Eurostar boss attacks Emmanuel Macron’s decision to close France’s borders

Eurostar’s boss said Emmanuel Macron’s decision to close the French borders was “very hard to endorse” after ruining Christmas for tens of thousands of Britons.

Jacques Damas said the French president could only justify blocking British tourists if he dramatically increased the country’s vaccination rollout.

France sprang a surprise on Thursday by tightening border restrictions to slow to the spread of the omicron variant. The move prevents nearly all Britons from entering the country from Friday [Dec 17].

The Eurostar chief executive told The Telegraph: “We cannot say that it is helpful from the Eurostar perspective. It is very hard to endorse as far as the business situation is concerned. We have thousands of passengers [that] have been let down with very short notice.

“The price is being paid by our customers. They are cancelling all their Christmas plans.”

However, Mr Damas insisted that he was “respectful” of Mr Macron’s right to manage the borders how he pleased.

“The logic from the French government is ‘we want to gain time because this omicron variant is very contagious and we want to do all of what we can do’.

“Therefore we have one request: [be] even more ambitious in accelerating the vaccination programme.

“They are going to stop the business, during this period we want something in exchange. To show that they deliver the most quick and rapid vaccination campaign.”

Like the UK, France has stepped up its immunisation campaign with both countries delivering 700,000 to 800,000 jabs a day.

But Mr Damas said: “I am not impressed by 700,000. Let’s go for more than 1m. One million and a half.”

Eurostar was taken to the brink of collapse earlier this year after the British government refused to bail out the operator. Eurostar is majority owned by state-backed firm SNCF after David Cameron sold the UK’s minority stake in 2015.

The company secured a rescue in May by refinancing £250m of loans, but the debts need to be repaid in the coming spring.

Mr Damas said Eurostar’s finances were in a much stronger position than this time last year, this despite the negative impact of Mr Macron’s decision to close the border over Christmas.

The company would not be asking the Government for a bailout again, he said.

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