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Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds
Photo: Jeremy Selwyn / AP
"She buys gold wallpaper." With this sentence, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reported to employees last year about the interior design plans of his fiancée Carrie Symonds.
Apparently she couldn't stand the department store "nightmare" ex-Prime Minister Theresa May is said to have left in Downing Street.
It was redecorated.
The words have now made their way through the British media.
The luxury renovation of Johnson's official apartment has long been more than a question of good taste.
The British prime minister is suspected of having financed his partner's expensive furnishings with the help of a secret donor.
Johnson is entitled to a maximum of £ 30,000 in taxpayers' money for remodeling his office.
The renovation carried out is said to have exceeded this amount by far.
In unconfirmed reports there is talk of around 200,000 pounds (around 230,000 euros).
Not only the media in the United Kingdom are now puzzling who came up with the gold wallpaper.
The electoral commission has launched an official investigation.
There is suspicion of a donation and cover-up scandal in the room.
While Johnson increasingly struggles to explain, his fiancée continues to become the focus of attention.
In social networks, the hashtag #CarrieAntoinette collects partly biting and partly humorous reactions.
Regardless of whether the hashtag is sexist, many believe the comparison to the spoiled and naive French royal wife, who died under the guillotine after the 1793 revolution, does not do Symonds justice.
It has long been speculated that Symond's influence on Downing Street goes far beyond deciding on decor.
Symonds should have an influence on personnel decisions
The 33-year-old used to work as a communications specialist at the Conservative Party headquarters.
She is considered ambitious, and in 2018, at the age of 29, became the youngest communications chief in the party's history.
It was there that she and Johnson met.
Last year Symonds gave birth to their son Wilfred.
Symonds does not have an official task, it does not sit on committees, has access to documents or is involved in decision-making processes.
However, their influence is attributed, for example, to the fact that Johnson is now committed to "green" environmental issues.
Symonds is a passionate advocate of animal rights.
In addition, she should also intervene in personnel matters.
If you don't fit, you have to go - at least that's what Johnson's former advisor, Dominic Cummings, reports on his blog.
Friends of Symonds, on the other hand, would move up to important positions.
Cummings himself had to resign last year - even then there were rumors that his resignation was the result of an internal power struggle with Symonds.
“The most powerful people in government are now all close to Symonds,” writes the British “Guradian” and gives a few examples.
The Deputy Chief of Staff Simone Finn hosted Symonds' 30th birthday.
Johnson's adviser Henry Newman reportedly called Symonds one of her "favorite people."
There is currently much speculation in the UK press about Johnson's fiancé's ambitions. For many critics, however, the quarrels and rumors about their supposed influence are further evidence of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's weak leadership.