Macron makes Brexit critic foreign minister
Britain has treated EU too aggressively since deciding to leave and is being lax on migrants, says Colonna
Emmanuel Macron has appointed the French ambassador to the UK who blamed Britain for post-brexit tensions and the Channel migrant crisis as his foreign minister. Catherine Colonna will return from London to Paris as part of a reshuffle intended to create momentum for the president ahead of parliamentary elections. Ms Colonna had said as she left Britain: “I wanted to thank everyone who understood we are friends of this country and will keep working for a better future.”
EMMANUEL MACRON’S new foreign minister is a Left-leaning career diplomat who has blamed Britain for postbrexit tensions and the Channel migrant crisis.
Catherine Colonna, 66 – who was, until yesterday, France’s ambassador to the UK – was appointed as part of a reshuffle intended to create fresh momentum for the newly re-elected French president ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
Despite previous frictions and vocal criticisms of Westminster, in her final tweet as ambassador in London yesterday, Ms Colonna said: “I wanted to thank everyone who understood we are friends of this country and will keep working for a better future.”
She will be joined in her role by Clément Beaune, an outspoken critic of the UK, who has been promoted from secretary of state to Europe minister.
Sebastien Lecornu, minister for overseas territories, has been promoted to the defence ministry.
The new appointees will report to Elisabeth Borne, 61, a discreet, Leftleaning career bureaucrat who Mr Macron on Monday picked as his new prime minister – only the second woman to get the job in 30 years.
Experts said the nominations suggested Mr Macron was looking to keep tight control over foreign and defence policy at a time of war in Ukraine.
François Heisbourg, who has advised Mr Macron on defence matters, tweeted that the appointments meant “Macron remains in full Jupiterian control on foreign policy. Ditto for armed forces”.
He said that Mr Beaune’s promotion “confirms EU reform as keystone of Macron’s vision”.
Pap Ndiaye, a Left-wing academic, and expert on colonialism and race relations, was chosen as education minister in the most surprising nomination.
Ms Colonna is the second woman to take the helm of France’s foreign ministry after a short failed stint by Michèle Alliot-marie in 2010.
The experienced diplomat has held posts in Washington and Brussels and is a former ambassador to Italy.
She has been a vocal critic of Britain’s stance on the EU since Brexit.
In December, Ms Colonna told the French Senate: “Following Brexit, the UK Government had the choice between two possible attitudes: try to moderate the impact of Brexit and get closer to its European neighbours or continue to play an aggressive policy by identifying Europeans as the main source of difficulties.”
The UK chose “the latter course”, Ms Colonna said.
She added: “All the ‘knife strokes’ made to the contracts – that is to say, the withdrawal agreement with the Northern Ireland Protocol of October 2019 and the trade and cooperation agreement of December 2020 – were by the United Kingdom.”
Speaking about the protocol, she said: “We must fight the vision that Northern Ireland is in a totally disorderly situation, as the British Government is trying to convey.
“This strategy is actually aimed at renegotiating the Northern Ireland Protocol or the triggering of Article 16.”
“Today, and we regret it, Franco-british relations are deeply affected, less by Brexit than by the way the British Government is implementing it.”
As for the migrant crisis stemming from dangerous small boat crossings across the Channel, she said: “France is making much more effort in this area than the United Kingdom, which tends to forget this.”
She added: “The political atmosphere is not good: there is no impetus on the British side, even though our two countries share, on most international issues, the same interests, the same values, the same capacity of commitment; in short, the same vision. It’s unfortunate.”
French media suggested her appointment may signal an attempt by Mr Macron to appease the diplomatic corps, which is due to strike for the first time in 20 years in two weeks’ time amid tensions with the government.
‘Today, and we regret it, Francobritish relations are deeply affected, less by Brexit than by the way the British Government enforces it’