Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister who rose to power through an image of a buffoon, with neatly disheveled hair and crooked ties, resigned on Thursday (7).
Amid an avalanche of crises and abandoned by allies, he has indicated he will remain in office until a new leader of the Conservative Party is chosen – which should happen in the coming months – even if the move is rejected by the Labor opposition and some members of your legend.
“The process of choosing a new leader must begin,” Boris said outside 10 Downing Street. “And today I appointed a new cabinet to govern, as I will until the choice is made.”
Critics had speculated that the debacle would come sooner, but, resilient, Boris has survived a series of crises, and the exit is now due less to a specific case, but to the accumulation of controversies.
From denialism in the face of the emergence of Covid to the discovery that he knew and did nothing to remove a person now accused of sexual harassment from the task of guaranteeing parliamentary discipline in his party, the former prime minister leaves office unpopular and embarrassed by allies, such as the stampede. in his government’s series shows.
In recent days, two top secretaries, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, from Finance and Health, have pulled the string of resignations, followed by more than 50 members of their management. Pressure mounted on Wednesday, when a group of people close to him, including other ministers, went to Downing Street to ask Boris to finally give in, ending a nearly three-year period at the helm of the United Kingdom.
Elected to deliver Brexit, the separation of the British from the European Union, the Conservative kept his promise. It was also the first leader in the world to deliver vaccines against the coronavirus to the population, in a turn that came to erase the initial steps, when it took time to enact lockdown and other restrictions, making the country one of the most affected by the pandemic on the continent.
But of all the labels, the one that stuck the most was the liar. The “partygate”, an episode in which serial leaks revealed parties at the government headquarters at a time of Covid in which the British were prohibited from meeting indoors, made explicit the biggest criticism made by the opposition and even by members of his party, that he denied facts that always turned out to be true.
There were dozens of celebrations, from a Christmas party to a birthday party — for the prime minister himself. Cabinet officials even held a convecote on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral (1921-2021), which later prompted an apology from Boris to Queen Elizabeth II.
The frying also housed a renovation made to the official residence through an unreported private donation and even the accusation that, during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, after the resumption of power by the Taliban extremists, their government prioritized the transport of dogs and cats in instead of civilians, polemics that came to be accompanied by electoral defeats in traditionally conservative strongholds.
Just over a month ago, Boris escaped a vote of no confidence. He needed the support of 180 of his party’s 359 parliamentarians — he got 211 votes, but saw 148 coreligionists take a stand against him, foreshadowing a Pyrrhic victory. In theory, the conquest would guarantee a year without anyone being able to trigger the mechanism to overthrow him again, but a new crisis was enough for them to speculate a revision of the rules. Only the threat of a new vote ended up boosting the resignation.
Born in New York, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, 58, the prime minister who carried out Brexit, spent his late childhood and early teens in Brussels, where the European Union is based. The son of a former European Commission official, he learned to speak French and also knows German, Italian and Spanish, in addition to having studied Latin and Greek, which he sometimes used in quotations.
Although he came to power on the wave of right-wing populists, in the end he didn’t have much resemblance to former US President Donald Trump, to whom analysts used to associate him. In addition to his intellectual profile, he is not moralistic, does not discriminate against LGBTQI + people and has already admitted to having experimented with marijuana and cocaine, that is, he strongly diverges from the conservative behavior agenda.
Before becoming a former prime minister, he graduated from the University of Oxford, and in 2001 he left a long career as a journalist and writer to be elected MP. Then, between 2008 and 2016, he was mayor of London and then, for two years, chancellor of government to Theresa May, whom he succeeded.
During his tenure, foreign policy, especially in the last five months, was a strong trait of Boris, who at times used the Ukrainian War as a shield to deflect crises. One of the most vocal leaders against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he visited Kiev twice, promised arms and aid to the invaded country.
As soon as rumors that he was going to resign had surfaced in the press, Moscow was quick to say, through his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, that he hoped that “more professional people, who decide for dialogue,” would take power in the UK. “He doesn’t like us, we don’t like him.”
Now, whoever the new British prime minister is, it is very unlikely that Britain’s position will change, but Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has lost an ally who has almost never wavered in support. In a slightly more measured way, Boris was also critical of China, calling it a “systemic challenge” in announcing the country’s 2021 security, defense, development and foreign policy strategy.
The concern was most visible in Aukus, a partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to guarantee the nation in Oceania nuclear submarines in an area where Beijing wants to increase its influence.
Domestically, Boris resigns at a time when independence winds are blowing again from Scotland and with the Ireland Protocol, the result of the divorce between the EU and the United Kingdom, still to be resolved. The outcome of the dispute over the mechanism to avoid a “hard border” between Ireland could permanently sour Britain’s relationship with the European bloc, a sign that Brexit has left scars.
Amid so many issues and scandals, for a long time Boris was seen as a survivor. In his rule he was indeed one. He even went to the ICU after being contaminated by Covid. Afterwards, he remained in power until everyone took defeat for granted. He stayed longer than critics imagined and less than his alter ego in the novel he wrote, “Seventy Two Virgins”, managed.
In the work, the character triumphs by trying to obfuscate the bad news that awaited him. For Boris, he didn’t.
