Gavin Mortimer

Belgium is becoming the new point of departure for the gangs who traffic migrants across the Channel to England. It is reported that small boats are being launched from the Belgian coast, which then sail west to France, collecting migrants as if they were passengers waiting for a bus. The Belgian towns of Middelkerke, Nieuwpoort, De Haan and De Panne have all been identified as launch sites for migrant boats. According to Frontex, Europe’s border security agency, they began noticing a change in the smugglers’ tactics at the start of this year. Last year, there were no recorded cases of small boats setting out from the Belgian coast but in the first two months of this year, five vessels were detected.

According to a report in the French press today, the border between France and the United Kingdom is ‘at risk of being left unprotected’. The cynic might say that’s been the case for years, given the vast numbers of migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018. Over 41,000 made the journey in 2025 – the second highest number on record – and more than 4,400 migrants have landed in England in the first three months of this year. That figure is likely to increase significantly now that spring has arrived. The days are longer and, according to the BBC weather centre, the outlook for April is for ‘drier-than-normal weather’.

The left achieved a rare success in Paris on Sunday with the victory of Emmanuel Grégoire in the capital's mayoral election. The Socialist candidate saw off the challenge of the centre-right candidate Rachida Dati in the second round. Grégoire is the third consecutive Socialist mayor of the French capital, a run that stretches back to the election of Bertrand Delanoe in 2001. ‘Paris has decided to stay true to its history,’ exclaimed Grégoire in his victory speech. ‘Paris will be the heart of the resistance against this alliance of the right, which seeks to take away what we hold most precious and fragile: the simple joy of living together.

The first round of voting in France’s municipal elections has laid bare the country's deep fractures. In a turnout of 56 per cent yesterday, none of the parties emerged dominant ahead of this Sunday's second round, but the results underlined the mainstream support now enjoyed by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s la France Insoumise (LFI). Last month, France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, categorised the LFI as ‘extreme-left’, to go with the representation of the National Rally as ‘extreme-right’. If he had hoped to deter voters from casting a ballot for either party, Nunez’s tactic failed. Nothing, it seems, will stop the rise of either Le Pen or Melenchon.

Washington’s warning last week about the spread of far-left violence in France did not go down well in Paris. In an interview on Sunday, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused America of wading into a matter that “concerns only our national community”. This doesn’t surprise conservative commentators in France who have coined the phrase “Red Privilege” The diplomatic spat began at the end of last week when Sarah Rogers, the US State Department under-secretary for public diplomacy, posted on X.

The news in France over the weekend was dominated by the resignation of Jack Lang as head of the prestigious Arab World Institute in Paris. In more ways than one, Lang is France’s answer to Peter Mandelson, a figurehead for the bourgeois left and a figure of loathing for those on the other side of the political spectrum. The fall of Jack Lang raises some uncomfortable questions for the Elysee Lang resigned after his name appeared 673 times in the Epstein files in correspondence between 2012 and 2019. Also made public was a video of Lang and Epstein in front of the Louvre pyramid in March 2019, more than a decade after the American’s conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Lang says he was unaware of Epstein’s conviction.

The French IT giant Capgemini has put its US subsidiary on sale because of its association with the work of ICE in America. All hell broke loose last week in France after it was revealed by the state broadcaster that Capgemini’s software was being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify foreigners on US soil and track their locations. According to the BBC, Capgemini multi-million dollar contract with ICE was agreed last December and was scheduled to run until 15 March. It has now been curtailed after the company found itself in the eye of a storm following the deaths last month of two anti-ICE protestors in separate incidents in Minneapolis. Union leaders in France demanded an "immediate and public cessation of any collaboration with ICE.