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The congratulations from England were not approved everywhere in America. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had just tweeted his congratulations to future US President Joe Biden on Saturday night when an old friend of Biden’s spoke up, also via Twitter. Johnson was a “disgusting shapeshifter,” ranted Tommy Vietor. And: “We will never forget his racist comments about Obama and his slavish devotion to Trump.”
The good news for Britain: Vietor, once the Obama / Biden administration’s foreign policy spokesman, is unlikely to return to Washington. The Bad: His take on Johnson is widely shared by some American Democrats.
Since the weekend at the latest, many in London have been wondering if Johnson’s well-practiced practice of revising views and convictions at will can be enough to successfully charm Joe Biden. So if the ritually invoked “special relationship” with the United States will remain as special as it has been for the past four years.
Johnson filmed about the “partially Kenyan” Obama
It will be hard work for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As early as December 2019, shortly after his triumphant election victory, Biden had made many disparaging comments about Johnson. This is “a physical and emotional clone” of Trump. The reason the otherwise jovial Democrat was so undiplomatic apparently stemmed from a 2016 episode.
Back then, shortly before the Brexit referendum, Johnson publicly protested the removal of a bust of Winston Churchill from the White House. Obama’s decision, according to Johnson, is symbolic of “the dislike that the ancestors of the partially Kenyan president have for the British Empire.” Those were the same racist overtones that Trump used to win votes in his first election campaign. Biden, a close friend of Obama, has not forgotten.
Brexit and Trump, for Biden and the American Democrats, are symptoms of the same populist and nationalist evil they have vowed to fight. Trump himself had repeatedly evoked the parallels by celebrating Brexit and ennobled its leader Johnson as “Britain Trump.” And even if London recently made a remarkable effort to keep its distance from Trump: American Democrats are highly suspicious.
Downing Street is launching a charm offensive
And it’s not just about Johnson. Michael Gove, responsible for the implementation of Brexit in the British cabinet, is also criticized in Biden’s team as a far right and friend of the Republicans. Johnson’s Foreign Minister Dominic Raab was not heard in Washington to scoff at the “Black Lives Matter” movement’s kneeling protest as “submission and submission.” For Biden, who has made fighting systemic racism a priority, these are no easy feats.
Raab was dispatched from Downing Street over the weekend to send conciliatory signals to Washington. On the BBC, the secretary of state called for a prosperous relationship and promised that in the future “we will listen very carefully to our American friends”, especially those on Capitol Hill “and the Irish lobby.”
This latest comment in particular is revealing, as it points to a central point of contention that has accompanied Brexit negotiations for years: the question of whether Brexit, which is supposed to finally be completed on December 31, will put in danger unstable peace in Northern Ireland and how it will do it. becomes.
Biden makes a Brexit deal more likely
In September, Johnson nearly interrupted negotiations with the European Union on future relations when he introduced a bill that could ultimately lead to a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, a flagrant international violation of the law that resurrected London. . of violence in the province of riots.
Joe Biden, whose ancestors hail from Ballina in the west of Ireland and who describes himself as Irish, was one of those who screamed at the time. Johnson must not be mistaken, he made it known at the time: if its Brexit endangered the peace in (Northern) Ireland, Britain would not get the trade deal with the US, which it so urgently needs in order to exist in a post-EU future. .
Joe’s Distant Cousins: Celebration in Ballina, Ireland, Where Biden’s Ancestors Came From
Photo: Peter Morrison / dpa
In this sense, the election of Biden could have a significant impact on the Brexit negotiations that have been stalled for months. Johnson’s determination to dare to break with the EU without a treaty if necessary is likely to have waned with the departure of his most powerful friend, Donald Trump. “A deal is within reach,” Raab said at the weekend. There is still a week left for this.
London is no longer a bridgehead for the EU
But even if a breakthrough were to succeed, as there is much to be said for it, there is still a long way to go before the “special” British-American relationship is relaunched. Britain has always been an important ally for the United States in recent decades because, as a powerful member of the EU, it has a voice in the politics of the bloc.
The country will no longer play this role after Brexit. But Biden wants to once again strengthen the influence of the United States in Europe; your natural contact persons for this should be Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.
Johnson does his best not to get crushed in the big game of powerful blocks. On Sunday he congratulated Biden again and called the United States the “closest and most important ally” of his country. There are many “crucial things” that you can work on together. What it means is traditionally close cooperation between security authorities and secret services or a determined policy towards Russia and China.
Johnson trusts the weather
Above all, Johnson is now serving the President of the United States as a conscientious ally in the fight against climate change. Britain will host the next UN climate conference in Glasgow in November 2021. Johnson would be delighted to announce there with Biden that the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate Protection and thus possibly repair their personal relationship. with the next president of the United States. “It unites us much more than it divides us,” says Johnson.
The extent to which Joe Biden is willing to put the past behind him will also be decided by the question of who he will send as the US ambassador to London in the future. The names are already circulating in the British press, including one that Johnson’s Tories tend to fear: that of Barack Obama.
