Fall the Tories May flickers | Conservatives b …

PageI12 in Great Britain
From London

"Prime Minister, why do not you resign?" England and Northern Ireland held on Thursday.

This was not an isolated scream. During the slow vote count that continued throughout Friday, MPs, councilors and conservative activists joined May's resignation request. Friday, in the middle of the afternoon, the numbers were already catastrophic. In their worst local elections in decades, the Conservatives lost more than 1,100 councilors and controlled more than 40 municipalities.

It is customary for municipal elections to be an opportunity to vote against the current government, but in this case the symbolism has a much broader dimension. These are the first elections since the government's postponement – March 29 and April 12 – the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU), which is scheduled for October 31. The verdict was a devastating defeat for the conservatives, responsible for almost three years of negotiations with the EU. The big winners were the pro-European parties.

The Liberal Democrats won more than 500 municipal seats, the Greens about 200 and the independents more than 300. In contrast, the UKIP, very pro-Brexit, lost about 100 councilors. Among the curiosities of this election, the most remarkable representative of the pro-Brexit conservative Right, Jacob Rees-Mogg, lives from today in a liberal-democratic anti-Brexit municipality.

The main opposition party, Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party, failed to take advantage of the conservative break-up. The balanced and elusive position of Corbyn, which at the same time recognizes the UK's exit from the EU, proposes to maintain the possible link with the European bloc and does not rule out a second referendum. of the pro-Brexit or southern European continent, but this did not prevent the party from losing a hundred councilors and some nine municipalities.

Corbyn acknowledged that Brexit had been a determining factor in the election. "Of course, we could have done better, that was what we expected.In some cases, the vote was due to local factors.In others, a disagreement with the policy followed by the Brexit: It's clear that the parliament needs to solve this problem, "said Corbyn. The Prime Minister took advantage of the results of the Labor Party to put everyone in the same bag. "I think the message is clear to us and the Labor Party, Solve the Brexit theme (…" deliver Brexit "…)," said May.

In reality, the message is much more diffuse than this "deliver Brexit" simplistic. Conservatives and Labor have lost advisors to pro-European parties who totally reject Brexit and want a new referendum. In post-industrial northern regions like Barnsley, theoretically more favorable to Brexit, 17.3% of Labor voters chose Liberal Democrats, while in Sunderland, also located in the North, 13.4%. Elsewhere, the variation was smaller – between 2 and 7% – but in the same direction. More than the "issue the Brexit" (specify exit) of May, voters seem to have said "get rid of Brexit" (get rid of Brexit, reject it).