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2021: bitter post-Brexit spree
“The great surrender”. The headline of the May 7 edition of the British daily Daily Mail sums up the stormy atmosphere between France and Great Britain the day after the return to port of some fifty French ships that left to challenge the island of Jersey. The Norman and Breton boats had tried to block the port of Saint-Hélier to protest against the new fishing conditions imposed by the post-Brexit United Kingdom. A demonstration on the open sea which did not rain in London. Two warships were deployed “As a precaution”, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The French sailors finally left empty-handed, mocked by the conservative tabloid, noting a “Very French habit” to retreat.
2009: short grain against offshore paradise
Jersey is also a coveted tax haven. To the chagrin of Nicolas Sarkozy. In response to the subprime crisis, the latter made the fight against tax havens one of his priorities, in the wake of the G20 in London in April 2009. “We got there. Tax havens, banking secrecy. It’s over “, had even prophesied the head of state in September, during a television interview. It had gone a little quickly, even if the OECD published a little later a list of forty-two tax havens, including Jersey. In Saint-Hélier, the capital, one inhabitant in two works in one of the 73 banks located on the island. The financial sector represents almost half of the island’s GDP, a sort of offshore extension of the City of London.
1959: low tide for French
The Jersey Chronicles, last newspaper published in French on the island, stops its publication. A blow for the French language, almost erased by English since the 1950s and spoken today by the majority of the population. Bagatelle Road, Rouge Bouillon or Val Plaisant, the capital, Saint-Hélier, is full of French names. As My Normandy, the local anthem. French remains one of the three official languages, along with English and, since 2019, Jersey, a dialect derived from old Norman. He has not said his last word: since 2016, a quarterly with 30,000 copies, The rock, is inserted in supplement in the daily newspaper of Jersey. Because speaking the language of Molière is back in fashion in schools.
1852: waves of exiles in Hugo’s footsteps
Exiles from France, political refugees hide in Jersey and find themselves on the famous Rock of the Outlaws. The best known of them was Victor Hugo, banished by a decree of Napoleon III in 1852 after his coup d’état. In 1855, the writer was expelled again, this time at the request of the English government, after having insulted Queen Victoria. It joins the island neighbor of Jersey, Guernsey. Qualified by the poet as “Pieces of France that fell into the sea and picked up by England”, these islands become true literary and political centers in the fight against the French regime.
1204: a round for England
It was on this date that the island of Jersey became the scene of rivalries between the two countries. While England and Normandy form one and the same duchy, possession of William the Conqueror, the King of France, Philippe Auguste, seizes continental Normandy. But he will never succeed in conquering the Channel Islands. To defend the island from its French enemies, the castle of Mont Orgueil was erected at the request of Jean Sans-Terre, then King of England. A military fortress that has become the symbol of Jersey’s independence. France will achieve its ends only for seven years, from 1461 to 1468, by occupying the island during the War of the Roses.
