Europe gives ‘liar’ Boris Johnson a hostile welcome

Branding him a liar, a coward or a joker, Europe’s political class, the general public and newspapers greeted Euros-ceptic Boris Johnson’s appointment as Britain’s foreign secretary with a chorus of dismay, criticism and mockery.

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault esch-ewed 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. “During the campaign he lied a lot to the British people I need a partner with whom I can negotiate and who is clear, credible and reliable,” he said. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had said a day earlier that he was outraged by Britain’s “irresponsible politicians who first lured the country into Brexit, then... Got out, refused to take responsibility, and went off to go and play cricket”. After the June 23 vote to leave EU, Johnson took time off to play cricket and spurned a chance to stand as PM. In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov voiced hopes that “the weightiness of his current position, of course, will certainly prompt a somewhat different rhetoric of a more diplomatic nature”.

Mr Johnson has, in the past, insulted or lampooned a series of world leaders.

Germany news magazine Der Spiegel, was withering in an online commentary headlined, “House of Cards in Britain”: “Those who thought the shamelessness with which Brit-ain’s political class play their power games could not be surpassed were disabused of that notion yesterday”.