Tag: Irish Independent

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.” 'Jezz the two of us': what the papers said about May's overture to Corbyn Read more 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. But now “everything is made far, far more difficult by the timetable – we need an agreement before 10 April, the day of the emergency EU summit. In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said that after “nearly three years in their stranglehold, May has finally thrown off the hawks in her own party”. “To grant a brief postponement, Brussels will need a guarantee that Britain will exit before the European elections on 23 May,” the paper said. “That could prove difficult for London to provide before the agreement has been ratified in parliament.” Le Monde was equally sceptical.