On the day that should be Brexit, The B-Word brings you a smattering of thoughts from people directly affected by the ongoing political drama in Brussels, London and beyond.
In a sign of the trauma being wreaked upon the British population, BBC radio this week invited a psychologist on air to help people deal with their Brexit-induced anxiety. But that anxiety is still palpable, even among UK nationals that have managed to obtain citizenship of another EU country since the 2016 referendum. According to Eurostat, most have turned to Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, though Irish passport applications are also up.
“Brexit is a deep trauma and a huge mental health burden,” said one young English woman working in Brussels. “They are psychological terrorists,” she said of former prime minister, David Cameron, and his successor, Theresa May. “I don’t know what’s worse: being remembered as a faceless member of the European Research Group [of backbench Tory MPs] who actively fought against progress and the good of our country, or being Cameron or May and knowing my name will be said by History teachers with a wince.”
One EU official (and dual passport holder) says he is “sad to see the country in this pathetic state and angry at the people who led it to this point - not the Brexit voters, but Tory leaders past and present who put personal ambition and/or party management above the interests of this country”. “Very pessimistic about the future of the UK,” he adds.
A long-time Brussels resident – still in the midst of applying for Belgian citizenship – says UK politics is “really giving the Trump presidency a run for its money”. “While I find it all very amusing, actually it's incredibly depressing and disempowering,” she says, describing the “sense of doom with every new twist and turn” in Westminster. “This last-minute, scrabbling panic is somehow shocking but also somehow feels inevitable. I feel bad for the Leave voters who think this is going to somehow solve their problems, or our problems as a country,” she adds. “Pure political laziness.”
One former Brussels resident, now living outside the EU, says it’s like “watching a car crash”. “The talk is of ‘faith in democracy’ and ‘the will of the people’, yet now there is talk of anointing one of the Brexit architects as prime minister, with no election!”
A long-serving Commission official tells The B-Word that he and his British colleagues have a “rather odd detachment” from it all. “Whether it is an in-built protection system, I'm not sure, but I've almost stopped listening and caring,” he said. “Now, with my kids in London, I'm not exactly ignoring the reality, but I certainly have stopped listening to any politician. I have not yet found a single one that even has a clue about the way Brussels works.”
Belgian Green MEP Philippe Lamberts summed up the mood among EU politicos when he told the BBC on Thursday that he hadn’t even watched Wednesday’s “indicative” votes (see EUROPE 12224/22). That series of votes came down in favour of nothing in particular, though some took heart from the fact that there appears to be growing support for a customs union or softer Brexit.
However, conservative MPs still prefer leaving the EU without a deal, which now looks even more likely following a third vote against the withdrawal agreement on Friday afternoon (see EUROPE 12225/1). That vote, which the government lost by 58 votes, its narrowest margin so far, was not “meaningful”: it was a vote only on the withdrawal agreement (including money, citizens and the Irish border) with future trade left for later. Friday's vote was not “meaningful”, neither was it a vote on the full exit deal, only the withdrawal agreement (minus the political declaration on future EU-UK ties).
The UK now needs to submit an alternative Brexit plan or face a no-deal exit on 12 April.
European Council president, Donald Tusk, has called an emergency EU summit for 10 April. He and many EU leaders would prefer a long extension beyond 2020 (see EUROPE B 12223A6), as long as there is a change in the UK’s Brexit strategy, though they did promise a technical extension until 22 May if the deal had gone through on Friday (see EUROPE 12219/1). Theresa May also promised to resign if that was the case.
The immediate follow-up was still unclear as The B-Word went to press. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said this week that “all possibilities” are still on the table, including the UK remaining a member of the EU. EU27 ambassadors, meanwhile, were intensively preparing for no-deal this week.
“I think walking away from it is a cop-out,” said one UK citizen. “The idea that we're going back to being some kind of pre-war global power is both offensive and laughable. Going backwards isn't a good thing! It's just such waste of time, money and energy!” (Sarah Collins)