It was an amazing speech delivered by Boris Johnson to the black door of 10 Downing Street early Tuesday morning. No one was surprised by her eloquence, the country and the world expect nothing less from the British vocabulary titan.
But behind the formulations, which as usual required higher education, there was a clear message – he will be back. The resigning prime minister had already threatened to do so in mid-July when he quoted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s saying in “Terminator” during his last appearance in the lower house: “Hasta la vista, baby!”
Nobody in London believes that Johnson, like “a launch vehicle that has done its job, smoothly enters the atmosphere and sinks invisibly into a remote, dark corner of the Pacific”.
Especially since shortly before his flight to Balmoral to meet the Queen, he once again listed his merits in the office that he held for three years and 44 days and would have liked to keep at least until the next regular election in 2024. Brexit? Ticked off. Fastest corona vaccination program of all comparable countries? Of course. The fastest way out of lockdown? Naturally. The earliest arms shipments to Ukraine? That too.
Plus, Johnson couldn’t help but step up. There was no trace of English fair play when, right at the beginning of the speech, he accused his group colleagues of “unexpectedly having made a relay race by changing the rules in the middle of the game” by actually throwing him out of Number 10 after the umpteenth scandal . “But that doesn’t matter now,” Johnson added.
Indeed, for now, it is. Liz Truss is said to be standing around 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday afternoon exactly where Johnson was standing almost nine hours earlier. His foreign secretary is now getting the toughest prime ministerial job in a long time. The aftermath of the corona pandemic, record inflation, the tripling of energy prices, the war in Ukraine, various Brexit problems and a Labor opposition that is now consistently ahead of the Tories by double digits in the polls.
The narrative that Johnson’s forced resignation will prove to be a grave mistake for the kingdom began immediately after his fall. His followers at the mass newspaper Daily Mail headlined the day after: “What the hell have they done?” along with a photo of Johnson, wife Carrie and their two children clinging to each other behind the Downing Street door after his resignation.
Right at the beginning of the election campaign of the two top candidates, Truss and Rishi Sunak, the first petition was submitted at the end of July, stating that Johnson should also be on the ballot – which very quickly garnered 15,000 votes. Ex-Minister Rory Stewart compared the trained journalist to Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump, who also cannot let go of power.
According to polls, Johnson is still the most popular draftsman in the Tory party. You know that compared to the approachable but not very charismatic Truss, he pulls people off their chairs and draws them around like a magnet.
“Well, this is it, folks,” that’s it, was the first sentence of Johnson’s farewell speech. Which obviously isn’t meant to be taken seriously. A few sentences later, the Oxford-trained classics scholar revealed what he was really planning. “Like Cincinnatus will I return to my field.” Cincinnatus was a 5th century BC Roman politician who was indeed forced to live a simple country life for the time being. Then to return to Rome as dictator.
Johnson may have vowed Tuesday to give his successor “fervent support” from the back bench as the next rank-and-file MP. Nobody in London believes in that. But that the father of at least seven children now wants to earn good money with speeches and columns for a while. And meanwhile ponders the right moment for a comeback. Whether it will be in 2024 is another question. The audience also had to wait twelve years for “Terminator 3”.
