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Politik - 16.01.2019

What a Brexshit!

At what point has a country really gone politically broke? Answer: when, with respect to what is by far the most important political issue in decades, it doesn’t matter who is in government.

This is now the state of things in the United Kingdom, the home of democracy – formerly known as the island of reason.

It’s over. Since yesterday, if not before, it has become obvious that British politicians – whether members of the government or the opposition – are not at all fit to deal with the historic decision they must make:

How can the island leave the European Union (EU) without sinking itself?

Leaving the EU was the democratic will of a narrow majority of Brits. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter now whether this majority was seduced by phoney politicians and demagogues. The decision has been made. And British politics has been shattered because of it.

In a manic hubris, the conservative Tory government has – despite all warnings – insisted for too long on what it considered to be a plan: we Brits will remain members of the (rather successful) economic club called the EU, but half of its rules will no longer apply to us, because we don’t like them.

In the course of the negotiations with the very united EU (from Hungary to Germany and Italy), the British Prime Minister had to give up certain aspects of this plan – and yesterday, she was toppled by the expectations that she herself had fueled for far too long.

No deal. No plan for tomorrow. And no majority for any of the options.

Not for an exit with the existing deal.
Not for an exit without a deal.
And not for no exit at all.

The 48 percent of Brits who do NOT want Brexit have no audible political voice in parliament or among the parties. That’s why re-elections also wouldn’t help.

In parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May lost her most important vote to a humiliatingly high degree. However, this doesn’t at all mean that the same great majority will chase her out of office today. So she’s stumbling through London like the politically undead.

It is sad to witness the tarnishing of the future of the proud United Kingdom. The Brits wanted out of the EU and to start anew. We don’t know whether they were aware of the price they would have to pay for this. Their government didn’t want to pay that price and must now declare bankruptcy.

Of course, one can stop the clock and continue to negotiate. But what will talking achieve if one side can’t decide what it really wants? What will talking achieve if British politicians have forgotten the art of the compromise and the art of the clear alternative: in or out?

It’s their own fault, sure. But Schadenfreude? No. For all of us in Europe will suffer from the damage.

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