Branding him a liar, a coward or a joker, Europe’s political class greeted Euroskeptic Boris Johnson’s appointment as Britain’s foreign minister with a chorus of dismay.
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.
“I am not at all worried about Boris Johnson, but ... during the campaign he lied a lot to the British people and now it is he who has his back to the wall,” Ayrault told Europe 1 radio on Thursday.
“I need a partner with whom I can negotiate and who is clear, credible and reliable.”
EU leaders including European Council President Donald Tusk condemned Johnson’s comparison during the campaign of the EU’s goals with those of Hitler and Napoleon. The rambunctious former mayor of London has insulted or lampooned a series of world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and both the Democratic and Republican candidates to succeed Obama.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaking shortly before Johnson was appointed, Steinmeier said: “It is bitter for Britain. People there are experiencing a rude awakening after irresponsible politicians first lured the country into Brexit then, once the decision was made, bolted and instead of taking responsibility went off to play cricket.
“I find this outrageous but it’s not just bitter for Britain. It’s also bitter for the European Union.”
Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, now the leading federalist liberal in the European Parliament, tweeted: “Clearly British humor has no borders.”
Rebecca Harms, leader of the ecologist Greens group in the EU legislature said: “At first I thought it was a joke. Now I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. But I know it’s not good when irresponsibility is rewarded in politics.”
Johnson made his name as a Daily Telegraph journalist in Brussels in 1989-94, attacking the federalist ambitions of then European Commission President Jacques Delors and lampooning EU regulation, often stretching the facts to breaking point.
“He was already a little brat back then and he hasn’t changed,” Pascal Lamy, who was Delors’ chief of staff and later head of the World Trade Organization, said last month.
Turkey was in a more forgiving mood after Johnson won a magazine prize for a limerick depicting Erdogan cavorting with a goat written to ridicule the Turkish leader’s efforts to have German courts punish a German satirist for insulting him.
“His negative comments on Erdogan and Turkey are unacceptable,” a senior Turkish official said. “However we’re sure of one thing, that British-Turkish relations are more important than that and can’t be hostage to these statements.
“With his new responsibilities we are expecting a more positive attitude from Mr. Johnson,” said the official of the new British minister, who had a Turkish great-grandfather.
Some of the strongest criticism came in Britain’s own media.
The left-leaning Daily Mirror tabloid splashed a picture of then mayor Johnson strapped on a zipwire at the London Olympics wearing a helmet and waving Union Jack flags with the caption:

Source: Arab News