French President Emmanuel Macron purportedly had some unpleasant things to say about UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, MailOnline reports, citing what it describes as the “highly respected” investigative magazine Le Canard Enchaine.
The French head of state is alleged to have made the remarks last week during his visit to Croatia, after holding a phone conversation with BoJo about the English Channel tragedy in which at least 27 migrants drowned trying to reach the British coast after the dinghy they were using deflated and sank in freezing waters.
During said conversation, the magazine claims, the French president’s advisers learned that Johnson had tweeted "a letter he had just sent to Macron, which Macron had not yet been able to read."
"Bojo talks to me, he's down to earth, everything's fine, we're having grown-up discussions and then he sticks it to us either beforehand or afterwards in an inelegant manner," Macron reportedly told his advisers. "It's always the same circus."
The French president also reportedly argued that, as the United Kingdom parted ways with the European Union, Johnson realized that “the situation was catastrophic for the British”.
"He positions himself as a victim, he makes France a scapegoat, he tries to turn every simplistic situation into a complex problem. We have been in this situation since March,” Macron remarked, as quoted by the magazine.
Arguing reportedly that Johnson adopted the aforementioned approach “on the sausage war, on fishing and on the submarine affair”, Macron is said to have added that BoJo in private will say that “he is sorry to act this way, but he admits that above all he must respond to public opinion.”
"It is very sad to see a great country, with which we could do so much, led by a clown," Macron is reported to have said, before purportedly adding that "Johnson has the attitude of a good-for-nothing."
MailOnline also observes in the article that the Elysee Palace has “refused to comment on the Canard story”.