Dear readers, please find my most recent interview for French news broadcaster CNEWS on Saturday 30 November 2024 about the migration crisis in the Channel.

This interview comes a day after French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau threatened to “engage in an arm-wrestle” with the British government. Retailleau’s aim is to crackdown on the numbers of illegal migrant crossings which will most probably exceed the 33 000 by mid-December.

Bruno Retailleau should be meeting Yvette Cooper on December 9th in northern Pas-de-Calais before a meeting the following day in London in a format extended to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland.

But the former meeting looks increasingly uncertain now that the French government is on the verge of being toppled this week by the opposition parties at the National Assembly.

Michel Barnier’s government will be settled about its fate tomorrow night, once the motions of no-confidence are debated and voted by the opposition parties.

These motions come as an answer to Michel Barnier’s triggering of an executive order to try implementing his budget for 2025 and thus avoid a vote from MPs — a majority of which would have rejected it.

Marine le Pen who has the biggest group of MPs at the National Assembly (124) has promised last weekend she would support any kind of motion of no-confidence, even if it was triggered by Mélenchon’s far-left coalition France insoumise.

More to come in the following days.