Five years ago, a newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, radiant and not yet worn out, received the then British Prime Minister, Theresa May, at the Élysée. It was in August 2018. At that time, the United Kingdom was still a member of the EU, Brexit was brewing but not consummated. We could not imagine a pandemic, nor a war in Ukraine.
In a radically different context, Macron today receives his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, at the Élysée. The one of now is a Macron very different from the one of then, that starts his second and last term increasingly eroded by power. The harmony between the two countries is not the same either: in this five-year relationship the relationship has cooled more and more.
The objective of the Franco-British summit that starts today in Paris is "to restore collaboration" in areas of common interest, but, above all, "to resume that relationship, to reconnect" bilateral relations, according to sources at the Élysée, who explain that Sunak " has changed the tone" with France that his predecessors had, especially Boris Johnson.
Today it is Rishi Sunak who is seen with Macron and in two weeks it will be King Carlos III, who has chosen France on his first trip abroad. These two visits will serve to open "this a new page" with London and reset. "I want to open a new chapter with France," Sunak said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Seven key ministers (Defense, Interior, Foreign, Economy or Energy) are traveling with Sunak and the leaders will address key issues, such as cooperation in the field of immigration, the result of tensions between both countries.
Just a few days ago London approved a controversial law that restricts the right to asylum. Specifically, it will prohibit clandestine immigrants who arrive in the country through the English Channel from requesting it. From the Élysée they point out that this law "has no impact on the French coasts." Both countries will negotiate the terms to collaborate in the management of these flows, especially a reinforcement of surveillance in the Canal.
Ukraine and military support will be another of the central themes of the meeting. London and Paris are the main NATO military powers, the only ones that have nuclear weapons. Both leaders will launch a message of unity and military support for kyiv to stop Russia, especially after Vladimir Putin withdrew from the nuclear treaty. "It is the first meeting after Putin's conference in which he announced it," they remember at the Élysée.
"In Macron's eyes, Rishi Sunak is arguably the most reliable and reasonable partner France has had in the UK for years. The two countries have indisputable shared interests when it comes to managing the migration crisis in the short term," says Jeremy Ghez, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Haute École de Commerce (HEC) in Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron is multiplying activity on the international scene, while at home he faces a collapse in popularity. Sunak arrives in Paris in full protests against the unpopular pension reform, which aims to delay the retirement age from the current 62 to 64.
Disowned at home, Macron has received in the last month at the Élysée the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (twice), the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, and now Sunak. The president thus tries to take the reins in this Europe at war, "although it is true that France today is not a dominant country, everything has changed since 2018", the date of that last Franco-British summit, Tomasz Michalski, a professor, explains to EL MUNDO also in HEC.
"There is a feeling that the president is absent, that he is busy with other European affairs, like when he traveled to Spain to meet with Pedro Sánchez. This was seen as an escape," he says.
"Many things have happened. There is a new government in Italy and, after the outbreak of the Russian war, the countries of Eastern Europe have gained a lot of weight," explains this expert. Paris "was quite immobile at the international level, although this is not the fault of France or Macron. The world has changed a lot in a short time," he adds.
Sunak and Macron will meet in the morning, then they will meet with their respective ministers and finally, they will give a press conference at noon, after sealing a joint declaration with the priorities of this new post-Brexit stage.
"As the European center of gravity shifts east, Paris is likely to look for support where it can. London may also need new partnerships, even some that take different forms in older places. This explains why Paris and London can find much more common ground than all the acrimony of Brexit might have suggested," says Ghez.
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