Mdespite his youth and his charm, our dashing president has undoubtedly not left an unforgettable memory for Elizabeth II… This is in any case what emerges from the confidences of Boris Johnson, who was the guest of C to you, Tuesday November 19, as part of the promotion of his Memoirs. For the occasion, the former British Prime Minister returned to some anecdotes dating from his mandate, where he regularly met Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022. “Even with his cancer, his soul and his spirit remained incredible,” he said in French, a language he masters.
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“She knew every president of the French Republic from Charles de Gaulle to Emmanuel Macron,” he recalled. And, regarding the latter, the ex-First minister shared a tasty anecdote, revealing a clash he had one day with him over Northern Ireland. “Macron told me that it’s another country and I told him no, it’s exactly the opposite, it’s the same country, it’s our country! » And, when Johnson privately reported the president's remarks to the sovereign, she reacted quickly. “She told me: 'It seems that he has an age gap with his wife.' And I said, “Yes, he married his teacher.” And she added, “Well, she didn’t teach him history well.” »
For the record, Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom with England, Scotland and Wales, countries over which the British sovereign reigns. Ireland was occupied very early by the Celts, then colonized from the 9the century by the Anglo-Normans. The English will strengthen their interference in the 17th centurye century by trying in particular to impose Protestantism against Catholicism. In the 20the century, the Southern States acquired their independence and broke away from the United Kingdom, with the exception of those of Ulster, to the north, which remained English. Hence the sovereign's reaction to Emmanuel Macron's rereading…
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Behind her austere and imperial image, Elizabeth II always had humor, a character trait that she shared with her husband, Prince Philip, a real jester who had the art of relieving the pressure. The queen notably possessed a great talent as an imitator, picking up the accents and language tics of the personalities she met… or whom she took an dislike to. And she never hesitated to share her gifts in private in hilarious shows that she reserved for her friends, to avoid any diplomatic incident.
Who were his targets? Impossible to know. But we know that she hardly held in her heart certain of her Prime Ministers, like Margaret Thatcher, so easy to imitate, or Tony Blair and especially his wife Cherie, without forgetting Gordon Brown, who regularly lectured her. We dare not imagine how she dressed Donald Trump in private, whom she found particularly rude… But her own family also took it for granted, as the columnist Robert Hardman once confided to the Point : “She has humor to spare. So, when asked if she thought Harry and Meghan could ever return to the family fold, she replied: “No, because they took their dogs to the United States.” »
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