EU’s Juncker says Boris Johnson not ‘in line with reality’

LONDON – The president of the European Commission says ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson is not “in line with reality” in his claims that Britain would be better off outside the European Union.

Juncker noted that Johnson had spent time as a Brussels-based journalist. Speaking at a G-7 summit in Japan, Juncker said Johnson should return to check “if everything he is telling the British people is in line with reality — I do not think so.”

Juncker’s head of cabinet, Martin Selmayr, tweeted that Johnson, Donald Trump and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen were part of a “horror scenario that shows well why it is worth fighting populism.”

Johnson, who has compared the EU’s aims to those of Hitler, said Thursday that the EU aimed to build “a federal European super-state.”