CHAOS COMPLETE: What the European papers say about Brexit

Guardian ^ | 11/12/18 | John Henley

[aspasia]

Europe’s commentators have not been kind to Theresa May after she delayed the meaningful vote on her Brexit deal and dashed to the continent in search of further concessions.

“It’s like a long, slow agony,” wrote Sonia Delesalle-Stolper, the London correspondent for the French daily Libération. “You know the end is near, you expect the worst, then there’s a small flicker of light – before another collapse. And it always ends badly.”

May “blew her last bet”, failing miserably to convince parliament to vote for the withdrawal agreement sealed barely two weeks ago. “Rather than suffer the humiliation, she suspended the vote,” the paper said: “The latest plot twist in the infernal Brexit saga. Chaos is complete.”

[aspasia]

In the Netherlands, the Volkskrant wondered whether May would still be prime minister by the time the House of Commons got to vote on the deal: “Laughed out by MPs, called out by the Speaker, and on the way out according to her critics, May postponed the vote indefinitely to spare herself a humiliating loss.”

In Germany, Handelsblatt’s Carsten Volkery admired May’s “inexhaustible capacity for suffering and unique stamina”. But, the paper said, “what up until recently prompted respect in both friends and opponents, now increasingly sparks confusion and incomprehension”.

Parliament’s rejection of the deal shows “not only shows the complete powerlessness of the prime minister”, Handeslblatt said, but underlines the extent to which May “nurtured the illusions of the Brexit hardliners”.

Her attempt to seek concessions from the EU is doomed, because it “will not give May what she wants to satisfy her critics”. For Britain, it is not a good look: the prime minister “cannot be honest even at this late stage”, and too many MPs “continue to insist their full demands be met, rather than accept a necessary compromise”.

In Spain, El País editorial writer Iñaki Gabilondo said Britain was now “in the quagmire” after a referendum “that has not ceased delivering displeasure since the very moment it was born”.

Sign up to our Brexit weekly briefing Read more Italy’s Corriere della Serra spoke of May’s “most difficult day … marked by open laughter and screams of mockery”, while Gaia Cesare, writing in Il Giornale, described May’s decision as a “desperate, last-minute move” designed to “save Brexit, the country and herself” that only “adds chaos to chaos”.

In Sweden, Therese Larsson Hultin, writing in Svenska Dagbladet, said May’s decision meant Britain had gone from “great uncertainty about Brexit, to complete chaos. For the simple truth is that no one, absolutely no one, knows what will happen until the British leave the union at midnight on 29 March next year.”

The prime minister may attempt to “seek help from the continent in the eleventh hour”, the paper said, “but the question is just how helpful her European colleagues can, and want, to be.”

Denmark’s Berlingske made the same point. “When exactly does the EU decide it’s had enough of rolling May’s Brexit rock up the mountain?” it asked. “And just what is the EU able – and willing – to do to help her once more?”

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“When exactly does the EU decide it’s had enough of rolling May’s Brexit rock up the mountain?”

Perfect imagery!

[aspasia]

Brexit Wrap-up:

May postpones parliamentary vote to buy time and renegotiate. Rebuffed:

Junker: no room whatsoever

Merkel: cannot be renegotiated

[HamiltonJay]

HARD BREXIT is coming... which is what it should have been in the first place... the EU was always going to EFF the UK.... UK Leaders should have been busy negotiating new trade agreements with the US, China and others, etc rather than wasting time on thinking they were going to get anything reasonable out of the EU.

May was a fool... I am amazed she hasn’t been booted.

[mewzilla]

I don’t get it. Article 50’submission been triggered. There are no backsies. The UK will be out. Screw the deal, which was just a way to funnel UK taxpayers’ money to the EU.

[aspasia]

EU court has encouraged UK to unilaterally revoke article 50. EU could care less about referendums. May, so far, doesn’t think that’s an option.

[SteveH]

May should ask trump for help... but no, that would mean swallowing her pride and resisting her EU overlords lol...

[PapaBear3625]

Per the BBC: For the UK to leave the EU it had to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which gives the two sides two years to agree the terms of the split. Theresa May triggered this process on 29 March, 2017, meaning the UK is scheduled to leave at 11pm UK time on Friday, 29 March 2019. It can be extended if all 28 EU members agree, but at the moment all sides are focusing on that date as being the key one, and Theresa May has now put it into British law.

So what happens if March 30 arrives with no agreement? My guess is that it turns into a "hard BRexit", which the EU elites would flip out over.

[I want the USA back]

She really didn’t want to do it. She wants a job in the EU after this is all over.

[Rockingham]

I am astonished that May never warned the EU that setting hard terms for a negotiated exit would risk estranging the British public from Europe and could lead to anti-EU sentiments and policies by the government. The better result of friendly relations after Brexit could be assured by easy terms and avoidance of a hard Brexit and the hard feelings that would ensue. And, no doubt about it, even though the EU can hurt Britain, Britain could do a lot to pry the EU apart.

[Mariner]

At this point the ONLY thing that will save Britain from becoming a vassal state of the EU (far, far worse than today) is the hard Brexit.

Cut the rope with one slice.

[L,TOWM]

>>>>>So what happens if March 30 arrives with no agreement?<<<<<

Absolutely nothing other than Britain having its own passports and no “EU Commissioners of Everything”. Oh, and the Brits will need to renegotiate some trade deals, too. With at least 28 separate nations (if those nations still have any sovereignty left to do trade deals on their own behalf).

[MeganC]

“EU court has encouraged UK to unilaterally revoke article 50. EU could care less about referendums. May, so far, doesn’t think that’s an option.”

If May thinks she can arbitrarily overturn the Brexit then she won’t be the first politician to go to the Tower and have her head cut off.

[aspasia]

So what happens if March 30 arrives with no agreement?

May's government wants time on her side, hoping for some miracle before the final deadline of 21 January for her EU deal.

[Sam Gamgee]

Indeed, and ask the EU “with what army” will they force to UK to pay them anything?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The 4th reich is collapsing.

[Jim Noble]

Make sure the Chunnel is mined, send the Muslims home, and re-occupy Ireland.

Ask Harry if he’s over her yet, and if yes, deport her back to California.

Give Nicola Sturgeon her freedom, and build Hadrian’s wall 60 feet high.

Have Charles sent as minister plenipotentiary to the Gaza Strip, where he will remain to indulge his islamophilia. Have William decline the crown so he can host a children’s television program.

Cry God for Harry, England, and St. George!

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"UK Leaders should have been busy negotiating new trade agreements with the US, China and others, etc rather than wasting time on thinking they were going to get anything reasonable out of the EU."

While still in the EU, no member can officially negotiate trade with any other countries. I'm sure that unofficially the Brits have been putting out feelers to countries like U.S. and China and have preliminary stuff going. However, any trade treaty with another country takes a long time to hammer out. Think of all the things that go into trade deals.

[RightGeek]

[HamiltonJay]

I know it takes a long time to hammer out, which is why they should have started negotiating the day after the vote. No nation can sign a separate agreement while part of the EU, but I don’t see how they can prevent conversations.