Speaking in the States yesterday, the politician, who is also the president of the Jersey Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie, said he thought there was an understanding on both sides that diplomatic arguments sometimes arise and that bonds between the citizens of Jersey, Normandy and Brittany remained strong.
He made the comments while responding to a question from Deputy Rob Ward about what assurance he could give to ensure relations between jurisdictions were safeguarded.
‘I do not think this is a time to point fingers and look at what could have been done better and I do think there will be a time of reckoning but I know ministers and the rest of us are, I am sure, keen to see a return to good relationships that we previously maintained with Normandy, Brittany and the rest of France,’ he said. ‘I would emphasise that this is a direct result of Brexit and is something that neither we as an Island, our fishermen or women, and similarly those in Normandy, asked for or were able to vote for – but we are now having to deal with the consequences.
‘There are not sufficient grounds that our strong relationships, including the twinnings with the parishes, should not continue once this issue about fishing has been resolved.’
Almost immediately after the row over fishing broke out last week, La Manche council in Normandy moved to close its Maison de la Normandie et de La Manche office in Halkett Place.
Remarking on this, Senator Sam Mézec said it could be ‘tragic’ if this became permanent and asked what steps could be taken to repair relations after tensions subsided.
He added that better relations between parishes and their twinned French towns may open lines of communication which could be used to resolve any potential disputes in the future.
Deputy Tadier said: ‘Historically Jersey has always done best and most successfully as an Island when it has recognised that it is both British and has a strong French culture, as well as openly being more internationalist and welcoming. My concern is that we have lost some of that and while it is absolutely correct that we have strong relationships to the north, I think it is unfortunately increasingly to the detriment of those to the east and south – France.’
He added: ‘We all need to get together to have a brainstorm and come up with real policies in all our departments – right through from the Education Department so we can ensure that people leaving school are no longer just monolingual and we have that debate about what kind of Island we are.
‘It is a personal view but I think we have lost too much of our French and European culture and our uniqueness as an Island and we need to recalibrate.’
