[ad_1]
“I will always be European,” says Stanley Johnson. I wanted to have a personal “connection” with the EU. This causes some irritation and also teasing.
“My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French and so was her grandfather”: Stanley Johnson has strong ties to France.
Photo: Neill Hall (Keystone)
In view of the final completion of Brexit, which his son has been instrumental in driving, Boris Johnson’s father wants to apply for French citizenship. He wanted to have a personal “connection” with the European Union, Stanley Johnson told French radio station RTL on Thursday. “I will always be European, that’s for sure.”
“It is not about becoming French. If I understand well, I am French, ”the 80-year-old man explained in the radio interview he conducted in French. “My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French, as was her grandfather.”
Stanley Johnson’s announcement drew criticism and amusement among British and EU citizens. Chris Rennard, a member of the British House of Lords, said the 80-year-old is getting personal benefits by applying for an EU passport. “This is something that his son Boris retained today 67 million British citizens,” Rennard added.
“Family drama at the end of the Brexit saga”
Irish MEP Billy Kelleher linked Johnson’s decision to the Erasmus exchange program in which Britain no longer participates. “While Mr. Stanley Johnson enjoys a glass of wine in France, British students will no longer be able to study there,” he wrote on the short message service Twitter.
The French newspaper “Liberation” humorously described the ad as a “family drama to conclude the latest episode of the good old Brexit saga.”
Stanley Johnson was one of the first British civil servants in Brussels, member of the European Parliament and of the Commission of the EU. He was a strict opponent of Brexit until 2016, but then he turned around. Britain’s departure from the EU was driven in large part by her son, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Stanley Johnson spoke immediately before the UK left the EU internal market and customs union on Friday night, marking the end of the post-Brexit transition period.
