By Bern Kerrigan-
Emmanuel Macron says France and Britain may be heading for “serious problems” if the Uk does not know whether they are friends with France.
He was responding to a question on whether Liz Truss told the penultimate Conservative leadership hustings that “the jury is still out” on whether the French president was “friend or foe”.
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Her comments came at the end of the leadership event – known as a hustings – during a series of “quickfire questions” posed by the host.
Asked for his response to the remarks, Macron, on an official visit to Algeria, said it was “not good to lose your bearings too much.” If he was asked the same question, he said: “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second. France is a friend of the British people.”
If France and Britain “cannot say whether they are friends or enemies – and that is not a neutral term – then we are headed for serious problems,” the French president said.
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Truss told the hustings in Norfolk on Thursday that as prime minister, she would judge Macron by “deeds not words”. But Macron said the UK remained “a friendly nation” and strong ally “regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of its leaders and whatever little mistakes they may make in a speech from a soapbox.”
Ms Truss – the favourite to become the Uk’s next prime minister was responding to a question about French relations during a Conservative Party event, where she and her leadership rival, Rishi Sunak, took questions from party members.
Her comments came at the end of the leadership event – known as a hustings – during a series of “quickfire questions” posed by the host.
When asked the same question, Mr Sunak said Mr Macron was a “friend”.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Macron said he would have given a similar response to Mr Sunak’s, had he been asked the same question about the next leader of the UK.
“If the French and British are not capable of saying whether we are friends or enemies – the term is not neutral – we are going to have a problem,” Mr Macron said.
He said the UK was a “friend, strong and allied, whoever its leaders are and sometimes in spite of the leaders and the small mistakes they can make in their speeches”.
The UK and France have clashed over a number of issues in recent years, including migrant boat crossings in the Channel, a military pact between Britain, the US and Australia, and Brexit measures involving Northern Ireland.
Mr Macron, who was re-elected for a second term earlier this year, has sometimes publicly criticised the Conservative government’s approach. Many of those criticisms have not gone down too well with the government, but political alliances are usually based on historical ties and any membership of a common vision like the EU or NATO.
Some concerns have been aired about Truss’s level of discretion. She was widely criticised for suggesting that ordinary British citizens could participate in the war against
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