Top start for the British election campaign against Brexit background

The December 12 pre-election campaign officially kicked off in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, Nov. 6, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson comparing Labor rival Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin as the savior of Brexit.

The Prime Minister went to Buckingham Palace in the morning to meet the Queen and declare the dissolution of Parliament, whose divisions have so far prevented the implementation of the EU exit, voted by 52% of British more than three years ago but already pushed back three times.

Then he called, in a statement from his offices at 10 Downing Street, voters to vote conservative for "Brexit to come true", saying he would again present his EU exit agreement with Brussels ahead of the Parliament from "the first day" of its new session in December, so that this exit can be effective in January.

We will have a General Election on December 12th. It's now up to you, the great british audience, to make your voice heard.

Do you want to #GetBrexitDone or have two more referendums next year with Corbyn? pic.twitter.com/orPEc3jwE1

Boris Johnson will hold in the evening his first big campaign meeting in the heart of the country, the West Midlands, and will resume his favorite themes: the Brexit but also all the social issues neglected in recent years by this subject that has phagocyted British politics : education, housing, health, security.

Several heckling on the conservative side

He launched his first salvo in an editorial published by his favorite newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, in which he likened Jeremy Corbyn to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin because of his alleged "hatred" of the rich.

"The absurdities that can come out of the ultra-rich to avoid paying a little more taxes ..." reacted Jeremy Corbyn on his Twitter account. In a speech in Telford, he broke the nail by posing as a "champion" of "those who do not have much money or high-ranking friends".

The nonsense the super-rich will come out with a bit of money. Pic.twitter.com/FlUl29ksvz

The first day of the campaign will in any case have been darkened, conservative side, by several hiccups. Wales Minister Alun Cairns had to resign after being accused of hiding that he knew the role played by one of his collaborators whose statements in a rape trial caused the prosecution to collapse . In a letter to Prime Minister Alun Cairns says he is "ready to cooperate fully with the investigation" that will be opened on his conduct.

And the very pinch Jacob Rees-Mogg, close ally of Boris Johnson, had to apologize flatly for having said that "the common sense" dictated to leave a building on fire, about the tragic death of 72 inhabitants of Grenfell tower in London in a fire in 2017, during which the firefighters, much criticized since then, had given instructions not to move.

The remark of Jacob Rees-Mogg is all the more devastating that it makes him appear cut off from the harsh realities of the life of the population, the opposite of the message that Boris Johnson is trying to convey. ultra-privileged social class.

Boris Johnson threatened by Nigel Farage and his Brexit party

Polls regularly put the Conservatives in the lead with a dozen points ahead, but John Curtice, political scientist and high priest of the polls in the UK, continues to advise caution in the forecasts for this election, the third in four years .

Boris Johnson, who played a decisive role in the Brexit vote in 2016, intends to campaign by presenting himself as the only one able to implement it on the planned date of 31 January 2020, and thus to close a complicated marriage of almost half a century.

Faced with him, Jeremy Corbyn argues that he is the only one to be able to obtain from Brussels a Brexit agreement respecting the rights of workers, which he will then submit to a referendum also providing for the option of remaining in the European Union. Such renegotiation, however, is deemed "unrealistic" by outgoing Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

On their flanks, small parties can derail their dreams of conquering a majority. Nigel Farage's Brexit party threatens to take Boris Johnson's vote by calling for a sharper cut with the EU than the agreement he has negotiated with the Europeans.

At the other end of the spectrum, liberal Democrats, led by Jo Swinson, want to cancel the Brexit and can delight the voices of moderate Europhile Conservatives and Labor dissatisfied with the procrastination of their leader on the issue.

With AFP