| Jean Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, can't help being incendiary when it comes to Brexit. Speaking to a conference in Italy, Juncker said he would only speak in French because: "Slowly, but surely, English is losing importance in Europe." The charming comment was a gratuitous sideswipe guaranteed to rile the British. He has a habit of doing this. It was probably Juncker's staff that leaked derogatory comments he made following the disastrous No. 10 dinner, saying Theresa May was living in a parallel galaxy. Juncker followed with the offensive bon mot, saying of dinner, "It was excellent… but I am not talking about the food." Charming. Juncker and the British don't like each other; not since David Cameron was the only EU leader to oppose Juncker's re-appointment as commission president. Such tart comments, are not helpful. That's why Donald Tusk, president of the European Council has been admonishing everyone to cut back on the inflammatory rhetoric ahead of Brexit negotiatons. Clearly his Commission counterpart, Juncker, wasn't listening. Then again, maybe French isn't the language of choice either given the anger lobbed at the EU by one of the finalists in this weekend's presidential elections in France. -Richard.Quest@cnn.com |
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