Liz Truss: What will the UK's new prime minister mean for Europe?
euronews.comThe phrase was short but gave a telling insight into the worldview of the UK's new prime minister.
By replying "the jury's out" when asked whether Emmanuel Macron was "friend or foe", Liz Truss flaunted her born-again, eurosceptic credentials before her appreciative audience of Conservative supporters during the leadership campaign.
Despite the playful tone of the question, the answer cast Truss firmly as the polar opposite of the European Union-loving French president. Brexit fault lines run through the numerous rows between the British and French governments —from fishing rights to cross-Channel migrants, from border chaos to defence and security.
Boris Johnson, then still nominally Truss' boss, intervened in characteristic manner to describe Macron as a "très bon buddy de notre pays".
But his tenure has been marked by fractious and antagonistic relations with France and the European Union as a whole — despite his claim to have got Brexit "done" — and there is little to suggest a radical change in direction from his successor.
Once an enthusiastic backer of the UK's EU membership, Truss transformed after the 2016 referendum to become a passionate Brexiteer.
Even before becoming prime minister, Truss had already set the British government on a collision course with the EU. The indications are that once in Downing Street, the impact won't be long in coming.
Launching her leadership campaign, she listed the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill — "in the face of EU intransigence" — among several personal achievements in government.
Now going through parliament, it paves the way for British ministers to rip up part of the Brexit divorce deal covering the UK territory.
"This could prompt a trade war and would worsen already strained
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