Mercredi 22 juin 2016

Article paru dans le HuffPost Politics UK

Of course, the United Kingdom is not Elsa, the queen in Disney’s Frozen. However several similarities can be drawn between the United Kingdom’s choice over leaving the European Union and Elsa’s flight from the kingdom of Arendelle.

Elsa is different. She does not feel at ease among her people because of her powers, a little bit like the British people with their insularity, their sense of humour and their tea time. This feeling of being different is the main reason for Elsa’s flight, and she believes that once she is alone she can be herself at last. But the sense of relief is only an illusory and passing feeling, and it unwittingly unleashes an eternal winter throughout Arendelle – a metaphorical winter that could chill the United Kingdom and Europe if Brexit were to happen. The moral of Elsa’s story is that fleeing is not the solution to finding yourself – and nor is leaving the European family.

Another similarity in this Brexit drama: various characters are directly inspired by the calculating Prince Hans: Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. Just as Hans fools Arendelle and Anna, all two are deceiving each other and the UK, and the only thing that matters to them is their own agenda. And just like Hans – a two-faced character who aims to seduce his way to becoming king – none of them are exactly Prince Charming!

After that, several main characters from Frozen are missing in the Brexit cast list: will Gordon Brown be the Kristoff and for the second time saves another Union? Will Victoria Beckham be Anna? Fortunately, in the heart of the European institutions, Martin Schulz is training to be Olaf the snowman, trying to maintain harmony between all the main characters, and Jean-Claude Juncker is Sven pulling the European sleigh forward.

In the end, it is love that saves Anna and Elsa, and the kingdom of Arendelle. The French and the British have had a passionate relationship since the Hundred Years War. But since the British people started to revitalize our countryside by buying holiday homes, and since we started going to the UK in order to, vainly, do business and make some progress in English, it is time to tell them that we love them. All you need is love, with the Marseillaise thanks to the Beatles!

Pervenche Berès is a Socialist MEP and head of the French Socialist delegation (DSF) in the European Parliament