Letter from Boris Johnson: blackmail to Europe with bluff

(In questo link lo stesso articolo in italiano)

by Gabriele Bonafede

And now, the pompous and unfriendly Boris Johnson discovers the cards of his bluff. Proposing, in fact, a blackmail to Europe. Mind you, it is not the United Kingdom, but he and the dormant annual Conservative Assembly who propose this grotesque clowning.

A clown that can lead to an epochal drama for the United Kingdom and problems for all European countries.

The four-page letter he sent to Jean Claude Junker as a representative of the European Union is in fact a disavowal of the previous agreement signed by Theresa May’s government with Europe.

Already in this, it represents a crucial step that puts at risk the credibility of the United Kingdom in wanting to respect international agreements previously proposed and accepted by the parties.




This is serious. But that is not all. The letter does not mention other important and vital aspects of Brexit. Starting from the rights of European citizens and British citizens regarding freedom of movement between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

The four-pages letter concerns only one aspect- the “backstop”. That is the agreement necessary to avoid unrest in Northern Ireland. The backstop established that there was no border control between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Not just for eminently economic reasons, but to respect the civil living agreements signed with Good Friday. Agreements that since 1998 have allowed the removal of threats and terrorism at the border. A border that was seen as a wound for the Irish people.

Boris Johnson’s proposal, in a nutshell, is simply to postpone the problem and to put it to the scrutiny of the Northern Irish parliament. In practice, the British Prime Minister takes it for granted that in the future there will be a border and that this future is not even very far away: 2025.

The proposal is therefore devastating. But what is worse, is that it is thrown on the table of the diplomats of the 27 countries of the European Union with the taste of a real ultimatum taking the Irish on this side and beyond the border as a hostage that Johnson, supported by the extremists North-Irish DUP, wants to put it back on its feet anachronistically.




There letter (here you can download) threatens the European Union to reach a Brexit without agreement, the Brexit No-Deal, if the European Union does not start from this mini-agreement on Northern Ireland. In practice, it is an ultimatum, or more precisely a blackmail.

The real problem is that the letter is a plain bluff. All the opposition in the United Kingdom, from Labor to the Liberal Democrats, passing through the Scottish SNP, consider it an unacceptable proposal for the European Union.




Thus one would necessarily come to a Brexit No-Deal. In other words, a terrible catastrophe for British citizens and considerable damage to European ones. In short, for the opposition and a good half of British citizens, the letter from the British Premier is a bluff. In reality, he wants to get to the Brexit No-Deal.

Furthermore, Boris Johnson’s letter proposes to arrive at a “Free Trade Agreement” with the European Union. That is, a trade treaty that will certainly bring huge problems to the British economy and its operation in any case. And that in any case it will be a worse agreement than the one existing now.




Time is pressing, of course. Boris Johnson’s presumption is simply limitless. Because he would like, on the basis of such a letter, to lay the foundations for an agreement to be reached in two or three weeks. Where, in two and a half years, the United Kingdom has failed to agree even with itself on how to implement Brexit.

The point always remains that. Brexit is a real rubbish. Whichever way you look at it, it is an enormous damage mainly for the citizens of the United Kingdom, but also for the citizens of all European countries.