Macron Takes On Trump, Lecornu Survives Censure, France Bans Far-Right British Activists
Sébastien Lecornu survives two more censure motions, President Macron warns Donald Trump of “cascading consequences” for the west over Greenland, and France bans ten far-right British influencers
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This week
⚔️Lecornu survives two more censure motions
🪖Macron warns Trump of “cascading consequences” for the West
🚫France bans ten far-right British influencers
⚔️Lecornu survives two more censure motions
So, let’s start the week off strong: Lecornu’s government survives two motions of censure this week, led by both La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Rassemblement National (RN).
With the Mercosur agreement having passed a European Council vote two weeks ago without French support, both the far-left and the far-right saw this as an excellent opportunity to advance their political agendas and bring down the government.
As previously covered in several other dispatches, both the far-left led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the far-right led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella have been aggressively pushing any actions that could potentially lead to either early legislative elections or, in a much less likely scenario, early presidential elections.
The most recent attempts have failed, however, so the wheels on the bus keep going round and round.
For the first censure motion, Scrutin public n° 4986:
As you can see above, this was ultimately a censure motion voted by the extremes of the Assemblée Nationale, with the centre choosing to vote against this motion and to keep the government in place.
You can see that there is a clear break within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance that persists, with the Parti Socialiste currently in the process of negotiating with the government on the 2026 budget, and clearly believing that they will be able to win something out of this situation that will not only support the French people, but will help them politically.
We saw this as First Secretary Olivier Faure did his media rounds this past weekend, outlining some of the victories his party had secured and demanding that the government concretise these in a legal text to be published publicly.
“Thanks to the Socialists, income tax will not increase for French citizens; the activity bonus will increase: +€900 per year for a single mother raising her children; meals at the CROUS will cost €1 for all students; APL housing benefits will be unfrozen; an additional €400 million will go to social housing; MaPrimeRénov’ will be relaunched; there will be more funding for AESH staff who care for children with disabilities.
In politics, some are posturing, but we are looking for solutions.”
And most importantly, Faure made it clear that these measures must be funded by taxes on large companies to ensure his support continued, rather than increasing taxes on the average French citizen.
And if reports are to be believed, it appears that Faure and Lecornu have built a level of trust that could carry this whole situation forward.
For the second censure motion, Scrutin n°4987:
As with all other censure motions that were followed by a second far-right copy, this had next to no chance of succeeding, with the far-right Rassemblement National having no support in the Assemblée outside of the usual Ciotti crowd.
Now, what happens next?
A small majority of the deputies in the Assemblée will continue to work on the 2026 budget, attempting to stave off not only a budget-by-ordonnance situation but also an expensive, anticipated legislative election that would most likely create the exact same situation as we find it now.
With the municipal elections coming this year, many will be paying attention to the results in March to see what the lay of the land is, where the direction of travel is going for the 2027 presidential elections, and who should be chasing presidential ambitions for the time being.
All understanding that the municipal elections have a very, very different dynamic from the national elections, which we’ll go into over the next few weeks.
🪖Macron warns Trump of “cascading consequences” for the West
So, as my dear readers know, Donald Trump has been obsessing over Greenland for close to a decade now, having been led to believe that it would be the solution to all of his problems, and in the current political climate, likely hoping it would protect him from all of the illegality surrounding the non-release of the Epstein files, his lack of a plan in Venezuela, and his backing out of his threats against Iran.
However, contrary to the belief of the American far-right, Europe isn’t really too keen to just sit back and let Donald Trump invade another NATO member state, and Emmanuel Macron has been stepping up to the plate to assume a leadership position on the topic.
While we’ll go into his speech to the French military in a few days, one of the most important things that happened this week is that the French president made it clear that the EU does not “underestimate [Donald Trump’s] statements on Greenland” and that they were planning to move against this aggressively.
“If the sovereignty of a European country and ally were to be affected, the cascading consequences would be unprecedented. France is monitoring the situation very closely and will act in full solidarity with Denmark and its sovereignty.”
It’s for this reason that Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for an increased French presence in Greenland, with France and the rest of the EU choosing deterrence, preliminarily deploying a small contingent of troops there a few days ago and working to increase the presence of French soldiers, backed by land, air and sea assets.
And of course, Emmanuel Macron dropped some very harsh words for Trump as he reiterated French support for both Ukraine and Greenland in the face of hostile foreign action:
“France is committed to the sovereignty and independence of nations, in Europe and elsewhere. This guides our choices. It underpins our commitment to the United Nations and to its Charter.
It is on this basis that we support, and will continue to support Ukraine and that we have built a coalition of the willing for a robust and lasting peace, to defend these principles and our security.
It is also on this basis that we decided to take part in the exercise organized by Denmark in Greenland. We fully assume this decision, because security in the Arctic and at the outer edges of our Europe is at stake.
No intimidation or threat will influence us—neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations.
Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context. Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.
It is in this spirit that I will engage with our European partners.”
- Emmanuel Macron on Twitter
Because, ultimately, what is happening right now is that the international order is being destroyed by dictators who believe that the only thing that matters is military might, and that the opinions, feelings and rights of every other human on the planet mean absolutely nothing and can be ignored with aggression.
This also highlights the absurd weakness of the position of many European leaders over the last decade, who, despite all the warnings we’ve seen in the past that Donald Trump looks up to dictators like Vladimir Putin, that he wants to be a strongman, and that he doesn’t care about anybody, have continued to say that maybe Trump isn’t so bad.
Maybe Trump can be reasoned with.
Yet this has been proven wrong, with this act of weakness being shown to not only encourage Trump and his allies to bully the Europeans, but also to outright state that government policy is to replace all of them with far-right politicians who would bend the knee to Donald Trump as he attempts to attack their industries.
And time and time again, the warnings from almost a decade ago are proven to be right, and the call for a strong, strategically autonomous European Union from Macron’s two Sorbonne speeches is shown to have been more prophetic than political.
But at least Trump is forcing Europeans to finally buy more European equipment and to stop being so reliant on the Americans.
See you in a few days for an analysis on Macron’s military speech!
🚫France bans ten far-right British influencers
So, to finish off the week: France has banned ten far-right British activists, linked to the ‘Raise the colours’ movement, who have been under investigation for allegedly engaging in aggressive behaviour in the North of France, including “aggravated violence” and other actions “likely to cause serious disturbances to public order.”
This investigation had initially started back on September 9th, when the far-right activists were accused of having assaulted a group of migrants near the city of Dunkirk, while flying British flags, stealing from them, destroying their boats, and telling them that they were not welcome in the UK.
While not being in the UK.
The Interior Ministry released the following statement on the topic:
“The attention of the Ministry of the Interior has been drawn on several occasions, and by various parties, to the presence of far-right activists belonging to the “Raise the Colours” movement, engaged in activities such as searching for and destroying small boats and spreading propaganda on the French coast of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, aimed at the British public, calling on them to join the movement to put an end to migration.
The Minister of the Interior, informed of these facts in December 2025, referred the matter to the relevant services under his authority for the purpose of identifying the individuals, so that measures to prevent them from acting could be considered, as their actions were likely to cause serious disturbances to public order.
Yesterday, Tuesday, January 13, 2026, ten administrative bans on entering the country were issued against ten British nationals identified as activists within the movement who had carried out actions on French territory. They are now prohibited from entering and staying in France.
The Minister of the Interior commends the effective and determined action taken by the Prefect of the Hauts-de-France region, Prefect of the Nord department, and the Ministry’s services to ensure public order and prevent violent acts or acts inciting hatred and discrimination. The Minister of the Interior also commends the daily and demanding commitment of the security forces on the coastlines of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, working in difficult conditions.”
Of course, the far-right actors in question were very upset about this situation, with both Raise the Colours and UKIP, Nigel Farage’s former party, complaining as the far-right does whenever they have to face consequences for their actions.
In a statement released by Raise the Colours, the group whines that the decision was “absolutely disgraceful”:
“At the time of issuing this statement, no formal notification has been received by Raise the Colours regarding any administrative measures. We understand that the statements refer to administrative decisions concerning specific individuals, rather than the organisation as a whole.
Raise the Colours has always maintained that its activities must remain peaceful and within the law. The organisation does not support violence or any unlawful activity. Our approach is founded on responsibility, restraint and compliance with legal frameworks.
This commitment is reflected in the structured recruitment and screening process we have put in place, designed to ensure discipline, appropriate conduct and adherence to the law by anyone associated with Raise the Colours.”
And this is because of hubris and ego.
Many of these groups think that they’re allowed to do whatever they want to do because they’ve decided that they’re in the right, and that they know what should be done, and that they’re therefore allowed to behave however they like.
Unfortunately, however, that’s not how this works.
You’re not allowed to go into a foreign country and start harassing people, undermining the law in France, and attacking migrants just because you’ve decided as an individual that they’re not welcome in the United Kingdom.
You’re not allowed to go into a foreign country and damage someone’s equipment or possessions, or steal it for god knows what reason, just because you’ve decided that you should be allowed to.
You’re also not entitled to enter another country if they’ve decided that you’re a danger to law and order in their country, even without events like Brexit and leaving the European Union, which forced the loss of free travel across the Schengen area.
The reality is that while immigration policy is far from being perfect, France and the United Kingdom have active programmes and agreements for managing the situation, dealing with human traffickers and the migrants who are being led to believe that spending thousands to engage in these dangerous travels is worthwhile.
Maybe many of these activists, rather than putting flags on random buildings and harassing people, would do better to campaign for more British police officers and immigration officers who could help support the French officers dealing with the issue on French territory?
Hell, maybe they should be campaigning for stronger integration of the British component into European programmes dealing with this phenomenon? Almost like some kind of minor EU accession that would make things easier for everyone to protect the lives of people seeking better lives and “smash the small boat gangs”?
But that would be a little too easy, wouldn’t it.
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Looking forward to the military update …