Emmanuel Macron called Boris Johnson a 'clown' and Britain a 'circus' in a diplomatic broadside amid the Channel migrant crisis, a French magazine has claimed.
Impeccably placed insiders in Paris told the highly respected investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine (The Chained Duck) that Mr Macron made the comments during a trip to Croatia on Thursday last week.
This was the day after 27 migrants, including women and children, drowned after a boat provided by people smugglers capsized as they tried to reach England from the coast of France.
Le Canard writes: 'As soon as he arrived in Zagreb on 24 November, Macron spoke to Boris Johnson on the phone about the tragedy in Calais.'
During this conversation, Mr Macon's advisors learned that the Prime Minister had already used Twitter to publish 'a letter he had just sent to Macron, which Macron had not yet been able to read.'
Mr Macron was incensed about this, and told advisors in Zagreb, Croatia: 'Bojo talks to me, he's down to earth, everything's fine, we're having grown-up discussions and then he sticks it to us either beforehand or afterwards in an inelegant manner. It's always the same circus.'
Mr Macron, a massive opponent of Brexit, also blamed Britain leaving the EU as the 'starting point' of ongoing tensions between the UK and France.
According to Le Canard, Mr Macron said: 'Very quickly, Boris Johnson realised that the situation was catastrophic for the British. There's no petrol in the pumps, there's a whole bunch of stuff missing. He positions himself as a victim, he makes France a scapegoat, he tries to turn every simplistic situation into a complex problem. We have been in this situation since March.
'He has done this on the sausage war, on fishing and on the submarine affair [in which France lost a multi-billion pounds submarine contract to build boats for Australia to the USA and UK].'
Mr Macron is then quoted as saying of Mr Johnson: 'In private, he says he is sorry to act this way, but he admits that above all he must respond to public opinion.'
It is then that Mr Macron said: 'It is very sad to see a great country, with which we could do so much, led by a clown. Johnson has the attitude of a good-for-nothing.'
Emmanuel Macron called Boris Johnson (outside Downing Street on Wednesday) a 'clown' and a 'boor' after the PM shared a letter he had written to the French PM on Twitter calling on him to take back migrants who land in the UK
'It is sad to see such a great country ... governed by a clown, a boor,' Macron (pictured outside the Elysee Palace on Wednesday) said, according to Le Canard
The letter posted by Mr Johnson on Twitter outlined British proposals to set up joint patrols and a new bilateral agreement to allow for the immediate return of those who cross the Channel.
Mr Macron publicly branded the demands and the online release of the letter as 'not serious'.
It prompted his government to bar Home Secretary Priti Patel from an emergency meeting of ministers from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to discuss the migration crisis last Sunday.
The Elysee Palace today refused to comment on the Canard story.
Gerald Darmanin, France's Interior Minister, on Monday said that France was ready to begin discussions if the British entered talks in a 'serious spirit'.
The number crossing the Channel has surged to 25,776 in 2021, up from 8,461 in 2020 and 1,835 in 2019, according to Home Office data.
Mr Macron last Friday warned the Prime Minister to 'get serious' if he wanted to tackle the crisis.
This despite Miss Patel pledging £55 million to Paris in June to help France patrol the border - the latest in a long line of similar lump sums provided by the UK taxpayer.
Mr Macron claimed that he was 'surprised' by Mr Johnson's methods, which he branded 'not serious'.
The French President added: 'One leader does not communicate with another on these questions on Twitter, nor by public letter'.
In turn, Mr Johnson has said he has no regrets about publishing the letter to President Macron on Twitter.
While Britain accuses France of failing to stem the flow, France claims that once migrants reach the shores of the channel, it is too late to prevent them crossing.
French police routinely tear up the camps that spring up between Calais and Dunkirk. Evictions at the Grande-Synthe site where evictions took place today have been raking place in a steady stream over the last few weeks, according to one charity worker.
The migrants are typically transported to holding centres scattered across the country where they are encouraged to file for asylum, though many quickly make their way back to the Channel coast.
Hussein Hamid, 25, an Iranian Kurd, said it was the second time he had been evicted. On the first occasion, he was bussed to Lyon 500 miles to the south.
Hamid
