In the wannabe Napoleon’s dreams …

Today there are some intriguing news from the UN Summit and about that wannabe Napoleon. Since France is, allegedly, ‘our friend and ally’ these news do concern us, Brexit notwithstanding. More on that below.

Yesterday I wondered why our government hadn’t offered some of our money to keep the two fertiliser factories going. Today we read that “we” are going to do just that. It’s not just about saving our Christmas dinner, there was also this intriguing snippet:

“Ministers were last night finalising a multimillion-pound bailout package to restart carbon dioxide supplies and prevent a crisis in the UK’s food and nuclear industries. Ministers […] were also told that the UK’s six advanced gas cooled nuclear reactors that also use C02 were at risk and might have to close.” (link, paywalled)

The threat of having o shut down our few remaining nuclear reactors seems to have been the actual reason for Kwarteng handing over our money. After all, since when do Whitehall mandarins care about who can heat their homes or have turkey for Christmas? Well, there may be turkeys for Christmas – but will we be able to afford to buy one, will we be able to afford to cook it? Will there even be enough energy to go around, for heating and cooking, never mind the price? 

And so to the UN summit, the MSM reporting on Biden ‘slapping down Johnson’ and on the EU’s MS vdLeyen moaning to US media about ‘that’ AUKUS deal. It’s all a lovely theatre – but the main EU player is missing. Macron isn’t attending the UN summit – he’ll talk to Biden on the phone instead (paywalled link). Apparently, he needs all his strength for plotting from inside his fortress, the Elysee Palace. 

Firstly, let’s look at the EU theatre production. German papers point out that throwing stones while sitting in glass houses isn’t such a good idea. For example there’s a report that Merkel and Macron had made a trade deal with China during the weeks when Biden had been elected but wasn’t yet in office. The USA, writes the German reporter, hadn’t been consulted even though Biden’s hard stance to China had been known. Thus the seeds for AUKUS were sown: France, Germany, the EU like the USA’s military protection while doing secret deals with the enemy of the USA. Well, everything has its price, especially such hypocrisy (paywalled link, in German). 

The EU is of course represented at the UN summit, so we’re helped to a nice little bit of EU wailing and thrashing about as well:

“Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for internal markets, has warned that “something is broken” in transatlantic relations, as Franco-American tensions over Washington’s new Indo-Pacific security pact threaten to spill over into trade and technology. Breton’s comments came after France tried to push Brussels to postpone the high-level US-EU trade and technology council meeting due to take place in Pittsburgh this month in anger at the Biden administration’s handling of its submarine deal with Australia and the UK.” (paywalled link)

France is clearly still smarting, but here’s another funny thing: Germany seems to have ‘done a deal’, a ‘new space and military alliance’ with Australia (link) – behind Paris’ back. There’s been no outcry from Brussels or Paris as far as I can make out. At the same time France demands that the EU suspends their trade deal with Australia (link). Not much singing from the same hymn sheet in Paris, Brussels and Berlin, is there …

And so to Macron who mysteriously isn’t attending the UN Summit but will only ‘confer’ with Biden by telephone in the ‘next few days’. Perhaps that’s why Mr Crisp of the DT is able to report on what Macron is actually doing, or rather on what ‘friends of Macron’ told him:

“France’s seat on the United Nations Security Council could be put “at the disposal of the European Union” if its governments back Emmanuel Macron’s plans for an EU army, a close ally of the French president has said.” (paywalled link)

We remember that talks about an EU Army have been going on for years, with nothing much ever happening. I also remember that over the years there was always some gossip about the EU needing to have a permanent seat at the UN Security council where they only have observer status. Nothing ever came of that either.

Now, after Brexit, Macron really wants ‘his’ army. He seems to try and sweeten this deal by offering France’s UN seat to Brussels, after a fashion, as if the other Big Four on that permanent council – USA, Russia, China and the UK – would graciously agree. 

Perhaps Macron isn’t leaving Paris because he is also working hard in preparation for France’s EU presidency, starting on the 1st of January 2022. Is he sniffing his chance to finally become the EU Emperor after Ms Merkel leaves the scene next Sunday when the German elections take place? His friends are working flat out, it seems, to lay the foundations:

 “Paris is spearheading a diplomatic push for closer EU military integration […] Top European officials this month proposed the creation of a 5,000-strong rapid reaction force after America’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Afghanistan caught the bloc short. “I think that if we move on these things we can put on the table also the discussion on the Security Council,” Sandro Gozi, a former Italian Europe minister now serving as an MEP for Mr Macron’s party, told The Telegraph. Maro Sefcovic, the deputy head of the European Commission, said on Tuesday that the EU would soon discuss ways of bolstering common defence.“ (paywalled link)

As always in Brussels, horse trading is already going on. Thus we learn that Macron isn’t offering France’s permanent seat at the UN Security Council from the goodness of his heart to Brussels, not even in exchange for that EU army – he’ll ‘only share’:

“French demands for influential countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain to boost their defence spending have in reply drawn demands from Berlin that Paris puts its UN seat to work for Brussels. […] Mr Macron is understood to be willing to discuss sharing the UN seat if he can secure concessions that will allow the EU to speak with a single voice on foreign policy as well as steps towards common EU defence. Asked about the prospect of handing over the Security Council seat to the EU, the Elysée said on Tuesday night: “No comment.” (paywalled link)

Ah! That Macron ‘deal’ hasn’t been fully worked out then. Given the huge debts accrued in the EU thanks to covid, it seems ludicrous to expect EU countries to shell out more money for Macron’s EU Army – money they don’t have. It’s even more ludicrous when we recall that all those EU countries which are NATO members have been unable or unwilling to even pay their fair share to NATO.  However, as always, the sting comes at the end. Here is the proper reason behind Macron’s plot:

“France and Germany want EU member states to be stripped of their effective veto on foreign policy, replacing the need for unanimity with a vote weighted by population. The move would hand Paris and Berlin even more influence and faces opposition from some member states.” (paywalled link)

I should think so too! Clearly, this is about Macron trying to turn the EU into a Franco-German fiefdom, with him, the modern-day wannabe Napoleon, at the top. Getting his EU army is ‘nice to have’, sugaring this deal with a proposal to ‘share’ France’s permanent seat is a clever ploy.

In reality it is about relegating the rest of the EU to becoming Franco-German puppet states. Will the smaller states go along? Those depending on EU monetary infusions may, but will the ‘Northern axis’, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, follow suit? Will Poland and Hungary? Doesn’t this look like Napoleon’s Empire in its heyday, before he went to Russia? Does Macron really believe he can do, without weapons, what Napoleon couldn’t? He better remember what happened to his idol …

Thank God we’re out of this Brussels cesspit! Let’s hear it for Brexit!

KBO!

Photo by Andrea Kirkby