Emmanuel Macron has warned that Boris Johnson’s government has to decide who its allies are, insisting that “half-friends is not a concept”.
“What politics does Great Britain wish to choose? It cannot be the best ally of the US, the best ally of the EU and the new Singapore … It has to choose a model,” the French president said, in an interview with the Guardian and a small group of other media.
“But I have the impression the country’s leaders have sold all these models [to the people]. If it decides on a completely transatlantic policy then we [the EU] will need clarification, because there will be divergence on rules and access to markets.
“If it decides to be the new Singapore, which it has once suggested … well, I don’t know. It’s not for me to decide, but I would like good, peaceful relations. Our destinies are linked, our intellectual approach is linked, our researchers and industrials work together … I believe in a sovereign continent and nation states; I don’t believe in neo-nationalism.
“I am for common ambition and a common destiny. I hope Boris Johnson is also on that path, because I think the British people are. We remain allies. History and geography don’t change, so I don’t think the British people have a different destiny to ours.” » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Saturday, January 30, 2021
