Gavin Mortimer

Events of the last week have demonstrated the fierce determination of some migrants to reach their European destination of choice. Last Sunday, hundreds of migrants stormed the frontier dividing Morocco from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the African coast. The Moroccan police fired bullets into the air to ward off the intruders. ‘They do this deliberately to scare and keep us from trying again but it won’t stop us,’ said one of those migrants who had failed to reach Spain. ‘We’ll keep coming back as many times as needed’. A few hours earlier and many hundreds of miles north, a group of around sixty migrants encountered three local men hunting ducks in Tardinghen, fifteen miles west of Calais.

France can’t go on like this. The country, and its overseas territories, are in chaos. On Wednesday night two men in New Caledonia were shot dead by security forces after a confrontation on the Pacific Island. The insurgency began in May and shows no sign of abating with the rebels determined to gain their independence from France. In total, 13 people have been killed and the damaged caused in the uprising is estimated to be 2.2 billion euros (£1.85 billion) and rising. French media report that Barnier is reaching the end of his tether with Macron Meanwhile, the Caribbean island of Martinique was placed under curfew on Wednesday after rioting erupted over rising prices.

Diane Abbott believes that Giorgia Meloni is a ‘literal fascist’. That must come as a surprise to the 12.3 million voters who elected her prime minister of Italy two years ago. Not to mention King Charles, who hosted Meloni at Blenheim Palace in July. The Right Honourable Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington described Meloni as a fascist as Keir Starmer jetted to Italy this week to meet the country's leader. ‘What does he hope to learn from her,’ asked Abbott. Perhaps the British premier would like to hear how Meloni has this year reduced immigrant arrivals on Italian territory by 65 per cent. Is this the behaviour of a fascist regime?

Michel Barnier will unveil his government in France this week, a fortnight after the 73-year-old was nominated by Emmanuel Macron as the fifth prime minister of his presidency. It will be a government composed overwhelmingly of people from Barnier’s own party, the centre-right Republicans, and Macron’s centrist coalition. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally have ruled themselves out of contention for any posts, as have most political figures from the left. They may be out of touch with the rest of France but they don’t care It is a curious state of affairs that the Republican party, which won just 47 of the 577 seats in July’s parliamentary election, is now at the heart of government.

The French left took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister. The 73-year conservative was nominated by Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, sixty days after the left-wing New Popular Front coalition won the most seats in the parliamentary election. There were dozens of demonstrations across France. The one I attended in Paris was the largest: the organisers, the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) claimed that 160,000 people descended on the Place de la Bastille. The police put the figure at 26,000. I’d say the police had it right.

Michel Barnier is the new prime minister of France. Best known in Britain as the EU’s chief negotiator during the Brexit negotiations, the 73-year-old is the oldest premier in the history of the Fifth Republic and he was unveiled sixty days after the parliamentary elections that threw the Republic into chaos. Le Pen appears satisfied with the choice of Barnier In a statement issued from the Élysée, president Emmanuel Macron said he believed he had found the person to lead a government that ‘meets the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chances to gather the widest possible support’. The appointment brings to an end a shambolic summer that saw France drift leaderless during what Macron described as an ‘Olympic truce’.

It was way back in the first week of July that the French went to the polls to elect a new government. Fifty-nine days later and there is no new government and it’s anyone’s guess who will become the fifth prime minister to serve under Emmanuel Macron. As one left-wing politician, Mathilde Panot, quipped on Monday: ‘If Macron could nominate himself, he would.’ Macron and Scholz, Europe's two most important leaders, seem determined to turn a blind eye to voters In the parliamentary election, Macron’s Renaissance party finished third, receiving 6.3 million votes. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won the biggest slice of the popular vote with 10.1 million votes, followed by the left-wing New Popular Front coalition with seven million.

To no one’s great surprise, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) romped to victory in Sunday’s election in the eastern state of Thuringia. The party, classified as right-wing extremist by Germany’s security authorities, also came a close second to the centre-right CDU in Saxony’s election. The result is being described as the first for a far-right party in a German state parliament election since the Second World War. Angela Merkel must share the blame In response to the AfD’s triumph, German chancellor Olaf Scholz urged other German parties to exclude ‘right-wing extremists’ from power, saying: ‘The AfD is damaging Germany.’ If so, Angela Merkel must share the blame.

Whether one is a Leaver or a Remainer, for most Britons Brexit has not worked out the way they wanted. The blame for the imbroglio can be shared between Westminster and Brussels. Keir Starmer has stated his intention to ‘turn a corner’ on Brexit and he launches that mission today in Berlin when he meets German chancellor Olaf Scholz. Among the items on the agenda are trade relations and immigration in what Starmer calls a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’ to restore a good working relationship. Macron’s credibility has been on the wane within the EU long before this current crisis There is another reason why now is a propitious moment for Starmer to reset Britain’s standing in Europe and that is the dwindling influence of Emmanuel Macron.

The Paralympics begin in Paris tomorrow but the feel-good factor generated in France by the Olympic Games at the start of the month has long since evaporated. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, was perhaps a little premature in declaring on August 7 that the success of the Games had ‘crushed the far-right’s message’. That message, according to Hidalgo, is one of negativity and division, challenging the prevailing progressive view of France as a country of happy multiculturalism. By far-right she meant the ten million plus people who had voted for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in July’s parliamentary elections. ‘Something incredibly positive is happening, and even good news, I think, for humanity,’ added Hidalgo.

The sea lanes of Europe were busy last weekend. On Sunday, more than 700 migrants crossed the Channel from France to England, taking the total number this year to 18,342 – a 13 per cent increase on 2023. On the same day, 421 migrants in twelve boats disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa, and more have arrived since, swelling the numbers to over 500. The diversity of the nationalities of arrivals in Lampedusa is a fascinating and alarming snapshot of the crisis confronting Europe. The people stepping ashore hailed from Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ghana, Gambia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Liberia and Syria.  There are now too many gangs operating in Asia, the Middle East and Africa Some set out in their boats from Libya and others from Tunisia.