As Boris Johnson Fights to Save Brexit Deal, Leaders Ask: Who Is He?
As Boris Johnson Fights to Save Brexit Deal, Leaders Ask: Who Is He?
(Bloomberg) --
Many people who meet Boris Johnson say he’s the life of the party. They like him, find him funny and charming. Even other European leaders, reticent over his role as the face of Brexit and chumminess with Donald Trump, give positive feedback, almost despite themselves.
But with the tussle over Brexit overshadowing everything else and the U.K. scheduled to leave the EU in less than six weeks, they question whether Johnson really is a man they can do business with.
Conversations with politicians and officials across Europe paint a picture of Johnson as enigma and, to many, a contradiction. They see a man who, unlike many of his British contemporaries, speaks several foreign languages and knows intimately how the Brussels EU bureaucracy works.
On free trade and Russia he can talk from the same page they do, one that’s a million miles away from the populist rhetoric they hear from the White House. And yet, for example, on the issue of the day -- Iran -- he’s drifting toward Trump’s point of view.
Asked what he wanted from this week’s talks, Johnson told ITV News: “A broader understanding of quite how forward-looking and forward-leaning the U.K. has been with our suggestions.”
Working out who the real Boris Johnson is seems almost impossible. While some officials intimately involved with the Brexit negotiations think the sense of unpredictability could increase his chances of pulling off a victory, others think it could frighten other leaders off.
Who’s right might become clearer over this week.
Johnson faces the most critical test of his fledgling premiership on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly: persuading European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to work with him to change the Brexit deal in a way they’ve refused to for more than two years.
He hasn’t managed to do that since taking office in July, and if he doesn’t get his way in New York, the prospect of the U.K. crashing out of the EU without an agreement to soften the blow on Oct. 31 will loom larger than ever.
On the surface, the charm offensive that Johnson began after moving into 10 Downing Street is working.
Merkel offered warm words when she met him in Berlin. Macron and wife Brigitte were in stitches when he used his characteristic self-deprecating humor to recover from walking in the wrong direction when he got out of his car at the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz in August. Even Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar who, despite being rival No.1 in the battle over a Brexit deal, let it be known their meeting in Dublin was friendly. They now exchange text messages.
European Council President Donald Tusk has praised Johnson’s serious engagement on global issues. One EU official characterized him as skillful and focused, another talked of how he intentionally messes up his bright blond hair before meetings, which can be disarming. His exchanges in Biarritz seemed to sum up the mood: Macron laughed heartily as Johnson enthusiastically told him in French about his antics swimming round rocks near the meeting venue.
Question of Trust
And yet since 2016, he’s been the face of Brexit and European leaders know the baggage that comes with. They fear it draws him toward making the U.K. an ultra low-tax, deregulated haven on their doorstep, a country that could get into bed with Trump if it’s economically expedient and one that might prefer to leave the bloc without a deal if it suits Johnson politically.
For all the goodwill and constructive spirit of the summer’s talks, officials say his actions so far don’t live up to his words. After those meetings provided a boost to the flagging Brexit negotiations, his chief envoy came to Brussels asking to unpick some of what the U.K. had agreed under his predecessor Theresa May on alignment with EU standards, which would make striking a future trade deal more difficult and leave the U.K. more distant.
That leads to the question of trust. Johnson’s decision to suspend the British Parliament at such a crucial time didn’t go down well, particularly in Berlin, where the government, since the Brexit process started, has been particularly alert to how Britain’s rupture with the EU can threaten democratic and judicial norms.
A German official said it was unthinkable that Merkel would have done something similar when she was attempting to persuade the German parliament to pass an aid package for Greece during the euro-area debt crisis. When they met, Johnson gave Merkel no indication he was considering suspending parliament. That harmed the relationship.
Problems with building alliances don’t stop there. Diplomats say U.K. relations have become strained with the Netherlands and Poland, two traditional allies. Johnson may have focused on Merkel and Macron at the expense of other important leaders, they said. With the EU’s 27 governments needing to agree unanimously on its Brexit position, that may have been a strategic mistake.
The difference with May, according to one EU official, is that while they didn’t think she had the parliamentary support to get a deal, they trusted her. With Johnson, who hasn’t set foot in Brussels since becoming prime minister, they don’t think he will get a Brexit deal through Parliament, and they don’t trust him either.
--With assistance from Helene Fouquet, Milda Seputyte, Patrick Donahue, Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Zoltan Simon, Jan Bratanic and Gregory Viscusi.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net;Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net;Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Caroline Alexander
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