Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, accusing him of being a ‘Putin bootlicker’, his ex-minister claims on Thursday. communication director.
At the beginning of March 2022, when tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled their country in the grip of the Russian invasion launched on February 24, the British media and several European countries criticized the small number of refugees hosted by the United Kingdom.
“Macron went further by criticizing Boris very directly and his remarks made the front page of the Guardian, I believe on a Friday”, recalls Guto Harri, former director of communications for the ex-prime minister, in a new episode of his podcast. “Unprecedented” uploaded Thursday.
During a meeting with his advisers, “he launched into a virulent attack against Emmanuel Macron, calling him a word beginning with a C (obvious allusion to “asshole”, editor’s note), saying he’s a psycho, it’s Putin’s bootlicker,” he says.
We “must take off the gloves”, “we must rage against the” frogs “” (frogs – pejorative nickname of the French), would have said Boris Johnson, according to this adviser.
Support from the first hour of Kyiv in its conflict with Russia, the United Kingdom and its leaders had already been skeptical of the French president’s attempts to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine.
The visit of the French president to Moscow, a few weeks before the start of the conflict, “gave nausea” to Boris Johnson, according to Mr. Harri.
However, says this adviser, the two leaders were then reconciled.
“They had a whiskey together at a G7 summit (…) giving each other ‘my friend’, ‘delighted Emmanuel'”, and Boris Johnson inviting Macron to London “so that we could show the world that our ‘Bromance “is alive”.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson declined to comment on the remarks that lent him his former adviser, specifying that the former prime minister was not involved in this podcast.
According to official figures, the UK has issued nearly 230,000 visas to Ukrainians since the start of the war.