Brexit talks under way amid protests, contention

LUXEMBOURG — Boris Johnson was booed by protesters and berated by Luxembourg’s leader on a visit to the tiny nation Monday for his first face-toface talks with the European Union chief about securing an elusive Brexit deal.

On a day of commotion and conflicting signals, Johnson pulled out of a news conference because of noisy anti-Brexit demonstrators, leaving Luxembourg’s prime minister standing alone next to an empty lectern as he addressed the media.

Still, Johnson insisted there was a strong possibility of securing a divorce agreement before Britain is due to leave the 28-nation bloc in just over six weeks.

“Yes there is a good chance of a deal. Yes, I can see the shape of it,” Johnson asserted at a separate appearance before reporters at the British ambassador’s residence.

EU leaders were far more skeptical.

With the Brexit deadline just 45 days away, the European Commission said the first in-person meeting between Johnson and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker ended with no breakthrough in the impasse over how Britain can leave the EU with a plan in place to manage the divorce.

Britain had yet to offer any “legally operational” solutions to the problem of keeping goods and people flowing freely across the Irish border, the main roadblock to a deal, it said in a statement.

“Such proposals have not yet been made,” the Commission said, adding that officials “will remain available to work 24/7.”

Johnson insists the U.K. will leave the EU on the scheduled date of Oct. 31 with or without a Brexit deal. He hopes to strike a revised agreement with the bloc at an EU summit on Oct. 17-18, in time for an orderly departure. The agreement made by his predecessor, Theresa May, was rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament, prompting her to resign.

Opponents fear Johnson — who helped lead the 2016 referendum campaign that ended in a vote to leave the EU — is heading full-speed toward a disruptive no-deal Brexit.