It is still early to determine whether Rishi Sunak will pay a high price for his new blunder, or if the barrage of criticism he has received is part of the exaggeration with which everything is calibrated in the electoral campaign. But the decision of the prime minister and conservative candidate to be absent from the celebrations commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings and leave statesmen such as Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz in the lurch, has unleashed a wave of indignation among the British opposition, among the rows toriesand among many UK veterans. And it has provoked the general astonishment of many analysts, unable to understand the immense error of a politician who, by prioritizing a television interview over his presence on the beaches of D-Day, has downplayed the importance of the celebration of a historic event around into which the character and personality of the United Kingdom have been written.
The former prime minister and current head of Foreign Affairs, David Cameron, replaced Sunak in the official photo on Thursday with the rest of the dignitaries, but his presence did not serve to alleviate the general discomfort due to a clumsiness by which the current tenant of Downing Street He has been forced to apologize. “The last thing I want is for the commemorations [por el 80º aniversario del desembarco] are overshadowed by politics. I have enormous respect for veterans and have had the honor of representing the UK at several events held in Portsmouth [Inglaterra] and France during the last two days, and to meet with all those who fought with so much courage. After the conclusion of the British event in Normandy, I returned to the UK. Looking back, it was a mistake not to stay longer in France. And I apologize,” the prime minister wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter).
It is true that Sunak participated in several of the events scheduled over two days of commemorations. But what happened is revealing of the personality of a politician who observes everything with the utilitarianism and micromanagement of an Excel sheet. Sunak seems incapable of understanding the power of gestures and rituals in a country that idolizes its own history, and that every year floods its streets and the lapels of its representatives with poppies, to symbolize the memory of those who fell in past wars.
The sarcasm of many critics
The prime minister wanted to surprise at the beginning of the electoral campaign, shortly after he announced the advance of the elections to July 4, with the promise of recovering the mandatory ‘military’ (the so-called National Service, abandoned in the sixties of the last century), to commit new generations to the defense of the country. Now he has had to listen to the sarcasm of many critics, who have pointed out how Sunak wants young people to dedicate an entire year to serving the nation while he is unable to do so for a full day.
“This was a very important anniversary of a great military achievement that brought freedom to Europe. Some of the veterans who probably won’t do it again due to their age have attended. I think it was very important that [Sunak] would have expressed their commitment to the event. She should have stayed. “As Prime Minister of our country, I should have been there to express our gratitude to those who fell in combat,” Richard Kemp, former commander of the British Army in Afghanistan, expressed his displeasure to the tabloid newspaper. The Mirror.
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An asset for the opposition
The Labor candidate Keir Starmer, whom all polls already point to as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, did participate in a large part of the Normandy celebrations. After an unfortunate week, in which he did not get it right in his televised face-to-face with Sunak last Tuesday, the opposition leader has taken advantage of his rival’s mistake to take back the initiative: “This election is decided above all with respect to the character of the candidates (…) For me, there was only one place I should be, and that was paying my respect to the veterans (…) I made the decision as leader of the Labor Party and as a candidate for prime minister, and I knew I had to be there [en Francia]. There was no discussion about it,” Starmer told SkyNews.
Sunak has tried from the first minute of the electoral contest to present his rival, to conservative voters, as a leftist accustomed to changing his opinion, to whom the country’s security could not be handed over. The tremendous mistake made by the prime minister by leaving the beaches of Normandy has caused confusion and discouragement among the ranks of his party. “The problem that Sunak faces today is that he is accused of not fully understanding what being prime minister entails, and what the obligations of the position are,” Craig Oliver, the man who headed the prime minister for years, explained to the BBC. Downing Street Communications Department.
The disaster has been of such magnitude as to allow even an opportunist like Nigel Farage, the candidate of the Reform UK party, promoter of Brexit and current nightmare of the tories, also went on his own to Normandy to take a photo and joined the chorus of critics against the Conservative candidate: “If you are a patriotic voter, don’t vote for Rishi Sunak,” Farage wrote in our history or our culture. He is only concerned about remaining in Downing Street,” he concluded.
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