Bye and thank EU
Euro leaders who ridiculed and battled May pay tribute
BRUSSELS: As British Prime Minister Theresa May announced her departure with a Brexit plan nowhere near success, European Union leaders offered kind words. But it was quite another matter during the years of negotiations with the bloc that often produced exasperation, miscommunication and even some ridicule of her.
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called Mrs May “a woman of courage” for whom he has “great respect,” saying he watched her resignation speech “without personal joy”. And Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said: “I just want to express my full respect for Theresa May and for her determination.”
But they expressed plenty of frustration during the rocky ride Mrs May engineered over nearly three years that saw good relations go sour. After the UK’s 2016 referendum in which voters decided to leave the EU, officials in Europe complained Mrs May waited al- most a year to begin the negotiations and that her team was ill-prepared for r the task and later turned on her after failing to make progress. They were dismayed after she called a general election in June 2017 to bolster her Conservative Party’s numbers to help the negotiations, only to lose its majority and weaken k h her government. That made her beholden to special Northern Ireland interests that complicated the talks.
Perhaps the lowest point came in September 2018 at Salzburg Castle when EU p president Donald Tusk p publicly mocked her for b being too greedy in the neg gotiations. “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries,” Mr Tusk wrote in an Instagram photo of him offering Mrs May a dessert tray. In December, she apparently e misinterpreted a comment by Mr Juncker at an EU summit in Brussels and tempers frayed. She confronted him, seething, “What “did you call me? You called me ‘nebulous’?” Mrs May will step down on June 7, which will trigger a contest to choose a successor who will try to complete Brexit. One possible successor, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in 2016 compared the EU’s aims to those of Adolf Hitler, arguing the bloc was trying to create a superstate that mirrors the attempt of the Nazi leader to dominate the European continent. At the time, Mr Tusk called the comment “absurd”.
If a new prime minister withdraws Britain from the EU without an orderly transition plan, there could be high economic costs for all involved. “It now means we enter a new phase when it comes to Brexit and a phase that may be a very dangerous one,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “Whatever happens, we are going to hold our nerve.”