Joan, a listener on London radio station LBC, provided a frontline report for the presenter this week. Together with her disabled sister Gina, she encountered the traffic jam in front of the Eurotunnel at half past eight in the morning and then needed eight hours to cover the last stretch of 1.6 kilometers. “The verge is now a public urinal, it was unbearably hot and people ran out of water,” she complained.
The British are denied their holidays abroad. After cars had been backed up in front of the ferry in Dover for up to 20 hours last weekend, the entrance to the Eurotunnel in Folkstone came into view. The Automobile Association, something like the British ADAC, spoke of a “holiday hell hotspot”. What’s wrong? And above all: who is to blame?
Because even if in Great Britain the question of guilt in the private sphere is usually settled with a “sorry” from all sides, the serenity stops when you go on vacation. Nerves are additionally tense because travel alternatives – even domestically – seem even less attractive. Most railway companies are currently on strike – rail traffic has fallen to 20 percent in the past few days. The airports, in turn, are overloaded due to a lack of staff. Numerous flights are canceled and luggage is piling up at many airports because the owners could not wait any longer. To make matters worse, work stoppages are now being announced at British airlines.
The nerves are strained
Politicians from the ruling Conservatives quickly identified those responsible for the traffic jams on the Canal: the French, who already control British soil. Not exactly all of them had turned up at the control booths at the start of the holiday season. Photos documented that at times only half of the control boxes were occupied.
Will the British experience the EU’s revenge for Brexit once again? At least that’s what conservative columnists like Andrew Pierce suggested: “There’s no doubt that the French haven’t forgiven us. They just hate Brexit. Macron can’t take it.” It’s not the first time this suspicion has arisen. It could already be heard when the French temporarily tightened the corona rules for people entering the UK during the pandemic, but also during the protests that French fishermen organized off Jersey last year against the slow licensing process.
In the Élysée Palace, the allegations from London are dealt with calmly. “France is not responsible for Brexit!”, French Transport Minister Clément Beaune clarified. Even the President refuses to be provoked. The list of verbal attacks from the island is too long to rouse Emmanuel Macron. Now he’s acting like he’s heeded Boris Johnson’s advice to ‘get a grip on yourself and donnez-moi un break!’
Even if people in London are convinced that the French government – especially President Macron – is generally happy to teach the Brexiteers lessons, so far no minister has been found who wanted to make a direct connection to the traffic jams. It might also be a little far-fetched. The fact that the checkpoints were quickly filled and that the situation has eased at least a little indicates that Paris did not want to wage a European campaign at the border station. So, conversely, is the French side right when they explain the delays at the border with the self-inflicted consequences of Brexit?