Macron privately called Boris Johnson a ‘clown’,
says French magazine
Report follows French president’s complaint about PM’s
behaviour after they discussed sinking of refugee boat in the Channel
Macron reportedly said of Johnson: ‘We have
discussions like big people, and then he gives us a hard time before or
afterwards in an inelegant way. It’s always the same circus.’
Tom Ambrose
Thu 2 Dec
2021 00.18 GMT
The French
president, Emmanuel Macron, referred to Boris Johnson in a private conversation
as a “clown”, according to reports in France.
The
political magazine Le Canard enchaîné, often described as the French equivalent
of Private Eye, reported Macron as saying the British prime minister has “the
attitude of a vulgarian”.
It came as
Macron complained about Johnson’s behaviour after the leaders spoke by phone
after last Wednesday’s sinking of a refugee boat in the Channel.
The French
president was angered after Johnson tweeted a letter outlining a five-point
plan to tackle the issue of Channel crossings. “I spoke two days ago with prime
minister Johnson in a serious way,” Macron said at a press conference on Friday
after the tweet. “For my part I continue to do that, as I do with all countries
and all leaders. I am surprised by methods when they are not serious. We do not
communicate from one leader to another on these issues by tweets and letters
that we make public.”
But
according to the magazine, the president was even more damning in private. It
quoted him as saying: “BoJo talks to me at full speed, everything is going
fine, we have discussions like big people, and then he gives us a hard time
before or afterwards in an inelegant way. It’s always the same circus.”
It added
that Macron told his advisers that Johnson apologised privately for making
France a scapegoat publicly over issues such as the Channel crossings and the
“sausage war”.
Macron
reportedly said: “It is sad to see a major country with which we could do huge
numbers of things being led by a clown.”
It came as
former French ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann told Times Radio that
relations between France and the UK had “never been as bad since Waterloo”.
The French
president is also understood to have blamed Johnson’s attitude towards France
on the shortcomings of the Brexit deal.
Macron
allegedly said: “Brexit is the starting point of the Johnson circus. Very
quickly he realised that the situation was catastrophic for the British. There
was no petrol in the pumps, there were shortages of a whole pile of products.
“He is
positioning himself as the victim and making France the scapegoat. He tries to
turn simple situations into complex problems. We’ve been in this position since
March. He’s done it over the ‘sausage war’, over fishing, over the submarine
affair.
“In private
he says he’s sorry to behave like this, but he says that he has to consider
public opinion over everything else.”
Asked after
Bermann’s comments if Johnson and Macron were friends, the PM’s spokesperson
said: “The prime minister’s been asked about this on a number of occasions and
has talked about his close relationship … working relationship with President
Macron.”
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