SUBDUED NEW YEAR'S EVE; CHAOS IN COLOGNE; DISCORD IN FRANCE

NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATIONS LACK SPARKLE

As Parisians were glad to leave behind the annus horribilis of 2015 when terrorism exploded in their midst, there was little midnight joy in welcoming in the new year, and 2016 tiptoed in on slippered feet as if not wanting to disturb. 

Paris: Arc de Triomphe video

No fireworks in Brussels and Paris where the state of emergency continues and the official celebrations were cancelled or curtailed on fears of a terrorist attack. In Paris the traditional New Year's Eve fireworks were replaced by a five-minute video display on the Arc de Triomphe, while other European cities celebrated in rather subdued fashion amid tightened security. In Munich two railroad stations were closed on busy New Year's Eve following a credible tip of a planned terrorist attack and in Berlin bags and backpacks were searched as crowds gathered for the fireworks at the Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin Brandenburg fireworks

The November 13 attacks in Paris revealed a network of Belgian- and French-born jihadists operating from Brussels with direct links to Syria. Like the French security forces, Belgian police remain on high alert and have arrested a number of suspects. In a recent raid on an apartment in the Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek, they found man-made suicide vests, various weapons, traces of TATP (the explosive used in the Paris attacks), and a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive Brussels-based jihadist who participated in the Paris massacre but managed to get away. He remains at large today.

On January 7th, exactly one year after the Charlie Hebdo attack, a man wielding a butcher knife and shouting Allahu Akbar! tried to storm a police station in northern Paris. Ignoring orders to stop, he was shot and killed by the police standing guard outside. A fake explosive device was found on his body, as well as a printed image of the ISIS flag and a handwritten note in Arabic claiming responsibility for the attack. His identity was not immediately established, but the mobile phone found on him contained a German SIM card which led investigators to a refugee shelter in West Germany where he had been living for several months as an asylum seeker until he disappeared in December 2015. He had apparently been using different aliases while in Europe. French media reported that his fingerprints matched those of a homeless man convicted of theft in southern France in 2013 who gave his name as Sallah Ali, a Moroccan. However, people claiming to be relatives have identified him as a 30-year-old Tunisian named Tarek Belgacem.

His status as asylum seeker in Germany has sparked a renewed debate about the 1.1 million refugees Germany has welcomed this past year and attacks against Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-border policy have sharply increased.

CHAOS IN COLOGNE

On New Year's Eve, as many as 1000 drunk and aggressive men "of North African appearance" gathered around the main railroad station in Cologne and began harrassing women as they came out of the station to join celebrations in the city. As the evening progressed and the crowds grew thicker, this turned into a mob attack of muggings and sexual assaults that quickly overwhelmed the nearby police who did little or nothing to interfere. About 60 complaints were filed that night for robbery and assault, including two for rape. Thirty-one men were subsequently arrested, among them 18 asylum seekers. A leaked police report, obtained by the magazine Bild, says that women were forced to "run a gauntlet ... beyond description" to enter or leave the station, and that the perpetrators were "almost exclusively of migration backgrounds."

No Violence Against Women, in front of Cologne cathedral

On Monday, officials reported that 553 criminal complaints had been filed, nearly half of them for sexual offenses, including eyewitness reports of coordinated attacks and lack of police response. In the wake of the incidents, the city's police chief was fired and Minister of Justice Heiko Maas announced that new laws are being drafted that will make it easier to extradite foreign criminals and strip them of their refugee status.

The scale of the crime wave in Cologne, and to a lesser extent in Hamburg and several other German cities, has heated up the public debate on immigrants and sharply divided the country. Far-right groups were quick to blame the attacks on the influx of refugees. As the anti-immigration extreme-right PEGIDA movement drew thousands of participants in rallies in Cologne and Leipzig, pro-immigration groups countered with anti-PEGIDA marches. Police responded to occasional violence with tear gas and water cannons.

PEGIDA with imperial war flags

German media, including the public-service broadcaster ZDF, did not report the Cologne incidents until four days after they occurred, feeding the perception of a "lying press." In the face of turmoil and mounting mistrust, Angela Merkel has had to revisit her refugee policy. Maintaining her position that Germany must remain open to refugees from war and civil strife, Merkel said nevertheless that "something has to change."

"Where there is crime, there will be consequences," she warned, saying she will support tougher laws to deport migrants convicted of criminal conduct. It is worth noting that at least 3000 migrants still arrive in Germany every day.

DISCORD IN FRANCE

The subject of expulsion is currently a hot topic in France as well. In the days following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and hundreds more wounded, President François Hollande first spoke of the possibility of revoking French citizenship from convicted terrorists with dual nationality - a subject he brought up again during his traditional New Year's Eve address. In the interval, a heated debate had developed around the issue, which requires a change in the constitution, with many on the right (including former president Sarkozy) supporting it while several prominent Socialists, such as former prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Justice Minister Christiane Taubira oppose it. Public opinion seems strongly in favor, with polls indicating that some 80 percent of the French support the measure.

Currently, citizenship can only be revoked from those who were naturalized, not from those who were born in France. The proposed new rules would extend it to all dual nationals. Opponents point out that revoking citizenship from dual nationals would create two unequal categories of citizenship, in conflict with the principle of Egalité under the constitution.

Best enemies Valls and Taubira

France has the largest Muslim community in Western Europe, including many French-born with Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian origins who have both citizenships. Some see the proposed measure as targeted specifically against this community; others recall the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II that revoked the citizenship of Jews and members of the French Resistance, including General de Gaulle as well as St. John Perse who later won the Nobel Prize for literature.

The constitutional change will be debated in Parliament in February where it needs a three-fifths majority vote. To date, the left remains divided. Prime Minister Valls defends the measure as "a strong symbolic act that punishes those who excluded themselves from the national community" while Justice Minister Taubira expressed her disagreement and called the proposed change "completely useless."

The strong-willed Mrs. Taubira may be remembered for earlier clashes with Mr. Valls and Mr. Hollande but has always managed to survive calls for her resignation. One reason may be that President Hollande, who is increasingly drifting to the right, needs the very visible Mrs. Taubira as proof that he still runs a socialist government.

Whichever way the vote goes, the dissension within the Socialist ranks comes at a bad time for a president who is expected to run for re-election in early 2017 but so far has been incapable of bringing down unemployment or even of keeping his ministers in line.

REGIONAL ELECTIONS; CLIMATE CONFERENCE; TAPIE TO PAY, LAGARDE TO STAND TRIAL

REGIONAL ELECTIONS

On Sunday, December 13th, a collective sigh of relief could be heard in France as the results of the second round of voting in the regional elections was announced. Just one week earlier, the extreme-right Front National party of Marine Le Pen had scored a stunning victory over its two main rivals, the conservative Les Républicains party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist party of President Hollande. Bolstered by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Le Pen's anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-European Union rhetoric found a new audience with nervous or undecided voters disappointed by their own parties and disheartened by continued high unemployment and a stalled economy. Suddenly, it was no longer unthinkable that Le Pen would be a serious presidential candidate in 2017, an unpalatable scenario for the mainstream.

From its weak third-place position, the Socialist party leadership then took the decision to withdraw its candidates in several key regions and urged voters there to massively support the conservative Republican party against the far right. The tactic worked and Les Républicains, with heavy socialist backing, won the second round. Moreover, the Front National, which had captured six of the thirteen metropolitan regions of France in the first round, lost all of them in the second round.

An angry Marine Le Pen called this tactical voting scheme "intellectual terrorism by the political mafia" and vowed to be back, recalling her party's strong score in the first round and the more than six million votes it had gathered. Relieved by the final outcome, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls nevertheless cautioned against triumphalism and warned that "the danger of the extreme right is not averted," yet expressing confidence that next time voters could again vote FOR a party, not against one. 

CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

This 'happy ending' came on the heels of the jubilant conclusion of the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, where nearly 200 governments had just reached a landmark agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming, spelling the end of the fossil fuel era. It took thirteen days (one more than planned) of tough negotiations, sleepless nights, a nail-biting finale and all the diplomatic skills of conference president Laurent Fabius, France's foreign minister, to get the agreement adopted.

In 20 years of UN climate meetings, the COP21 had set the most ambitious goals and succeeded beyond expectation: to limit global warming to "well below 2° C" and, in a concession to the most vulnerable countries, to pursue efforts to keep temperatures to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels − with an ultimate goal of bringing the temperature rise down to zero by mid-century. It also included demands for regular five-year reviews of emissions reductions, and agreed on a fund of $100 billion a year by 2020 from public and private sources to help developing countries in their transition to a clean-energy economy. Although the agreement is legally binding, the matter of funding is not.

Last-minute objections to the text involved details of translation, typos, and a demand from the United States to replace the word "shall" by "should," thereby weakening the text but avoiding the need for approval from the US Congress where it would likely have been rejected. The masterful management and shuttle diplomacy of Laurent Fabius kept the final discussions from derailing and as soon as consensus was reached and his gavel came down, there followed an explosion of joy with shouts, hugs, fist pumping, and a few tears. The tension was finally broken and even the leaders on the dais, including Ban Ki-moon, let loose with a volley of whoops and hugs.

Much of the credit for the success of COP21 went to Laurent Fabius, but equal kudos should go to the City of Paris where Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her team faced the daunting challenge of protecting numerous heads of state, government ministers and VIP's as well as thousands of international delegates during several weeks. And that, less than a month after the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded. France was still on maximum alert, but only full cooperation between city management and all the security forces involved could guarantee safety. Paris rose to the challenge and delivered beautifully. Bravo!

TAPIE TO PAY; LAGARDE TO STAND TRIAL

The long-playing saga of colorful French businessman Bernard Tapie may finally have run its course when on December 3rd the Paris court of appeals rejected Tapie's arguments and ordered him to repay his arbitration award of 403 million euros to the State. In 1994, Tapie had filed suit against the partly State-owned Crédit Lyonnais bank for fraudulently undervaluing his Adidas sportswear company when he had to divest himself in order to be named a government minister (see blog of 2/28/2015). The decades-old case has tainted several members of the Sarkozy government and may yet claim another victim today: Christine Lagarde, presently head of the International Monetary Fund.

In 2007, after nearly fourteen years of litigation against CL, Bernard Tapie approached Christine Lagarde, then Finance Minister under President Sarkozy, requesting that his case be settled by arbitration to speed up the outcome. She accepted and three private arbitrators were selected by the parties involved. This arbitration panel judged in favor of Tapie and awarded him €403 million in damages and interest. Christine Lagarde accepted the decision and signed off on the payment, made with public funds (the CL having gone bankrupt) and causing a public outcry.

Among rumors of manipulation of the arbitration, Jean-Marc Ayrault, leader of the opposition and later prime minister of Socialist president François Hollande, claimed the arbitration was rigged as a reward for Tapie's support of candidate Sarkozy in his presidential campaign. The Socialists demanded a formal investigation.

In May 2013 Christine Lagarde was questioned by prosecutors about her role in the matter of the Tapie arbitration. She was cleared of any charges but was placed under the status of témoin assisté, an obligation to remain available for further questioning if needed. Her chief of staff at the time of the arbitration, Stéphane Richard, was placed under formal investigation on suspicion of organized fraud.

In February 2015 the Paris appeals court annulled the arbitration panel's ruling and in early December 2015 a court ruled that the Crédit Lyonnais had not undervalued Adidas which it sold at the then market value, based on information that was available to both CL and Mr. Tapie. Tapie should therefore not be compensated for the sale and is ordered to repay the arbitration award of €403 million plus interest.

Days later, the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), which handles criminal cases involving government officials, charged Ms. Lagarde with "negligence by a person in a position of public authority" in connection with the arbitration. If convicted, she could be sentenced to one year in prison. Her lawyer called the court's decision "incomprehensible" and will recommend that she appeal.

While the IMF spokesman said that the organization "continues to have confidence in the managing director's ability to effectively carry out her duties," the court's decision to have her stand trial comes at a bad time for Lagarde, 59, whose term as IMF's managing director ends in July 2016. It was widely expected that she would run for a second term.

In a final twist, Bernard Tapie, 72, who two weeks ago said he was ruined by the court's decision and unable to pay back the arbitration award, made a surprise announcement in yesterday's Journal de Dimanche: he is returning to politics. To stop the rise of the Front National, he says, and to deal with youth unemployment. He wants to make youth unemployment illegal and promised to have a proposal ready before the end of January 2016 to "get all unemployed 18- to 25-year-olds into work."

With his roller-coaster career, his bigger-than-life personality and matching lifestyle, his rock star looks, his gutsy gambles, he has succeeded and failed in almost equal measure but has always managed to bounce back. His been-there-done-that resumé (former singer, actor, TV producer, football club owner, government minister, jailbird, tycoon) suggests he won't stop there.

Can he make it back this time? Why politics? A diversionary tactic while he tries to save what he can? We'll have to wait and see as he strings us along like voyeuristic spectators at a slightly off-color show. Watch for the sequel.

... And suddenly, it's nearly Christmas and more important things are claiming our attention. What are we going to EAT? Food talk is in the air, not to mention on TV and in newspapers and magazines. Exotic recipes, sumptuous desserts, once-a-year luxuries are the new standard. Home decoration is way down the list, and Christmas cards have disappeared from the French landscape.

As I slowly shift into year-end gear, I wish all of you the Christmas of your dreams and

PEACE FOR ALL IN THE NEW YEAR.

TERRORIST ATTACK IN FRANCE

AUX LARMES CITOYENS!  *

As France mourns its dead from the brutal terrorist attacks perpetrated at six separate sites in Paris a week ago, questions are beginning to displace the initial cries of pain and disbelief, and the intense sadness and sympathy felt for the victims. 

With a lump in our throat and a vivid memory of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris just ten months ago, we watched the candles and mounds of flowers left at the killing sites as well as in front of city halls all across the country, listened to the stirring Marseillaise, read the moving messages:  I lost my son and all I did was buy him a ticket to a concert;  129 dead, 65 million wounded;  Your Wars, Our Dead;  and We are Not Afraid!  We observed a minute of silence for the victims and listened to a somber but determined President Hollande as he addressed the two houses of Parliament. "This is war!" he declared, as he outlined his "merciless response" to ISIS which had claimed to be punishing France for its air strikes in Syria and Iraq. France will fight back with all its means and destroy ISIS, Hollande said, adding that the night before, twenty French fighter planes had bombed the city of Raqqa, an ISIS stronghold in Syria, and blown up a command post, a training center and a munitions depot. He will extend the State of Emergency to three months; propose changes to the Constitution that would allow for a quicker government response in these extraordinary circumstances; speed up the deportation of foreigners who pose a threat to France; create 5000 extra police posts, and call for greater European efforts in fighting arms trafficking, as well as heavier penalties for it in France.

Two days after this speech, an early morning police raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis ended with two people dead and seven arrested. The raid took seven hours, wounded five policemen and nearly destroyed the apartment that was protected by heavy steel-plated doors, before it was all over. The police had acted on a tip that a group of people, housed at that address, might be preparing another attack, and that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the presumed mastermind of the Paris attacks, might be among them. The amount of assault weapons and explosives found at the site confirmed the suspicions, but it wasn't until two days later that it could be confirmed that the unrecognizable human remains found in the rubble were those of Abaaoud.

The rapid police action and the heightened vigilance are reassuring, but it can never be enough to beat the enemy within. And there is the greatest problem of all: most of last week's terrorists were French. Young men born and raised in France, where life is so gentle and living conditions the envy of many, where their parents and grandparents found refuge from poverty or persecution, where there is no state religion but where all faiths are freely practised, and yet... where they grew to hate this country with such passion that they want its destruction. This alienated group of young men (and some women), often unemployed and from poor backgrounds, often convicted of minor crimes, has been radicalized in jail or fallen prey to fundamentalist imams or jihadist internet sites, and today forms a well-trained army of "avengers" ready to kill their own fellow citizens. More than 500 young Frenchmen are said to have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and at least 100 of them have come back after training. Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands each have their share of "foreign fighters," raising serious questions about the porosity of Europe's borders and the apparent lack of intelligence sharing.

A week after the attacks, public reaction ranges from defiance to fear and anger. The un-afraid ones have largely ignored the government's calls to stay home, and the day after the attacks gathered again around the statue of Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, on the Place de la République. Others, refusing to let terrorists dictate their lives, returned to their favorite bars and terrasses for a drink or a cup of coffee, as they have always done. Last night at 9:20 PM, the exact time of the first attack, a young crowd gathered again at the Place de la République, first to pay homage to the victims and then to fan out to all the bars and restaurants in the neighborhood where they partied and danced the night away, clearly visible to all. Il Faut Vivre! was their response.

Most, however, are more fearful and alarmed at this new danger among us:  the deadly violence from within, committed by people who went to school with our children, who loved our ways and our sports, who were like us until the day they pronounced us all infidels, not worthy of living.

As government leaders talk of democracy and human rights, and of France as a multi-cultural, tolerant and generous nation, there are those who say these are alien concepts to the hate-driven jihadist who knows no law but his own and does not value life. And who therefore no longer has a place in a civilized society − an open door to Le Front National, the far-right islamophobic and anti-immigrant party of Marine Le Pen who lost no time in calling for President Hollande's resignation. Opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy of the center-right Les Républicains party, took Hollande to task for not drawing the lessons from the January attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine. Additional potshots came from the hard left and the right, all of which is bound to have an effect on the French regional elections set to take place on December 6 and 13.

It is regrettable that one of the Paris attackers was identified as a Syrian national who sneaked into France via Greece by posing as a refugee. Already, in certain circles voices are being raised against the refugees who are still being processed for admission to EU member states and who have braved great danger and hardship in their flight from war and terrorism in their home countries. The many thousands of refugees still in transit risk becoming collateral damage in this jihadist war being waged on French soil. Rejecting these refugees now would spell the end of the European Union as we know it and represent a huge moral failure.

It is vitally important that this murderous movement of religious fanaticism be attacked at its source, particularly in Syria and Iraq, if we want to keep it from taking hold in Europe. France has been doing so since 2013 with military interventions in West Africa, where it pushed Al Qaeda out of Mali and where it maintains a limited force to protect the Sahel region from Islamic militant incursions. It effected air strikes in Iraq in 2014 and in Syria today, where it is the only European country to join the US in air strikes against ISIS. Today it is paying the price for its leading role.

It is now asking its European partners for military assistance, invoking Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty (if one EU member is attacked, all others are to come to its aid). It has also submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that condemns the Paris attacks and calls for a redoubling of counter-terrorism efforts. This Resolution has just been unanimously adopted.

France remains on high alert, its police, military and intelligence services all fully engaged. The large week-long UN Climate Conference in Paris starting on November 30th − a big job for security forces at the best of times − represents a huge challenge, with more than 100 world leaders in attendance as well as delegations from 195 countries. Although canceling the event was never an option, the French government has just decided in a last-minute reversal that it will not allow any mass demonstrations during the Conference. In closed spaces, however, where security can be provided, demonstrations can be held, the authorities said.

It has been quite a week in France. This land of leisure, of culture, of live-and-let-live and of the enviable lifestyle, has been shaken from its complacency by cold-blooded barbarians who dealt death and destruction where they found the simple pleasures of eating out or listening to music. In their twisted interpretation of the Koran, enjoying life is a sin for which the punishment, in the name of Allah, is the death penalty. The dark ages are back. How do we respond to this kind of war, to this blind hatred, to these cavemen with Kalashnikovs?!

Let's hope that we have seen the last of them, so that we can begin to focus on what needs improving or rethinking: better cooperation between intelligence services; improved border checks; a coordinated worldwide effort to cut off the financial sources of the Islamic State; expulse dangerous imams; find a way to prevent young people from joining IS through education, job programs, sports programs, etc.  The list is long and the need urgent.

And we're not finished. In neighboring Belgium the city of Brussels has just been put on the highest alert level on fears of a "serious and imminent terrorist attack". Recent police raids have resulted in numerous arrests, but fugitive Salah Abdeslam, one of the Paris attackers who managed to get back to Belgium, is still at large. It is thought that he is back in Brussels, where this weekend all cultural and sports events have been cancelled and the metro system closed.

Our gentle world has changed and our lights have temporarily dimmed, but give us time and they will burn bright again. We're all in this together. If we join our efforts, our hopes, our brain power and our determination, there is no reason why we cannot get rid of this rot, this cancer in our midst that is ISIS, and regain the peaceful existence we all deserve.

AUX ARMES CITOYENS!  The time has come to fight back for what we hold dear.

* Banner headline in the daily La Provence

CLIMATE CONFERENCE IN PARIS; CRISIS IN CALAIS

Last month, Provence Today was mum since I spent the entire month of October in the United States, totally disconnected from France. It was a disconnect but, inevitably, also a time of comparison between two worlds that function very differently.

World Trade Center 2015

On the one hand, the mighty UNITED STATES, richest country in the world (give or take a couple of oil-rich dictatorships), where a terrorist attack wiped out the proud twin towers of New York's financial heart in 2001, and where today an air of defiance hangs over the new One World Trade Center tower, tallest in the western hemisphere, higher and more beautiful than its predecessors. Opened to the public more than a year ago, One WTC, together with its moving Memorial and Museum, will soon be surrounded by five high-rise office buildings (two are still under construction) on the new 16-acre WTC site that fairly throbs with energy and vigor in that uniquely American can-do way.

Would this be possible in Europe? I wondered.

Or this:  American television programs are all interrupted by advertising. These commercials are a nuisance but something one gets used to. What struck me this time, however, was the incessant advertising of drugs and medical treatments, even in the printed press. "Ask your doctor," many of them say, which I suspect few people do given the expense of medical care in the US, a good part of which is no doubt caused by the vast amounts spent on pharmaceutical advertising.

Or this:  The televised presidential debates preceding next year's elections showed the usual verbal skirmishing and grandstanding − only more so on the part of Donald Trump − about a wide range of issues among which the two constants:  God and guns. Yes, God and guns, which no American presidential candidate can sidestep or ignore.

On the other hand, FRANCE: less energetic, more ponderous, more bureaucratic; more inclined to take the long-range view, less so to take risks. Also, more generous with its excellent universal health-care coverage and free education.

Two very different societies, each with their strengths and weaknesses and their mutually incomprehensible issues:

"Why can't America get a grip on its guns? Even if the Constitution grants this right, why do people feel the NEED, especially for assault weapons that don't serve for self defense?"

"Why is everything so COMPLICATED in France where unemployment remains high? Why can't people work on Sundays if they and their employers WANT to? And why does this lay country still celebrate half a dozen saints' days with official holidays?"  

No short answers to any of this, so let's move on.

CLIMATE CHANGE

On to France, that is, and to what's happening there this month, which is essentially the preparation of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change to be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11. Named COP 21 (for 21st COnference of the Parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change), this conference aims to reach a binding international agreement to keep global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions below 2°C. COP 21 is preceded by a final preparatory meeting in Paris on November 8-9-10, attended by 62 Interior Ministers from participating nations and presided by Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Foreign Affairs. The purpose of this pre-COP 21 meeting is to identify areas of compromise on four critical issues that are holding up a global deal, so that these can then to be taken to the COP 21 at the end of this month in hopes of speeding up a resolution.

Organizers expect at least 40,000 people from 175 countries for the climate conference, as well as tens of thousands of activists from environmental and human rights groups. A major protest march in Paris is also planned. In this context, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced last week that France will reinstate border controls in the Schengen area for a duration of one month around this event. This is a temporary measure taken in view of terrorist threats and a risk of disturbances to public order, he said.

 CRISIS IN CALAIS

The Jungle

While focusing on the security issues surrounding the upcoming COP 21 meeting in Paris, Bernard Cazeneuve is nevertheless not allowed to forget about the serious difficulties in the port city of Calais, where overnight clashes between migrants and police have broken out in the over-populated Jungle, the temporary tent city where those who want to try to get into England are "housed" in shamefully inadequate conditions. Calais is located at the mouth of the Eurotunnel through which the migrants try to reach England as stowaways on trucks or trains, or even on foot. Many want to go to England because of the language or because they have relatives there; others want to ask for asylum or, as illegal workers, disappear into the black economy.

The recent wave of war refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East has overwhelmed reception centers in Greece and Italy and caused hostilities at a number of border crossings in Europe. The number of refugees backed up in Calais on their way to England has grown from 3,500 to 6,000, far more than the city can handle. At the request of England, France instituted tough new security measures this summer, such as 15 ft. high razor-topped fences and increased police patrols, to help prevent migrants from entering the UK. As a result, migrants' attempts to cross the Channel have dropped from a high of 2000 in July to 150 in August. 

The onset of winter, the lack of running water and the unhygienic conditions at the Jungle, as well as the growing frustration among migrants over their inability to get to England, are now leading to unrest that is further being exacerbated by political activists from Britain who incite the migrants to riot. Police were called in when migrants had begun placing obstacles on a nearby road leading to the Ferry Port in order to stop trucks so as to jump on board. 

According to Pierre-Henri Brandet, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, it is the quasi-anarchistic No Borders organization that takes advantage of the migrants' disarray to push them into rioting and supplies them with iron bars and rocks to throw at police. In the recent clashes 27 police officers suffered minor injuries and the situation remains extremely volatile.

It is to be hoped that both the security at the COP 21 in Paris and at the Jungle in Calais can be assured in the coming weeks, and that subsequently a serious international effort will be made to find a solution to both pressing problems.