Emmanuel Macron dismissed Boris Johnson as a “clown” who privately admitted he had to cater to “public opinion” by creating phoney wars against the French to mask the supposedly negative effects of Brexit, according to French reports.
Satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné cites Mr Macron as making the disparaging remarks during a trip to Croatia on November 24, just hours after 27 migrants drowned when their small boat sank mid-Channel.
The incident sparked a war of words between the UK and France over who should be doing more to stem the rocketing Channel crossings that led to the tragedy.
“As soon as he arrived in Zagreb on 24 November, Macron spoke to Boris Johnson on the phone about the tragedy in Calais,” wrote Le Canard.
During this telephone conversation, the French president’s advisors learned that the Prime Minister had already published on his Twitter account “a letter he had just sent to Macron, which Macron had not yet been able to read,” it reported.
The letter in question outlined British proposals to set up joint patrols and a new bilateral agreement to allow for the immediate return of those who cross the Channel. Britain would accept unaccompanied children with links to the country.
Mr Macron branded the demands and the online release of the letter “not serious”.
It prompted his government to bar Priti Patel from an emergency meeting of ministers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to discuss the migration crisis last Sunday.
According to Le Canard, after the call an infuriated Mr Macron went on to tell a small group of advisers in Zagreb: “Bojo talks to me, he’s down to earth, everything’s fine, we’re having grown-up discussions and then he sticks it to us either beforehand or afterwards in an inelegant manner. It’s always the same circus.”
The weekly went on to cite Mr Macron as blaming Brexit and the subsequent trade deal signed on December 24, 2020 as the “starting point” of ongoing tensions between the UK and France.
“Very quickly, he realised that the situation was catastrophic for the British. There’s no petrol in the pumps, there’s a whole bunch of stuff missing,” Mr Macron is cited as saying.
“He positions himself as a victim, he makes France a scapegoat, he tries to turn every incredibly simple situation into a (complex) problem. We have been in this situation since March. He has done this on the ‘sausage war’, on fishing and on the submarine affair (in which France lost out to the US and UK over a huge nuclear sub deal with Australia).”
Mr Macron is cited as adding: “In private, he says he is sorry to act this way, but he admits that above all he must treat his public opinion well.”
