International

The entire process around Brexit has become a piece of political kitsch, according to SP Member of Parliament Renske Leijten. Leijten was speaking in Wednesday's parliamentary debate on the Brexit postponement. She applauded the fact that the British were to be given a longer period to make possible a plan which can find a majority in the House of Commons. “To date what we've seen is a political poker game, and a massive atmosphere of panic being created,” said Leijten. “What at the same time is going unmentioned is that the European Union's attitude has also contributed to the current impasse.”

Leijten points to the coercive strategy of first of all negotiating the separation of the UK from the EU, and only after that talking about how trade can be organised in the future. “The EU's strategy was to punish them first, before they know how their future will look. At every EU summit French president Emanuel Macron publicly calls out the British over Brexit, stating in no uncertain terms that they should not think that they will come out of this unscathed. And with the postponement we can see again that the EU negotiator is sticking to the agreement that has been rejected, but which is still there.”

In November an initial deal was concluded between the EU and the UK, but this was then voted down in the British Parliament. The EU negotiator's demands in this agreement were too much for the British MPs to swallow. Leijten sees no movement whatsoever on the part of the EU and wants for that reason to have the negotiator changed if fresh talks are to be held. “After all, the current deal has been repeatedly rejected,” says Leijten. “Now the negotiator says that whatever delay to the Brexit there will be, the deal which has been rejected will stay on the table. It's as if the EU were a prison which a country isn't allowed to leave, and in the SP's view that's not what the European Union should be.”