK’s efforts to negotiate bilateral return agreements, insisting that the process needed to be run through an agreement between the UK and the EU. Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, in September described a series of proposals made by Patel with some similarities to those in Thursday’s letter as “blackmail”.

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Michel Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator and French presidential candidate, on Friday condemned Johnson’s approach as “unacceptable” and “another provocation”, saying on LCI TV that the UK prime minister was “confrontational” on all topics. with the European Union.

An agreement is needed to address the issues stemming from the UK’s withdrawal last December from the Dublin Accords, an agreement between European countries that allows asylum seekers to return to safe countries they passed through on their way to seek asylum elsewhere. The agreements also provide for the reunification of stranded families in separate countries.

Shapps said Friday that British and French forces have cooperated elsewhere, including Mali, in West Africa, where France is leading a campaign against Islamist rebels.

He insisted that many of the proposals – such as the Combined Maritime Patrols – were “reasonable things”.

“I do not think that the request for close cooperation with our closest neighbours is a matter of concern, the proposals have been made in good faith and I can assure our French friends that I hope they will reconsider the meeting to discuss them,” he said.

British Immigration Minister Kevin Foster told the BBC on Thursday morning that the UK had offered bilateral deals with individual countries during the Brexit negotiations and a deal with the bloc as a whole, but they had been rejected.

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