They weren't impressed with Johnson's performance
Despite ending without any news, last night’s dinner between Boris Johnson and European Commission boss Ursula Von Der Leyen dominated most of the UK’s front pages.
“Deadlock at Dinner”, said the Mail. “Give us a Meal Deal” joked the Metro.”Fudge for last supper”, said the I.
But how was it covered on the Continent? Using the magic of Google Translate, we’ve been trawling homepages from Bucharest to Brest to find out and the first answer is ‘not that prominently’.
The story was well down most homepages, trumped by coronavirus lockdowns, the death of Italian footballer Paolo Rossi and, in Germany’s version of The Sun, the breaking news that a model took a selfie in the bath.
With Poland and Hungary currently blocking the EU’s budget, Brexit arguably isn’t even the most important thing on the European Commission’s plate.
It matters much more to us than it does to them. Spain’s El Pais made this clear with the stat that 43% of the UK’s exports are to the EU while just 18% of the EU’s exports are to the UK.
When the meeting did get coverage, there were two common themes – turbot being served when fishing is one of the big issues (journalists love a symbol) and mockery of Boris Johnson.
As he entered the negotiations, Johnson had to ask his host when to put on his mask, when to take it off and where to stand. German tabloid Bild said this incident “showed who is in charge in Brussels”.
French newspapers ‘Le Croix’ and ‘Le Figaro’ both said that Johnson was typically inconsistent, “blowing hot and cold” in negotiations.
A separate article in Le Figaro also accused Johnson of only personally getting involved in negotiations at the last minute. “As always with “BoJo”, it is hard to distinguish between carelessness and calculation, improvisation and strategy,” wrote Arnauld De La Grange.
This echoes a criticism made by Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the EU. He told Playbook Brussels recently: “If I were advising someone who did not much care about a deal but wanted to be seen by the British public to have tried his utmost, then I might be doing my first serious face-to-face meeting with the Commission president this week.”
The news that Monaco-based Brexiteer billionaire Jim Ratcliffe would build his company’s Grenadier SUVs in France rather than South Wales also received a fair bit of coverage.
Belgium’s De Standaard says “it is typical of Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the richest Briton who made his fortune mainly in Europe.”
Denmark’s Berlingske adds: “The British listened when Jim Ratcliffe spoke for Brexit. Now they have Brexit, reality is pressing on them, and Jim Ratcliffe has made two decisions that seem like it was fun to criticize the EU – but not to do without the EU.”
Italy’s Republicca calls it “the betrayal of the pro Brexit billionaire” and compares it to James Dyson’s decision to build his electric cars in Singapore, Nigel Farage’s children having German passports, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s investment fund in Ireland and Nigel Laweson’s application for French citizenship.
Joe Lo is a co-editor of Left Foot Forward
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