Author: Jon Henley / Source: the Guardian
A weary European media had three questions after Theresa May’s last-minute attempt to “break the Brexit logjam”: why did it take her so long; will it work; and should Europe even be bothering any more.
“There is not a playwright living or dead who could have devised a drama to incite as much fury, exhaustion and resignation as Brexit,” wrote the Irish Independent in an exasperated editorial complaining of “near-total chaos” in Westminster.
“The prime minister has at last woken up to the fact she must either step up, or step out … But hovering for too long in mid-air can only ever end in disaster; let’s hope this desperate last roll of the dice is not too little, too late.”
With just 10 days to a no-deal Brexit, “May has completely changed her strategy,” despaired Germany’s Die Zeit after the prime minister announced her intention of seeking a compromise with Labour and a short further extension from the EU.
“She has realised she cannot secure Brexit through her own party, because a third of Tory MPs are Brexit fundamentalists who dislike her deal and refuse all compromise. So she has to find another solution – and her gaze naturally falls on the opposition.”
But May knows full well that any softening of Brexit risks a deep split in her party: “That is why she waited so long. She would never have taken this step if Britain was not about to crash out in a few days’ time. She had, finally, no other…
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