RRarely, in peacetime, a British Prime Minister has come to power when his country finds itself in such chaos and faces such a series of threats. Liz Truss, 47, who was to officially succeed Boris Johnson on Tuesday, September 6 after meeting Queen Elizabeth, will lead a United Kingdom in the grip of an economic, social, energy and political crisis unparalleled for several decades.
Neither her mode of election – by the 172,000 members of the Conservative Party alone, rather Englishmen from the South, elderly and wealthy – nor the promises she made to be elected – less taxes, less State, less Europe – does not seem to bode well for pulling the country out of the doldrums and improving its relations with its neighbours, including France.
With its angry dockers and train drivers, its consumers in revolt against astronomical electricity and gas bills – they are due to almost double in October –, its waste water dumped into the Channel, the country does not give a brilliant image. As in the 1970s, the comparison with its neighbors is not to its advantage. Its growth rate is the lowest in the G7, and its inflation higher than in the EU (10.1% against 8.9%).
Claimed heiress of Thatcher
In this difficult context, the solutions proposed by Mme Truss, the opposite of those implemented on the continent, seem paradoxical. As Britons demand concrete remedies for the tornado in the cost of living, the deterioration of public health and transport systems, when 42% of them are at risk of not being able to heat themselves properly this winter, the news Prime Minister promises to lower state revenues and to deregulate. In her sharp tone of claimed heiress of Margaret Thatcher, she warned: she will not be there for ” distribute grants » and does not consider the economy through “the prism of redistribution” .
In international politics, Liz Truss, outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs, strongly supports Ukraine. Anxious to make people forget her past as an opponent of Brexit, she defends tooth and nail her ” opportunities “ – deregulation and tax dumping – by turning a blind eye to its impasses, both economic and diplomatic, however flagrant. His refusal to answer the question of whether Emmanuel Macron is ” Friend or enemy “ of the United Kingdom, its fierce denunciation of the Northern Irish protocol, which risks exacerbating tensions with the European Union (EU), seem to announce new turbulence.
It is to be hoped that the Prime Minister has forced the line to win the votes of the Tory adherents and that, in the face of mounting anger and the risk of losing the popular electorate conquered by Mr. Johnson, she comes out of her “widespread between liberal ideology and reality, to mobilize the means of the State in order to support the most fragile and save public services.
Traumatized by Brexit which continues to divide British opinion, the United Kingdom remains immersed in an impressive denial of the importance of its relations with the Twenty-Seven. The worst would be that Mme Truss, to create a diversion, activates the anti-European sirens with redoubled vigor. The citizens of the Union, like the British, deserve better than demagogy or chin movements, especially at a time when, in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the unity of Europeans is an imperative.
