In a heartening development on the international stage, one world leader borrowed the lexicon of online trash talk by effectively referring to a rival as a “cuck”.
The high-ranking British politician took aim at one of the European Union’s top officials in an increasingly heated dispute over the nation’s exit from the EU.
Fabian Picardo, the chief minister of Gibraltar, a British territory which borders Spain, made the jibe on Monday at Donald Tusk, the president of the Council of Europe.
In an interview with the respectable Reuters news agency, he said: “Mr Tusk, who has been given to using the analogies of the divorce and divorce petition, is behaving like a cuckolded husband who is taking it out on the children.
“This is clear Spanish bullying.”
Although Mr Picardo has not yet taken to the “cuck” abbreviation beloved by Pepe fans and Twitter eggs (RIP), the imagery and sentiment are identical.
He was referring to an escalating argument between Britain, Spain and the EU over Gibraltar, a two-square-mile British territory attached to the Spanish mainland.
Gibraltar, nicknamed The Rock, has been part of Britain since the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht – but its status was thrown into contention as Britain begins to negotiate its Brexit deal with the rest of the EU.
European officials angered some in Britain in recent days by suggesting Spain would enjoy a special veto on the deal because of its land border with the British territory – seen by some as the start of a landgrab to reclaim Gibraltar for Spain.
Spain claims that Gibraltar belongs to it – but when the population of the territory has been asked which nation it would rather belong to, the answer is always overwhelmingly Great Britain.