Liz Truss will only be officially Prime Minister at Balmoral when Elizabeth II formally asks her to form a government, but congratulatory messages are already pouring in from Europe. Even Emmanuel Macron sent him one despite his unkind words about him. Like her, all Europeans hope for a stable and peaceful relationship with the United Kingdom, but the very hostile positions of Liz Truss towards the European Union (EU) pushes them to mistrust. In her message of congratulations, the President of the European Commission advocates the “ full respect » Euro-British agreements. Ursula von der Leyen’s sentence is not insignificant.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
The European institutions fear that Liz Truss will carry out her threatening remarks against the post-Brexit agreements. Some believe that she has made very clear commitments vis-à-vis the hardest fringe of the Conservative Party: she could therefore well ask for the adoption of the law which would bring down the protocol on Northern Ireland.
Activation of Article 16?
In the campaign team of Liz Truss there was openly mentioned the activation of the famous article 16 of the post-Brexit agreement, an emergency braking provision provided for by the text. According to the Conservatives, this would make it possible to take unilateral measures for Ireland.
The risk would be to start a real trade war with the EU. In the European Parliament, the co-president of the environmental group, Philippe Lamberts, affirms that this could be a way of diverting British opinion from the real problems of the moment.
Liz Truss Turnarounds
The only one to be a little optimistic is the president of the socialist group, Iratxe García, according to whom Liz Truss is accustomed to reversals since she had even campaigned against Brexit at the time of the referendum.
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