Boris Johnson says goodbye to the United Kingdom with reproaches to those who forced him to resign | International

Boris Johnson classic until the last minute. Early this Tuesday morning, the most popular conservative British politician in recent decades surrounded himself with faithful and friends outside 10 Downing Street, the seat and residence of the UK Prime Minister, to say goodbye to the nation. , in a speech like all of his, full of jokes and classic quotes, but without the slightest sign of contrition. A spectator oblivious to the reality of recent months would have thought upon hearing him that Johnson was ending, with a flourish, a brilliant mandate, instead of having to resign abruptly when the wave of scandals in his Government ended up embarrassing his party and to the citizens. “That’s all, friends,” he has said before dozens of media.

“The baton has just been delivered, in what no one expected would end up being a relay race. They decided to change the rules midway through, but that doesn’t matter now”, Johnson reproached all the Conservative deputies who finally concluded, in mid-July, that the time had come to press the nuclear button and cause the resignation of the first Minister. To the end, Johnson has been convinced that he had a strong mandate—his landslide victory in the 2019 general election—and that his downfall was the irresponsible and frivolous move of a group of conspirators. .

Even so, Johnson, who left immediately for Balmoral Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, to communicate his resignation to Elizabeth II, wanted to have words of support for his successor, Liz Truss, to whom he promised his “most fervent support ”. It will be she, shortly after, who also holds an audience with the queen, to receive the task of forming a new Government in her name. At five in the afternoon, Spanish peninsular time, the new prime minister will give her own speech to the nation, also at the gates of the Downing Street residence.

“This is a tough time for the economy, and for families across the country, but we can and will come out of this stronger. But I must say to my Conservative colleagues that the time has come to end the political maneuvering. We must all support Liz Truss, her team and her Government program, and answer to the citizens, ”said the outgoing prime minister.

Before his wife, Carrie, and his most faithful allies in three years of Government, Johnson has reviewed what he considers unquestionable achievements of his mandate: the victory at the polls in 2019, the definitive conquest of Brexit, the new firmness of the United Kingdom in the international scene or the fight against the pandemic. The words of the outgoing prime minister, his jokes and his scholarly quotes, left, as always, a message open to various interpretations. “As far as future career is concerned, or the possibility of a comeback, let me say that I am like one of those space rockets that, having accomplished its mission, will go gently back into the atmosphere only to end up falling in some dark and remote corner. Pacific,” he said. But then he turned to a character he had already quoted on several occasions, at the end of his career as mayor of London. “Like Cincinnatus, I return to my field tasks,” he said, in memory of that Roman patrician, an example of rectitude and honesty, who was once again called by the Senate to act as dictator of Rome for the second time. It has been this second derivative, not that of the quiet retreat to his rural domains, that has worried Johnson’s rivals, who never quite believe that he will definitely leave the political scene, after having occupied a privileged place during the last decades.

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