The visit this Monday of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to King Charles III at Windsor Castle has outraged British MPs in favor of a hard Brexitwhich they consider to mean dragging the monarchy into the political arena.
The sovereign welcomed von der Leyenwhom he greeted with a handshake after concluding the joint press conference previously offered with the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
The local media photographed the monarch and the president of the EC, both smiling, while greeting each other in the royal residencewhere Von der Leyen went to have the traditional British tea.
The coincidence of his visit with the announcement of the pact on the controversial Protocol of Ireland has upset some Conservative MPs, Eurosceptics and Northern Irish unionists.
The former minister and currently Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, standard bearer of a hard Brexit -without ties to Brussels-told GB News that “it is not constitutionally sensible to involve the king in a matter of political controversy.”
Arlene Foster, a former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who was a senior minister in the Belfast Government, expressed in turn their “disbelief” that the Sunak government “has asked the king to get involved in finalizing an agreement as controversial as this one.”
“He is clumsy and will go down very badly in Northern Ireland”, he pointed. Downing Street and Buckingham Palace seem to hold each other responsible for the decision to hold the event.
A government spokesman assured that the prime minister “he firmly believes that it is up to the king to make those kinds of decisions” and recalled that the monarch has recently met with other international leaders, such as the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski.
However, Buckingham claimed in his note that “the king is pleased to meet world leaders if they visit the UK and it does so on the recommendation of the Government.