Dispute over the Brexit deal with the EU: Does Boris Johnson really know what he’s doing?

The agreement with the EU that was concluded last October should suddenly cease to apply. Boris Johnson changed his mind. Not a year has passed since the British Prime Minister celebrated at home the conclusion of a treaty that sealed Britain’s exit from the European Union and aimed to secure a new national sovereignty for his country.

Johnson has now discovered that, for the sake of this sovereignty, it is best to ignore the key points of “his” treaty with the EU. The British side has never taken the conclusion of the contract so seriously, explains London. In the end, the agreement was “drafted in a hurry.” “It should never be the final agreed text.” Since the EU could possibly interpret the treaty “in an extreme or irrational way”, one would have to have the right to retroactively declare certain provisions that are not valid.

The minister responsible for Brexit, Michael Gove, tried to convey this theory to the EU envoy, Maros Sefcovic, who rushed to London on Thursday. To no avail: Sefcovic gave the British government an ultimatum and demanded that the bill Johnson wants to undermine the Irish deals with be off the table by the end of the month.

A blatant breach of contract by the government

Even sober British lawyers have expressed their horror at the “blatant breach of contract” by their government. After all, the withdrawal treaty was ratified by the British Parliament and deposited with the United Nations as an international agreement. Prominent conservative politicians are also in shock. Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major warned: “If we lose our reputation for keeping promises, we will have lost something of inestimable value that may never be recovered.” In fact, not even Major’s predecessor, the iron right-wing Lady Margaret Thatcher, would have touched on the principle of law and order.

The fact that Boris Johnson is heading straight for the toughest Brexit is seen by many traditional supporters of the ruling party, and also by some Brexit supporters, as too risky. Hardly anyone could have dreamed that he would officially make breaking the law part of government policy.

Certainly there have been indications of such a development. The most obvious was Johnson’s forced departure from parliament last year for political reasons. The Supreme Court had to intervene against this arbitrary measure. Meanwhile, the government has declared war on the judiciary, state officials and insubordinate media like the BBC and has ordered radical “reforms” to put its critics on the sidewalk. In keeping with the will of Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, who sees himself above the law, the government should be able to rule unopposed, in domestic and foreign policy.

Meanwhile, “more than a glimpse of Trump” and his “constitutional excesses” can be felt in British politics, London’s “Financial Times” complained on Thursday. Conservative supporters are also at a loss as to whether Johnson will finally use his confrontational strategy to provoke the EU to break up negotiations on a new trade deal so that they can blame the Europeans for a non-deal.

Or if the prime minister was simply “bragging” to pull out of his pocket a new agreement, a free trade agreement, “snatched” from the EU in the last minute of heroic resistance against the EU.

Skeptics fear he’s been dragged back down the hard line.

Of course, there is a third possibility, namely that Boris Johnson himself does not know what he wants, what would be best for him. When he made the momentous decision in 2016 to spearhead the Brexit movement, only a few days earlier he had been toying with the idea of ​​fighting Brexit alongside David Cameron.

Johnson was never familiar with tactical games. Even if he always ran the risk of losing control of events. Skeptics fear that he has now been dragged down the hard line again. This time, however, the stakes are alarmingly high.

Published: 09/10/2020, 5:57 pm