He’s insulted the President of the United States.
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The reaction to his surprise appointment as foreign secretary in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s new Conservative Cabinet has been swift and blunt: His French counterpart called him a liar, the Germans say he’s irresponsible, and a British legislator believes it’s the worst political appointment since Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. Asked about Johnson’s appointment, he said: “You know very well what his style and methods are”.
After the referendum result Spiegel magazine described Johnson as a “talented populist” who would “end up costing the British a lot of money”.
“[He has] his back against the wall to defend his country but also with his back against the wall the relationship with Europe should be clear”.
Mr Johnson, who dramatically pulled out of the Tory leadership race two weeks ago, was asked what the Foreign Office would be responsible for under his leadership, with major functions handed to the new departments created to handle withdrawal from the European Union and promote global trade.
But completely different political tasks now stand at the forefront, he told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
In May, while answering journalists’ questions, Johnson accused the European Union of conducting “policymaking on the hoof” with regard to Ukraine.
He added Thursday: “We in Germany have had good experience with putting comments made during a campaign into the file for election campaigns, and forgetting them on the day after the democratic decision has been made”.
“Markets do need signals of reassurance, they need to know that we will do whatever is necessary to keep the economy on track”, Hammond said.
She removed long-serving finance minister George Osborne and Brexit-campaigning justice secretary Michael Gove – and stunned commentators by giving Johnson the diplomatic brief. As we reported yesterday, “the former mayor of London has published kind words about both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad, praising in editorials the former’s “ruthless clarity” and the latter’s defense of the ancient city of Palmyra against ISIS”.
“At this incredibly important time that will determine Britain’s economic and cultural relations with Europe, it is extraordinary that the new prime minister has chosen someone whose career is built on making jokes”, Farron said. – Tim Farron, leader of Britain’s opposition Liberal Democrats.
On social media, writers let rip too, with one tweeting, “A clown as the new foreign minister – comedy or Shakespearean tragedy?” and another proposing that Johnson “recruit Mr Bean as an adviser”.
But the opposition Labour Party reacted with dismay. I couldn’t have eve even told you what job Chris Grayling would have after chairing her campaign team.
“The United Kingdom has to break this dangerously vicious cycle which has direct impacts on the rest of Europe”, Schulz said.
Speaking on BBC Radio, he said he thought Johnson’s role would be to reach out to other parts of the world as well as Europe, adding that he thought recent “strong messages” by Chancellor Merkel had not been fully understood by the British government.
“Do these qualities mean that he’s going to be supreme in the area where the qualities of diplomacy and truthfulness are in demand?”
Some things never change: in 2006, the Labour party was (again) in the middle of another leadership crisis.
Johnson had a call with US Secretary of State John Kerry, where they pledged to work together as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies and Kerry offered US support for “a sensible and measured approach to the Brexit process”, a US spokesman said.
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The State Department said Kerry told Johnson that the US would stay engaged with Britain as it moves ahead in the process of leaving the 28-nation bloc, and the two men agreed to meet next week in Brussels. “I think it is very, very important that we don’t muddle up the role of the European Union with the role of NATO”, Johnson said in a Q&A session after a pro-Leave speech in May.
