Brexit: May request a postponement of the departure of the Kingdom of the EU – 19/03/2019

While Great Britain is in the middle of a constitutional crisis because of Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May will write to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, asking for an extension of Article 50, which establishes the divorce of the United Kingdom. United Kingdom and the European Union.

For how long?. It does not say it. This will depend on the depth of the chaos caused by the ambush of House of Commons Speaker John Berkow and his decision to prevent Tuesday's vote on a third motion equal to Brexit, based on a medieval law of 1604.

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The problem is that Europe, through the intermediary of its negotiator Michel Barnier, warned the British government that the extension "must have a goal or a new strategy to be accepted", while the France has decided to oppose it if it does not do it. "The month of May has to offer something new to be accepted," said Barnier, who endorses the joint statement by Ireland and European Council President Donald Tusk in Dublin.

A few hours after the European summit that will decide whether to extend the withdrawal period from the EU, the possibility of a non-agreement (an exit without agreement) between the two parties prevails today over all the others. While Britain is plunged into chaos, a civil war within the Conservative Party and Cabinet and a Labor Party that prefers the idea of ​​a second referendum, but Jeremy Corbyn, his leader, opposes the dreaded possibility of a disorderly exit of the British.

"The Prime Minister will write to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, before the start of the summit, about the extension," said a spokesman for Downing St at the end of the meeting on Tuesday. firm.

10 days from March 29, when the deadline for applying the Brexit exit agreement is respected, the kingdom is in a political project, constitutional and especially without consensual agreement. May's plan was tabled and rejected twice in Parliament. Even after the President's ambush, she intends to present it a third time next week, before the despair of the deputies themselves.

The cabinet meeting on Tuesday of May lasted two hours and no one knows what will be its decision on the request for extension. Mistrust of their peers is total for the prime minister. She fears a wave of eurosceptic resignations in her own firm if she asks for a long extension in Europe.

Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay thinks a third vote would be possible if the European Union agreed to an extension, because in the motion, there would be something new, as requested by the President, allowing the vote. What would be new would be the period of extension.

When the Prime Minister arrives in Brussels on Thursday, she will have to answer two key questions. The first is whether an extension of the time frame of Article 50 increases the chances of ratification of the agreement, twice rejected in the House of Commons. The second is whether Britain asks for an extension of work on its political declaration, the only element that can change, because the EU does not accept the changes in the agreement. In this statement, which Europe is ready to change, there could be a way out of this crisis.

Europe suspects that May can ask for a long extension, then another in the meantime.

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"Everyone must now complete all the preparations for the No-Deal scenario," warned Michel Barnier. A non-agreement implies a chaotic scenario for Britain: no train, European transport planes, insufficient oncolological drugs and a European population trapped in the kingdom, who does not know what its future and rights will be like the British who live there. Europe (the continent).

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The French government is the most opposed to an extension of the period without strategy. Thursday's decision must be taken unanimously by the remaining 27 members of the EU and Macron made it clear that concrete solutions in London were needed. France will not support an extension, "unless it does not come with a clear and credible plan that can gain majority support in Parliament"

The French government wants to protect the functioning of the European Union and considers that an extension of 12 months will have consequences for its functioning and its future decisions: European elections for reforms which wish to launch the other Member States and which Britain can oppose, as it has always done.