Boris shock stuns world

He's called foreigners "piccaninnies" and "cannibals," and once referred to Hillary Clinton as a "sadistic nurse in a mental hospital."

On a trip to Tokyo in 2015 he wiped out a 10-year-old schoolboy during a game of touch rugby, and in May he won a £1,000 prize for a poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan having sex with a goat.

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Meet the UK's new Foreign Secretary, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, also known as "BoJo."

Dubbed a liar by his French counterpart and lampooned as a "political jester" in European newspapers, chief Brexit campaigner Johnson faced a wave of criticism and mockery yesterday after being named Britain's foreign minister.

In a shock move, new Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday appointed the eccentric former London mayor as the top diplomat to lead the country out of the EU.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that as a "Leave" campaigner Johnson had "lied a lot" and said his appointment "reveals the British political crisis" following the referendum.

Ayrault claimed he was not worried about working with Johnson but stressed the need for a "clear, credible and reliable" negotiating partner.

The outspoken European Parliament chief Martin Schulz also slammed May's new cabinet, saying it was based on solving internal party splits rather than the national interest.

"The United Kingdom has to break this dangerously vicious cycle which has direct impacts on the rest of Europe," Schulz said.

There is widespread animosity in Europe toward Johnson who recently compared the EU's aims to those of Adolf Hitler.

After the Brexit vote, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker labelled Johnson and other Leave campaigners "sad heroes".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had said a day earlier he was outraged by Britain's "irresponsible politicians who first lured the country into Brexit, then... got out, refused to take responsibility, and went off to go and play cricket".

A senior German Social Democrat, Ralf Stegner, said an undiplomatic Johnson would now "negotiate the Brexit. Bon Voyage!"

The party's Rolf Muetzenich said he wouldn't be surprised if, next, "Britain appoints Dracula as health secretary".

Many governments, in line with protocol, congratulated their new counterpart, who will make his diplomatic debut in Brussels next week.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called Johnson, and both "agreed that the US-UK special relationship is as essential as ever", said the State Department.

The foreign ministers of Canada, Norway, Latvia and Estonia also said they looked forward to meeting Johnson.

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov voiced hopes that "the weightiness of his current position, of course, will certainly prompt a somewhat different rhetoric of a more diplomatic nature".

Many newspapers and social media users, however, treated the appointment as the latest act in a political theatre of the absurd.

Even Britain's newspapers also looked puzzled by the appointment.

"New PM's bombshell," said the Daily Mirror. "Dear world... Sorry", with a front page picture of Johnson stuck on a zip wire holding two British flags, from the London 2012 Olympics.

"Britain's credibility was hanging by a thread last night as new PM Theresa May chose gaffe-prone Boris Johnson as foreign secretary," the left-wing tabloid said.

The Daily Telegraph had a picture of May's first step into 10 Downing Street, taken from inside.

"May brings in the Brexiteers," the conservative broadsheet said.

"Boris bounces back!" said the Daily Mail's front page, accompanied by a picture of Cameron's five-year-old daughter Florence.

The Guardian newspaper carried a picture of May and her husband on the steps of 10 Downing Street with the headline: "May's pledge to Brexit Britain".

Germany's Handelsblatt called Johnson a "political jester", the daily Sueddeutsche labelled his appointment an example of "British humour", while the French L'Obs news magazine's headline was simply "King of the Blunder".

Germany's Die Welt said many initially thought the "bombshell" appointment was a joke. But it also saw the move as calculated, arguing that "the pressure now rests upon him -- and his undoubted ambition -- to prove himself".

Germany news magazine Der Spiegel, in an online commentary headlined "House of Cards in Britain", was withering.

In an article from London, Der Spiegel said Johnson "himself seemed surprised", having been widely regarded as "Britain's greatest bogeyman" after the vote.

But it also said May had appointed him "to heal the party and to show the voters... that she takes the referendum outcome seriously".