No wonder Micheál Martin responded with such alacrity to the re-election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France saying it was important to have a French president so committed to the fundamental values of the EU and its success.
Like anyone who has the interests of Irish people north and south at heart he knows Macron’s election is good for Ireland for several reasons.
First, Macron will now be the pre-eminent EU leader. He will be in the Elysée until 2027, and together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, will renew the Franco-German axis at the centre of the EU. In the long-standing tradition Scholz was the first to phone Macron with congratulations. Like Macron, Scholz is a firm supporter of the Irish protocol, support reaffirmed in the document agreeing the new German coalition last November.
Secondly, Macron will stand up to the reckless, irresponsible and untrustworthy behaviour of Boris Johnson. We know what he thinks of Johnson because, last December, after he saw off Johnson’s attempts to blame the French for the migrants crossing the Channel and to wreck the disastrous Brexit fisheries deal, Macron let off steam privately. Le Canard Enchainé, France’s equivalent of Private Eye, reported that Macron had called Johnson, ‘a knucklehead’ and ‘a clown’. He added Johnson’s government was ‘a circus’; who could deny any of that?
Macron has made clear to the European Council that any attempts to renege on the protocol must be met with powerful retaliation. Macron is resentful at the damage Britain tried to inflict on the EU with Brexit, but what particularly incenses him is the attempt by deluded Brexiteers in the British government to try to carry on as if leaving the EU made no difference to trade in goods or services. Macron is determined to ensure Britain pays for its folly and the disruption Johnson’s Brexit has caused. Besides, no French president ever lost any votes for standing up to ‘les rosbifs’.
Given all that, it is extremely unlikely that Johnson’s latest ill-considered ploy, for that’s what it is, to ‘disapply’ that part of the Withdrawal Agreement which is the protocol will ever see the light of day. Apart from the fact that no country can unilaterally alter an international treaty, Johnson would face serious opposition in Westminster trying to pass legislation breaking international law.
We’re in a different political climate from Johnson’s previous threat to behave illegally with the abortive Internal Markets bill in 2020. Britain’s trade is collapsing because of Brexit which official statistics show is having a worse and longer lasting effect than Covid. Johnson’s premiership hangs by a thread. He’s no longer seen as a winner. Leaking this ploy to rat on the protocol reads more like a sop to keep Brexit ultras on board than a coherent strategy. It’s so dubious it hasn’t even fooled the DUP, a party fooled by Johnson’s bridge/tunnel to Scotland; that’s how pathetic it is.
However, what the ploy does confirm is the disdain and contempt in which Johnson and his Brexit government hold the north. Part of his ploy would mean that the power in the Withdrawal Agreement of a Stormont Assembly to give or withhold its consent to the protocol in 2024 would be removed because there’d be no protocol: Stormont would have no say in the matter. There’s the DUP rabbiting on, falsely as it happens, about consent and Johnson would remove even that delusion from them.
What his latest deceitful manoeuvres confirm however is that in next week’s election it’s essential that full use be made of transfers between parties opposed to Brexit to maximise the numbers who support the protocol as the best means to maintain the north’s free trade with the EU. At present a majority supports the protocol.
Next week it’s crucial to give the lie to Johnson’s mendacious claims and show that a majority here opposes Brexit and supports the protocol’s advantages.
