It has been depressingly educational to see how the media have taken one line in Macron’s speech that triggers their refugee crisis memories, taken it out of context from all the things Macron said about taking refugees and a better European strategy, framed it
As the main point of the speech, and now Twitter is screaming that French voters have a choice between a male and female Le Pen. It’s notable that the only French media that made it the main theme was far-right rag Valeurs Actuelles.
I would have liked to hear a different speech but this was not the speech Twitter thinks it was. If we allow this situation to be reframed for us into the 2015 refugee crisis it will become the 2015 refugee crisis and the far right will be delighted.
Macron promised a new initiative with Germany very shortly. It needs to be of the right level of ambition and to focus on making the process more welcoming and more collective in Europe while protecting people from traffickers.
The full speech is here: elysee.fr/emmanuel-macro…
Originally posted as a thread of 5 tweets on Twitter on 17 August 2021. View the original thread.