Why Germans are warming to Boris Johnson

There is a strange dual narrative on Brexit here in Berlin. On the surface, nothing has changed. Donald Tusk’s comments last week, that Brexit has been ‘one of the most spectacular mistakes’ in EU history, speak for many Germans who have looked upon the UK with ridicule and pity since 2016. Germans have relished in the farce that is Brexit, delighting in ‘the demise of a once great nation’, while hoping that its difficulties will make Britain think again. Indeed, with each delay and possible victory for Jeremy Corbyn comes more and more hope in Germany that the revocation of Article 50 – or at least a second referendum – becomes inevitable.

Yet, in reality, everything has changed. First, like us, Germans are tired of Brexit. They are beginning to feel that the UK has been punished enough. Brexit is simply no longer any fun. Yes, there has been a deep desire to see the UK suffer for its sins, but somehow the Germans have been given far more blood than they bargained for.