Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson informed the people at the Salzburg Summit on Friday with some very strange statements and strongly defended his country’s exit from the EU, which he had put forward. The majority of Britons would probably not agree with him today…
Gloomy predictions such as mass unemployment or the exodus of bankers from London have not materialised, Johnson claimed in Salzburg. Instead, Brexit quickly showed its worth as the country was able to roll out its Covid vaccination programme faster than EU countries. “Brexit has saved lives.”
Johnson urges vaccination rate
By March 2021, 45 percent of people in the UK had been vaccinated, compared with 10 percent in the EU, said the former Conservative leader, who was British prime minister from July 2019 to September 2022. “That meant we came out of lockdown faster, and it was Brexit that did that.” Contrary to predictions, unemployment is lower and Britain is the world’s second-largest exporter of financial services. Trade with Austria is also at a record level.
Since the end of the Brexit transition period in 2020, the UK economy has also grown faster than France, Germany and Italy, “and as far as I know they’re all members of the EU”. And he’s not even mentioning the £15 trillion a year “that we can now spend on national priorities rather than giving it to Brussels to be spent as they decide”.
No argument for Austria’s departure from the EU
He is not saying all this to “bring about conversion,” Johnson stressed. “I am not advocating Austria leaving the EU. “The UK and Austria are very different countries” — with different histories, geographies and different needs.
Brexit was also “valuable,” he said, because it gave Britain the chance “to act differently to our European friends and partners in a crisis,” namely on Ukraine. After 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin first invaded Ukraine, the European response “was controlled by France and Germany under the charade of the so-called Minsk process.” The latter treated Russia and Ukraine as if they were a couple having a nasty marital dispute, “with France and Germany as marriage counselors.” But it was an “unconscionable invasion of a sovereign European country,” Johnson said.
“I think we didn’t react sharply enough in 2014,” the former prime minister stressed. “And I am proud that Britain was able to break with the European approach in February 2022. We were the first major European country to supply lethal weapons to help the Ukrainians.”
“Ukraine can win the war”
If Putin is simply allowed to do what he wants in Ukraine, he will be perceived as having the authority to do the same elsewhere, Johnson warned. “The signal that aggression pays and can be successful will be heard elsewhere in the world.”
The former British foreign secretary was convinced that Ukraine can win the war. “And I believe that Ukraine will win because they want to be free.”
Ukraine is led by a man “who used to be the voice of Paddington Bear,” while Russia is led by a former KGB man, Johnson added, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. “I know instinctively, to be honest, which kind of government I prefer.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
