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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered his party to reduce tensions with French President Emmanuel Macron, urging his colleagues not to retaliate against what London sees as the recent uprising of Paris.
Johnson believes Macron will win the second round, according to allies, and wants to prepare good relationship after the April presidential election, probably through a new Anglo-French alliance.
By Macron claims Johnson is a “player” – amid a heated argument over how to respond to the 27th death. do not move who last month tried to reach the UK via the English Channel in a small boat – the idea of any post-election “entente cordiale” seems impossible to some ambassadors.
Johnson is considered by Macron to be “evil” and the prime minister has criticized Paris on a number of issues that continue to migrate, including Brexit and a new security agreement between Australia, the US and the UK that will help Canberra develop nuclear weapons. -Wight-powered ships.
Downing Street now wants to draw a line under the street word war. “There have been many comments that we have just left,” said a friend of Johnson’s. “There has been a lot of tooth sucking.”
Number 10 did not return to what Macron had said to colleagues, reported by the French newspaper Le Canard enchaîné, that Johnson was acting “like a fool” and it was a pity that Britain was “led by an artist”.
There was only a small number 10 call for people to choose their words “carefully” after Macron said that managing post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland was a matter of “war and peace in Ireland”.
Nor did Britain respond strongly to a statement last week by Clément Beaune, France’s ambassador to Europe, that immigrants to the UK were attracted to an economic system with “modern slavery”.
Some ambassadors, however, believe that Johnson has been too late to resolve the dispute and have been fooled into thinking that Macron’s threats are imminent for the election – thinking the French president is just tired of a prime minister whom he sees as unreliable and inferior.
Although Macron’s comments have attracted headlines in the UK, they have caused little interest in France. Aside from the UK queue line for French fishermen working in British waters, French journalists focus on Covid-19, migration and relations with Germany.
Sir Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to Paris, stated: “I do not think the French are as interested in Britain as we are in France. I don’t think it wins the Macron vote. “
Downing Street entrants do not buy the dispute. Johnson and his team expect the relationship to remain strained for the next few months but he thinks Macron’s re-election could provide an opportunity to start over.
There have been signs in recent days about the cold of conflict: the realization that the two countries are opposed to geography, economics and security to work together.
The distribution of 40 fishing licenses by Guernsey, a British crown winner, to French boats was a sign that the conflict had begun to subside, albeit not ended.
France’s threat to look after the “strengthening” of British goods crossing the Channel in retaliation was a reminder of how Paris could chase British trade routes if it wanted to.
Meanwhile Jean Castex, France’s prime minister, wrote to Johnson last week outlining the “new way of working between the UK and the EU” to tackle the migration of small boats in the Channel.
But that Castex who joined Johnson, not Macron, is an indication of the toxic relationship between the two leaders.
Johnson’s aides flocked to the idea that after the Presidential election, there could be an opportunity for better relations, perhaps through a new alliance between the two parties.
British officials said the alliance could focus on security and the security alliance – building on one aspect of a successful UK-France relationship – and also on science, technology and culture.
The security options enshrined in the UK include aviation, nuclear cooperation and the ability of Britain and France to work together in the Indo-Pacific and “quad”: Australia, India, Japan and the US.
But Lord Peter Ricketts, former British ambassador to France, stated: “There is a great difference between the idea of a new treaty and that of the two governments, which cannot be done at present.
In Paris, Macron officials are skeptical of the idea of a new alliance and Johnson’s other attempts to appear more tolerant in the community as they continue to behave in a downward spiral, according to French officials.
For the Macron team, the most important problem is that the UK can once again prove to be the trusted ally that France wants after Brexit.
The controversy over Johnson’s attempts to rewrite parts of his Brexit deal with Northern Ireland could be re-emerged early next year if the Prime Minister wants to suspend trade in the region.
Ambassadors doubt whether – despite Macron’s re-establishment at the Elysée Palace in April – any new entente cordiale could be achieved due to President Johnson’s distrust.
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