As the Olympics draw to a close tonight, two things have delighted the French. The first is that the Games turned out to be fairly successful, overlooking the weird opening ceremony. The other is the general amusement here that Britain managed to beat France at its own national summer sport: rioting.
If Froggie-bashing has for years been a favourite pastime of the British, the scenes on the streets of Britain have given the French a chance to retaliate with relish. News channels gleefully interrupted their coverage of French Olympic triumphs for live feeds of the clashes on British streets. Pundits were ripped from enjoying the beach volleyball to launch a flotilla of op-eds and television appearances, mocking the neighbours.
The scenes in Britain have given the French a chance to retaliate with relish
The chaos in Britain was a welcome distraction. It was celebrated as proof of the failure of British multiculturalism and evidence of the superior French model of cultural integration, in which deep social divisions are simply ignored in the pretence that racial and cultural differences don’t exist. That the French model has been as abject a failure as Britain’s has been somewhat overlooked.
Rosbif bashing has been especially popular on the left. One ultra-left French MP, a member of Antifa, even leapt on the Eurostar to join the counter demonstrations in London, denouncing English racists and fascists. But even more moderate voices were also quick to join in.
After the knife attack that cost the lives of three girls in Southport, Laetitia Langlois, lecturer in British civilisation at the University of Angers, pointed the finger, inevitably, at Brexit:
‘The shadow of the extreme right hangs over these events. These racist and xenophobic behaviours do not come out of nowhere. We saw it at the time of Brexit, but we thought it had calmed down a little. However, this event of three murdered young girls immediately awakened a part of the British population who was already harbouring anti-immigrant hatred.’
More measured commentators were equally scathing, and probably closer to the mark, blaming successive governments for imposing mass immigration without consent.
François-Joseph Schichan, a former French diplomat in London, wrote in Le Figaro newspaper this week that, ‘Despite the promise of Brexit to ‘take back control’ of the borders, in 2023, massive immigration was imposed on the British. Anyone who opposed it was – and still is – labelled a racist. Unlike France, the country offered the image of a happy multiculturalism, with its visible but integrated immigrant communities.
‘This seemingly happy multiculturalism has come at a high price: that of successive renunciations of democratic values – for example, by allowing Islamic law to be applied in part in certain neighbourhoods or by showing tolerance towards radical Islamists. The United Kingdom has given more and more exceptional rights to newcomers, while at the same time socially punishing those who oppose immigration. This tension could only lead to the breaking point where we are today,’ he adds.
Britain has every reason to take a hard look at itself following the disorder. But a venerable French idiom comes to mind: C’est l’hôpital qui se moque de la charité – it’s the hospital mocking charity. A call-out of blatant hypocrisy. Equivalent to the English phrase: the pot calling the kettle black.
‘The boot is on the other foot as far as they’re concerned,’ says Jeremy Stubbs, the bilingual British editor of Causeur, a rare French political monthly that prides itself as standing apart from the groupthink bubble.
Perhaps the British and French have more in common than supposed
It’s been reminiscent of Le Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Sickness), the famous farce by Molière, the greatest French playwright. In his play, every ailment is attributed to ‘the lungs, the lungs.’ Now, all the ills of Britain are attributed to Brexit, Brexit.
Schadenfreude is a German word, not French, but the delight in the misery of others seems to have become the last refuge of the snobbish progressive left here, whose contempt for the opinions of ordinary French working people is palpable. In an interview with Le Monde last week, the socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade against the unacceptable views of anyone dissenting. Using an English expletive, she declared, ‘**** the reactionaries. **** the extreme right. **** all those who would lock us into this war of all against all.’
Arnaud Benedetti, a political commentator, says her point of view reflects ‘a self-centred conception of society. She claims to be part of the historical tradition of the left, but in the end it is only for her own camp.’
It might have been too much to expect that this leading French politician would express a message of harmony. But that’s not how the French elite think, ensconced in their privileged bubble.
Perhaps the British and French have more in common than supposed. Both are led by caviar-left politicians who just don’t care what voters say they want. Plus ça change…
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