Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.
At the start of this year Grenoble was described as ‘France’s Silicon Valley’ and listed as one of the most desirable cities to live in the country. It embodied Emmanuel Macron’s ‘start-up nation’, the dynamic vision he sold to the French when he was elected president in 2017. Millennial techies and green engineers flocked to
Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls in an attempt to halt mass immigration is awkward for Keir Starmer. A fortnight ago the British Prime Minister, a friend of European free movement, visited Berlin and among the issues he discussed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were trade, defence and immigration. Things are so bad that Draghi
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
There has been no honeymoon for Keir Starmer after his election victory in July. That is hardly a surprise as it was a ‘loveless landslide’ that Labour achieved, winning just 34 per cent of the popular vote. In the two months since the general election, Starmer’s approval rating has dropped still further, with two-thirds of
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
Only hours after twelve migrants drowned attempting to reach England from France another group set out. This time they were intercepted by police before their small boat could be launched close to Dunkirk. Two alleged smugglers were arrested and three policemen were injured as they came under attack from a mob of around 100 angry
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
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
A gendarme was killed in France on Monday evening when a driver ran him over at a routine roadside checkpoint in Provence. The driver of the BMW was an intoxicated 39-year-old from Cape Verde who during his time in France has racked up a lengthy criminal record including ten convictions, two for drunk driving. On Wednesday the
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
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’.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday at a festival in Germany that left three people dead and many more wounded. In a statement they said one of their ‘soldiers’ carried out the attack ‘as revenge against Muslims in Palestine and everywhere’. As soon as news broke of Friday’s attack in
It is almost six years to the day since the charismatic German left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht launched a new movement to counter the rise of the far-right in her country. Wagenknecht is proof that much of the mainstream media go easy on a politician if they are perceived to be left-wing What distinguished ‘Aufstehen’ (Stand
Illegal immigrants continue to flow into England across the calm waters of the Channel. The latest data from the Home Office states that nearly 1,500 people have arrived in the last week. Weekends are proving particularly popular: 703 migrants came ashore on Sunday August 11 and 492 made landfall last Saturday. So much for Keir Starmer’s
The phrase ‘without fear or favour’ has been much in the news of late. Whether the maxim is still applicable to the British constabulary is a matter of conjecture. Some, like the ex-policeman Harry Miller, have been saying for years that the police ‘have traded impartiality for the praise of special interest groups’. Miller was
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
Emmanuel Macron believes that the Paris Olympics have shown the world the ‘true face of France’. The Games were indeed a success, recovering from the disastrous first day, when saboteurs disabled the rail network and torrential rain turned the opening ceremony into a very damp squib. Macron must have feared the worst but the weather
The riots that have erupted across England in the last week have been splashed across Europe’s newspapers and broadcast on the primetime news. There have been editorials in France’s Le Monde, video reports in Spain’s El Pais and podcasts in Sweden’s Aftonbladet. The Italian newspaper, La Stampa, published video footage of disturbances in Plymouth on Monday night, and described the rioters
The riots that have erupted across Britain in the last week have been reported extensively in France. The centre-right Le Figaro describes a ‘whiff of civil war’ in the air. The French media are well-versed in covering riots of their own, but the trouble on the other side of the Channel is unusual in that the troublemakers
The good news for France is that their athletes have been winning some medals in the Paris Olympics. The bad news, well, that just keeps coming for the organisers and for Emmanuel Macron, who had wanted to use the Games to showcase his country. The latest debacle is the postponement of the men’s triathlon event
