Favorite candidate to succeed Boris Johnson to the post of Prime Minister, Liz Truss had refused to say if the French president was “friend or enemy” of his country, while several litigation files exist between France and the Kingdom- Uni.
Le Monde with AFP
“The United Kingdom is a friendly, strong and ally, whatever its leaders,” said French president Emmanuel Macron, from Algiers on Friday, August 26, after the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, candidate Favorite to the post of Prime Minister, Liz Truss, refused to say if the French president was “friend or enemy” of his country.
Questioned Thursday evening at an electoral meeting of the Conservative Party in Norwich (south-eastern United Kingdom), the one who is seeking the succession of Boris Johnson had refused to decide on the qualities of the French president, saying that She would judge him “on her actions”. When the journalist leading the evening asked him: “Macron, friend or enemy?”, Liz Truss replied that “the jury is still deliberating”, causing laughter in the room. “If I become Prime Minister, I will judge him on his actions and not on his words,” she added.
Conservative and ambitious, the one who is still a head of her country’s diplomacy, in a government managing current affairs, is campaigning to take over from the current British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who is particularly discreet Since his eviction of the head of the Conservative Party, in July.
“of platforms”
From Algiers, where he completed a reconciliation visit with his counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune after months of diplomatic quarrel, the French president therefore took the time to answer him, saying that “the nation which is the United Kingdom is A friendly, strong and ally “nation”.
An alliance that continues “despite and beyond its leaders or the small errors they can make in platform remarks,” he added on the sidelines of his official visit to Algeria. “If we are not able, between French and British, to say if you are friends or enemy -the term is not neutral -, we go towards serious problems,” he insisted.
“It’s never good to lose your bearings too much in life. If I was asked (…), whatever the person who is considered [for] the leadership to come in Great Britain, I Do not ask me for a second. The United Kingdom is friends of France, “he concluded.
” A very good “Buddy” from our country “
Questioned Friday on this beginning of controversy, Mr. Johnson assured “having always had very good relations with Emmanuel Macron”. The French president, he added in French, “is a very good buddy [friend] of our country”.
Relations with France “are extremely important. They have been very good for a very long time, since the time of Napoleon in fact, and I think that it is necessary to congratulate yourself,” added the Prime Minister, in Leaving a field visit in the Surrey (southwest of London). “And with regard to Emmanuel, I had very good relations with him, and I can tell you one thing: he is a very great admirer of our country,” he concluded.
Many litigation files exist between France and the United Kingdom, in particular the management of post-Brexit files, whether fishing or Northern Ireland. The two countries, allies within NATO, also had different approaches to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson adopting a very hard line against Vladimir Putin while the French president defended the need to keep The dialogue open with the master of the Kremlin.