As a child, Liz Truss participated in demonstrations against Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. As an adult, she admired the first female head of the British government - and now she herself will enter the Downing Street residence.
Truss, 47, will become the third woman to head the British government, after Thatcher, who ruled from 1979 to 1990, and Theresa May, who served from 2016 to 2019.
After weeks of fierce campaigning that divided the Conservative Party, Trasova defeated former finance minister Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party members' vote, winning 81 votes to Sunak's 326.
"I will present a bold plan to reduce taxes and grow our economy," Trasova said after announcing the results. "I will bring results in the fight against the energy crisis, I will deal with energy bills, but also with long-term issues around energy supply."
Trasova, as Reuters points out, takes office at an extremely difficult time when the crisis in the cost of living has affected household finances, at a time of industrial unrest, recession and war in Europe, in which Britain strongly supports Ukraine.
Within minutes of the announcement of victory, business leaders from the hospitality sector to manufacturing and the chemical industry asked for help amid rising energy prices and labor shortages.
In addition, the margin by which Trasova won was significantly smaller than expected, which is an indication of the deep divisions within the Conservative Party. The new prime minister was also supported by less than 50 percent of the membership, as almost every fifth member of the party did not vote.
"Now is the right time to unite behind the new Prime Minister, Liz Trass, as she leads our country through difficult times," Sunak announced on Twitter.
Trasova will succeed Boris Johnson, who was forced to resign in July after multiple scandals caused his administration to lose support.
Johnson travels to Scotland today to meet with Queen Elizabeth and officially hand in his resignation. After that, the monarch will ask Liz Truss to form a new government.
"I know he has a good plan to contain the cost of living crisis, unite our party and continue the great work of uniting our country," Johnson tweeted. "Now is the time for all conservatives to support her 100 percent."
For critics, Trasova is a rigid ideologue whose right-wing policies will not help Britain overcome the economic problems caused by the pandemic, Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mark Littlewood, a libertarian commentator who has known Trasova since her student days, said that the new British leader is less conservative and more radical and that - like Thatcher - she wants to bring back "state interventions in people's lives".
"I expect a lot of fireworks, a lot of controversy and a lot of action," he told the AP agency.
In the field of foreign policy, Trasova, who was the head of diplomacy in the Johnson administration, won praise for her firm response to the invasion of Ukraine, and also secured the release of two British citizens in Iran, which her predecessors failed to do.
When she was appointed foreign minister in September 2021, EU leaders and officials, who had hoped to bring a softer tone to relations between Britain and the bloc, were left disappointed. As a result of the trade dispute, Trasova introduced legislation to annul parts of the binding EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, signed by both sides. As a result, the EU initiated legal proceedings against Britain.
Trasova is the fourth conservative prime minister since the election in 2015. Since then, Britain has been plunged from crisis to crisis, and is now facing a long recession and rising inflation. A long, expensive and challenging list of tasks awaits, which opposition parties say reflects 12 years of poor Conservative rule. Several opposition parties demanded early elections - which Trasova rejected.
Trasova does not have much time to convince voters that she is on the right path. The next parliamentary elections must be held in two years.
"Will Liz be able to say in 2024: you are richer now than when I became prime minister?" It's possible that they will," said Littlewood. "But it's not the least bit certain."
Ridicule and criticism from Moscow
Within a few hours of the announcement of the victory of Liz Truss in the elections for the leader of the British Conservatives and the future prime minister, she found herself the target of criticism and ridicule from Russian politicians and the media.
Nationalist MP Leonid Slutsky said that she will probably have to tell the British to "turn off the lights" as electricity bills rise, and the tabloid "Komsomolskaya Pravda" reminded readers of Trasova's gaffe during her visit to Moscow in February. The paper stated that, compared to her, outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson "looks like a real thinking giant".
Tras has been the target of ridicule from Moscow since her visit as part of failed efforts by Western politicians to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the time that the facts were "refusing" from her.
At the time, a Russian newspaper reported that she told Lavrov that Britain would never recognize Moscow's sovereignty over two Russian cities, Rostov and Voronezh, and that her ambassador had to correct her.
Britain claimed that Trasova simply did not hear Lavrov's question correctly.
Tatjana Stanovaja, founder of the analytical firm R Politik, said the incident helped shape Russia's attitude. "For the Kremlin, Trasova looks like a representative of a new generation of superficial Western politicians," she said. “They were so happy when she made a mistake. It was a gift for them.”
A few days before that, Trasova mixed up the Black and Baltic Seas, which is why the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, complained about the "stupidity of Anglo-Saxon politicians".
In yesterday's address after the news of Trasova's victory, Dmitry Peskov said that relations with London could further deteriorate, although "it is hard to imagine them being worse than now".
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