Chronic. Seen from the Pas-de-Calais, nothing has changed in appearance: on sunny days, the white line of the cliffs of Dover still stands out between the waves and the heavy sky. After all, isn’t the English Channel a simple channel that crosses Europe like the Seine Paris? A “Channel” which the writer Maurice Leblanc imagined that we could one day cross it on dry land?
In reality, everything happens on the contrary as if, under the combined effects of Brexit and Covid-19, Great Britain were drifting. As if a border which had ended up being erased, the European Union (EU) and the tunnel helping, was marked every day more. For the ordinary citizen, the demonstrations are innumerable: burdened customs formalities, empty shelves in the Marks & Spencers, tripling of registration fees in British universities, end of the incessant Eurostar ballet (due to Covid-19) including he operator is on the verge of bankruptcy.
All of this would only constitute the predictable scum of a Brexit chosen and assumed by the British, without a growing bitterness in relations between the EU and the United Kingdom. As soon as it was over, the rupture did not lead to peaceful coexistence, but to an escalation of tension. As if the formal settlement of the divorce so painfully concluded had not made it possible to establish new lasting relationships or to overcome the need of both parties to hold the other responsible for his difficulties or his mistakes.
Nuisance capacity
Faced with a fait accompli, the Union was relieved of a member known for its internal nuisance capacity. It is now facing a political guerrilla war which perhaps announces what Europeans fear: the emergence at its doorstep of a competitor, admittedly of medium size, but surprisingly hostile. A United Kingdom whose raison d’être would be to stand out, even to oppose the EU. Relations between the EU and the UK “Continue to deteriorate at breakneck speed (…) “, summarizes Mujtaba Rahman, expert from the consultancy firm Eurasia group.
The ink of his signature was not dry as Boris Johnson denied it
The conclusion of a free trade agreement in extremis did not put an end to hostilities. The ink of his signature was not dry that Boris Johnson denied it by refusing to exercise controls on the arrival of goods in Northern Ireland. From a technical point of view, this about-face revives the central fear of Europeans since Brexit: that Northern Ireland, attached to the United Kingdom but which remains in the EU’s single market, serve as an airlock for illegal entry. in the Union for goods. Mr Johnson’s contempt for his commitments evaporated the little trust that was left and brought to light the irony of his endless references to his “European friends”.
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