French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault eschewed the customary diplomatic niceties to ask how a man who had told lies as leader of the Leave campaign in last month’s British EU referendum could be a credible interlocutor.
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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Johnson’s appointment was a clear signal that Britain meant to leave the European Union and urged May to end uncertainty and give formal notice soon of London’s intention to withdraw.
Theresa May’s first day in office and her Cabinet announcements dominated the front pages on Thursday.
“There’s a massive difference between leaving the European Union and our relations with Europe, which if anything I think are going to be intensified”, Johnson, who was appointed to his post on Wednesday, told reporters the following day.
“The fact that Theresa May is. appointing, of all people, this undiplomatic, unpredictable and disloyal hotshot as foreign minister seems absurd at first glance”, it said.
Many newspapers led on Boris Johnson’s appointment as Foreign Secretary and note that the hard work for May has only just begun.
On social media, French writers let rip too, with one tweeting “a clown as the new foreign minister – comedy or Shakespearean tragedy?” while another proposed that Johnson “recruit Mr Bean as an adviser”.
“Boris Johnson as our Foreign Secretary?”.
Many remember how Johnson got stranded on a zip line over London’s Victoria Park during the Olympics in 2012.
“It is not without risks”, said Christopher Meyer, a former British ambassador to the United States.
In May, Johnson won a prize for most rude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the Spectator magazine which organised a contest in support of a German comedian facing charges for mocking the Turkish leader.
There is widespread animosity in Europe toward Johnson who recently compared the EU’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler.
“He’s extremely clever”, Mount said. Britain’s defence budget is the largest in the bloc. “His appointment is revealing about the political crisis in Britain after the vote”.
Davis, the newly-appointed minister in charge of the UK’s exit from the European Union, has indicated that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – which triggers the formal two-year timeline for the exit negotiations – will be triggered by the end of this year.
“Certainly, we have always been waiting to turn over what is not the best page in the book of Russian-British relations”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing.
“Free access to the common market means, among other things, accepting other fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of movement”, said Juergen Hardt.
“The question is how we negotiate with the European Union not from the point of view of being members but from the point of view of being close neighbours and trade partners”, he added.
Philip Hammond is new Chancellor.
Hammond acknowledged that the Brexit vote has had “a chilling effect” on investment, saying the main “challenge is to stabilise the economy, [and] send signals of confidence about the future”.
Commenting on the developments, David Hearst, the editor-in-chief of the Middle East Eye, said: “Having torn up its relationship with Brussels and Berlin, Britain will want to emphasise its internationalist credentials”.
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“As far as I can interpret the psychology of the rule, which has only been applied since 9/11, it is part of America’s new them-and-us mentality, the Manichaean division of the world into Americans and non-Americans, obliterating any category in between”.
