Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.

Macron needs to find his inner Trump

If a week is a long time in politics then eight years is an eternity. Just ask Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron. Back in 2017 the two newly-elected presidents met for the first time in Brussels. They shook hands for the cameras, and kept shaking for several seconds, a game of machismo that tickled the

Why is Spain so anti-Trump?

Spain has been receiving some lavish praise of late in the British press. ‘Booming Spain is on track to a new age of prosperity’ was the headline in the Times last week, a response to the news that its GDP is forecast to grow by 2.5 per cent this year. The Financial Times was similarly effusive about Spain’s economy

Europe is feeling the strain of mass immigration

Britain can’t cope, that was the response of Nigel Farage to last week’s disclosure by the Office for National Statistics that the population will hit 72.5 million in 2032. The leader of Reform said that Britain has already reached saturation point at 67.6 million, adding: ‘Our quality of life for all of us is diminishing directly

How many more knife attacks can France take?

Each day in France there are 120 knife attacks. On Saturday, one such incident resulted in the death of 14-year-old Elias as he left his football training in central Paris. He was stabbed after refusing to surrender his mobile phone. A 17-year-old has admitted the killing to police. France’s Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, expressed his

Like the Louvre, Macron’s presidency is falling apart

Emmanuel Macron has promised to return the Louvre to its former glory in an ambitious renovation project that is forecast to cost between €700 and €800 million (£586 and £670 million). The French president outlined details of what he called his ‘New Renaissance’ project on Tuesday as he stood in front of the Mona Lisa.

Europe has no idea how to stop the spread of Islamism

Last week was surely one of the grimmest in Europe in years. The day after an Afghan migrant allegedly stabbed a two-year-old boy in Germany to death, Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in prison for murdering Alice, Bebe and Elsie, three little English girls with a combined age of 22, in Southport. The

A British Puy du Fou will upset all the right people

There is a new theme park coming to Britain – though without big dippers and ghost trains. It will be an historical attraction with Vikings, knights and Tommy Atkins in the trenches. It will be Britain’s equivalent of the wildly popular Puy du Fou, a historical theme park in western France which opened in 1989 and now

Calin Georgescu has exposed the rotten European Union

To the great surprise of very few the European Court of Human Rights this week rejected an appeal by Calin Georgescu to overturn last month’s annulment of Romania’s presidential election. The Eurosceptic Georgescu had won the first round of November’s election, but days before the second round Romania’s Constitutional Court cancelled the result because of

Why we’ll probably learn nothing from the Southport murders

The PM’s warm words will count for little. Starmer’s pledge is reminiscent of the one made by Theresa May in June 2017 Keir Starmer has pledged to act in light of the revelations about Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. The 17-year-old murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year, and it has

Is it too late to Make Europe Great Again?

A poll published last week by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) found that much of the world is relishing the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Eighty-four per cent of Indians think Trump will be good for their country as do 61 per cent of Saudis. In Russia, South Africa, China and Brazil,

How France’s Jimmy Savile also got away with his evil

This week nine more charges of sexual abuse were levelled against Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest who for decades was regarded as a modern-day saint. This brings to 33 the number of charges, ranging from sexual assault to the rape of a boy, all alleged to have been committed between the 1960s and shortly

The plot to ban X in France

Clara Chappaz is the minister delegate for Artificial Intelligence and the digital economy in the government of Emmanuel Macron. At the weekend she appeared on a television discussion entitled ‘Trump-Musk: Are we ready?’ Chappaz, 35, is very much a Macronist, an entrepreneur who did her MBA at Harvard Business School before launching a successful start-up.

Spain is stoking Europe’s migrant crisis

The new year in Spain began much as the old one ended, with a huge influx of illegal immigrants arriving on its shores. Nearly 800 people from North and Sub-Saharan Africa landed on the Canary Islands between 6 and 8 January. That fleet of ten boats are an ominous sign of what Europe can expect

France’s problem is Algeria – not Elon Musk

Emmanuel Macron has a problem and its name is not Elon Musk. It is interference of an altogether more dangerous nature, a brazen attempt to destabilise France. On Thursday, while Thierry Breton – until recently France’s commissioner in Brussels – called on the EU ‘to investigate Musk’s practices’, a reference to the American’s regular commentary on

When will Britain wake up to the Islamist threat?

A poll this week in France found that 78 per cent of respondents are in favour of proscribing the wearing of Muslim headscarves at universities and also for classroom helpers on school outings. The poll was conducted after comments by the Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, in a newspaper interview. ‘Helpers [on school trips] don’t have to wear

Why do the left mock the dead?

It was party time in Paris and elsewhere in France on Tuesday evening as hundreds of people celebrated the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen. The figurehead of France’s far-right died earlier in the day aged 96 and within hours a jubilant crowd had assembled in the capital’s Place de la République. Champagne was uncorked, fireworks

There’s something hypocritical about Macron attacking Musk

Europe’s leaders rounded on Elon Musk on Monday as the American tech billionaire continued to air his views on the state of the Old Continent. Although Musk – who in a fortnight’s time will be president Donald’s Trump efficiency tsar – has focused most of his ire on Britain, he’s also endorsed Alternative for Germany

Gavin Mortimer

Ten years on and is France still ‘Je suis Charlie’?

Today marks ten years since two brothers walked into the office of Charlie Hebdo and shot dead most of the staff. It was punishment for the satirical magazine’s blasphemous treatment of the Prophet, according to the Islamist gunmen. The murders shocked the West. Millions of French men and women gathered across the country four days later, and

Why is Gisèle Pelicot a hero but not the girls of Rochdale?

A poll in France has named Gisèle Pelicot as the country’s person of the year for the courage and dignity she displayed during the rape trial that transfixed the West in the autumn. The Independent newspaper argued last week that the Frenchwoman deserves to be named the world’s Person of 2024 – not Donald Trump – and Prospect magazine agreed, saying Pelicot has ‘gifted