Emmanuel Macron’s decision to uninvite Priti Patel from an emergency ministerial meeting aimed at finding a solution to the migrant crisis speaks volumes about a head of state who appears to have lost all sense of proportion.
The Home Secretary was told she was not welcome at Sunday’s meeting, to be attended by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission, after Mr Macron overreacted in an astonishing fashion to a letter from Boris Johnson. This set out the Prime Minister’s five-point plan for Britain and France to work together to prevent a repeat of the tragedy earlier this week in which 27 migrants drowned in the Channel when their inflatable sank.
In an incredible display of petulance, the French president chose to not only withdraw the invitation to Ms Patel but also to berate Mr Johnson for supposedly not taking the migrant crisis seriously enough. His fit of pique seems to have as much to do with the fact that the Prime Minister released the text of his letter and published it on Twitter as with anything of substance. Said the president: “We don’t communicate between leaders via tweets or published letters, we are not whistleblowers.”
Mr Macron said that he would continue to work to tackle the migrant issue, adding that he hoped that the UK would decide to be serious. However, the Prime Minister’s suggestions for closer cooperation with France were entirely serious.
They included joint maritime and airborne surveillance of the beaches near Calais, the use of better sonar and radar for keeping tabs on the migrants’ boats, joint intelligence work to track down and punish the people smugglers, and joint patrols by French gendarmes and British Border Force officers of the beaches and migrant camps, which could begin as soon as next week.
The president has so far resisted the idea of Border Force personnel operating on French territory and he was also expected to reject out of hand the last of Mr Johnson’s requests: that all illegal migrants reaching Britain’s shores should be sent back from whence they came – in other words, to France.
In the Prime Minister’s letter, he made himself available for a face to face meeting with Mr Macron or for a summit conference with other world leaders. But on yesterday’s showing, the president doesn’t seem willing to discuss anything.
Mr Macron appears to be more interested in bashing what he calls the “Brits” than in saving lives. In a situation in which speed is of the essence, the French president’s childish show of indignation is the last thing anyone needs.
