Emmanuel Macron, “Friend or enemy”? The favorite in the race for UK prime minister, Liz Truss, declined to comment on Thursday, saying she would judge the French president. “about his actions”. Liz Truss, who spoke in the afternoon at an electoral meeting of the Conservative Party in Norwich (southeast), however specified that she preferred French nuclear technology to Chinese. The one who is still head of diplomacy in her country, in a government that currently manages, aspires to succeed Boris Johnson at number 10 Downing Street, who resigned in July.

Lots of court records

To do this, he must gather a majority of the votes of some 200,000 conservative activists. The election is underway and its result will be known on September 5. He opposes former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, also present Thursday night in Norwich, even if the two candidates did not debate directly. Rishi Sunak, who according to the latest polls is 30 points behind his rival, did not hesitate when the journalist who was hosting the evening asked him “Macron, friend or foe?”opting for the first option.

In contrast, when Liz Truss was asked the same question, she replied “The jury is still out”making the room laugh. “If I become prime minister, I will judge him by his actions and not by his words”, he added, without elaborating further on the reasons for this distrust shown. There are many litigation files between France and the United Kingdom, in particular the management of the post-Brexit files, whether they be fisheries or Northern Ireland.

The two countries, allies within NATO, have also had different approaches to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Boris Johnson taking a very hard line against Vladimir Putin while the French president has defended the need to maintain an open dialogue with the Kremlin. . The relationship between Paris and London was invited again minutes later in the conversation, about energy independence from the United Kingdom, where prices are skyrocketing under the effect of the explosion in gas prices. The country must build new nuclear power plants, argued Liz Truss, regretting that she had lost her experience in this area. To do this, “If the choice is to depend on France or China, I will choose France,” launched, again applauded.