法國縱容排外主義將加劇歐洲難民危機

You thought the eurozone crisis was bad. Today, Europe faces no greater challenge than the mass exodus of refugees seeking a haven from the carnage in Syria and the turmoil in north Africa and the Sahel. It is equally clear that both the EU’s response and its institutions have proved woefully inadequate.

你或許認爲歐元區危機很嚴重。如今，歐洲面臨的最嚴峻挑戰莫過於大批難民的涌入，他們是爲了逃離敘利亞的大屠殺，北非和薩赫勒地區的動亂。同樣清楚的是，事實證明，歐盟的反應及其收容機構都嚴重不足。

The question of immigration, a visceral issue in the way the single currency is not, is driving a wedge between EU populations and their governments, between member states and indeed between the EU itself and the values on which it was founded.

移民問題——不同於單一貨幣，這是一個觸動人心的問題——正在歐盟各國民衆與本國政府之間造成隔閡、破壞成員國之間的關係，實際上也使歐盟自身偏離其所植根的價值觀。

France — a country at the same time Mediterranean, Atlantic and continental — is at the heart of this new storm. It has a xenophobic and illiberal force all too keen to take advantage of popular fears about the impact of migration in the shape of the National Front, Europe’s largest extreme rightwing party, with a base representing some 25 per cent of the electorate. But, until now, Paris has not indicated that it has any clue how to cope.

作爲一個毗鄰地中海、大西洋的歐洲大陸國家，法國正處於這場新風暴的中心。法國存在一股排外、狹隘的勢力，他們極其熱衷於利用民衆對移民所造成影響的恐懼，那就是歐洲最大極右翼政黨，法國國民陣線(National Front)，該黨獲得了法國全體選民約25%的選票。但法國政府遲遲未表明如何應對難民問題。

The current scale of Europe’s refugee problem is daunting. More than 100,000 boat-people arrived in the EU just in the month of July alone. The bloc’s leaders have agreed no coherent response. A recent meeting in Berlin between President Hollande of France and Angela Merkel, German chancellor, proved particularly bereft of content. The divisions between member states are growing unsustainable, with Germany, taking on board some 40 per cent of the EU’s new asylum seekers, while Britain only takes 4 per cent and France a scarcely less dismal 8 per cent.

當前歐洲難民問題的嚴重程度令人震驚。僅在7月，就有超過10萬難民乘船抵達歐盟。歐盟領導人並未就此達成一致的應對措施。法國總統弗朗索瓦攠朗德 Hollande)與德國總理安格拉默克爾(Angela Merkel)最近在柏林的會談尤其空洞。歐盟成員國之間的分歧愈發不可調和，德國要接納約40%新到歐盟的尋求避難者，而英國僅接納4%，法國也才接納8%。

Meanwhile pleas by Brussels and Berlin for the EU to share out asylum seekers equitably between member states have fallen on barren ground. Each country is preoccupied with its own story — as Britain is, for example, with the rise of net migration to all-time highs. Beggar-my-neighbour stances by established parties and outright xenophobia by their insurgent challengers are on the rise.

與此同時，布魯塞爾與柏林方面關於歐盟成員國合理攤派接收避難者的呼籲也如同泥牛入海。每個國家都在忙於應對自己的問題——例如，英國的淨移民數量已升至歷史最高位。老牌政黨以鄰爲壑的立場以及反對派挑戰者徹底的仇外情緒都在上升。

The recent attack aboard a Thalys high-speed train between the Netherlands and France has further stoked fears of cross-border terrorism and mutterings about the Schengen area of passport-free travel. The deliberate conflation by demagogues of immigration, the refugee exodus, the spread of Islam and jihadi terrorism is as emotionally powerful as it is factually spurious.

最近發生在一趟往返荷蘭與法國的大力士(Thalys)高鐵列車上的襲擊事件，進一步引發了對跨境恐怖主義的擔憂以及對申根區(Schengen area)免簽證旅行安排的不滿。煽動民心的政客故意將移民、難民外逃以及伊斯蘭教和聖戰恐怖主義的傳播混淆到一起，雖然事實並非如此，但其在情感上的影響是巨大的。

This is a backdrop against which a noxious force such as the National Front can prosper. It is France’s good fortune that the far-right group has largely sabotaged itself through the spat between Marine Le Pen, its leader, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father and the party’s founder. But Ms Le Pen and her forces have time to retrieve their position before 2017’s presidential elections, and are already dragging French politics towards the anti-liberal, anti-European right.

正是在這種背景下，法國國民陣線等邪惡勢力得以崛起。法國很幸運，這個極右政黨因其領導人馬琳勒龐(Marine Le Pen)與自己的父親、該黨創始人讓-馬裏勒龐(Jean-Marie Le Pen)之間的爭執已經在很大程度上削弱了自身實力。但馬琳勒龐及其勢力在2017年的總統選舉之前還有時間來恢復自己的地位，他們已經在將法國政治拖向反自由主義、反歐洲的右傾路線。

France needs a principled and more coherent alternative to the National Front; the EU needs a response to the immigration crisis that lives up to rather than falls short of its values. At present, most EU member states, France included, are not providing the systematic right of asylum to which war-refugees are entitled under international humanitarian law or by common decency.

法國需要一個有原則、更加團結的政黨來代替國民陣線；歐盟應該拿出符合其價值觀的應對移民危機的措施。目前，大多數歐盟成員國（包括法國）都未向難民們提供國際人道主義法或人類共有的道德行爲準則賦予戰爭難民的系統性庇護權。

This may not matter to the National Front’s core electorate, but it does mean that mainstream policy has largely conceded defeat when it comes to values. Europe is better than this; so is France. Europe’s leaders need to live up to our responsibilities as humans and as neighbours, assume part of the burden, and talk straight to the electorate. Continued European and French fecklessness will only improve the far-right’s prospects of success, and deepen what is already an unprecedented crisis.

這對於國民陣線的核心支持者來說或許並不重要，但它的確意味着，主流政策在價值觀方面已大體承認是失敗的。歐洲的情況要好一些；法國也是如此。歐洲領導人需要履行我們作爲人類和鄰居的責任，承擔部分重擔，並向選民坦率直言。歐洲與法國持續的不作爲只會提高極右翼勢力未來成功的可能性，使這場本已空前的危機愈演愈烈。