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This comparison is dubious to say the least. In a speech delivered this Saturday, at the congress of his Conservative Party in Blackpool (north of England), the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, compared the Ukrainians to the British who voted in favor of Brexit. It is “the instinct of the people of this country, like the Ukrainian people, to choose freedom”, he said, citing as a “famous recent example”, to illustrate his point, the referendum on the exit from United Kingdom from the European Union from June 2016.
“When Britons voted for Brexit, in such large numbers, I don’t think it was because they were hostile to foreigners. It was because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to run itself,” he said.
Words that quickly earned him strong criticism, including in his conservative camp. Former European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that the statement offended “Ukrainians, Britons and common sense”. The former European negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, deemed the comparison made by Boris Johnson “crazy”, stressing that “the Ukrainians want more freedom and join the EU! »
“If I was British, I would be ashamed”
It also made French diplomacy react. “If I was Ukrainian, I would feel insulted. If I was British, I would be ashamed. As a French diplomat, I will not comment on Twitter…”, declared on the social network Philippe Errera, director general of political affairs and security of the Quai d’Orsay.
In a comment on Twitter – which was retweeted by French Ambassador to the UK Catherine Colonna – Conservative MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Defense Committee Tobias Ellwood said: “If we want to defeat Putin, we we need international leadership and unity. Comparing the Ukrainian people’s struggle against Putin’s tyranny to the British people voting for Brexit undermines the level of political leadership we were beginning to show.”
Reacting to the Prime Minister’s remarks, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said on SkyNews on Sunday that he did not consider the two situations comparable. “Obviously they’re not directly analogous and I don’t think the prime minister said they were directly analogous either,” he said.