The agreement for Brexit is once again voted in the British Parliament and is on the verge of another tough defeat for Theresa May

British Prime Minister Theresa May may face another humiliating defeat on Tuesday in Parliament, after her attorney general said the new version of the Brexit deal, negotiated until the last minute with Brussels , maintained "unchanged" the "risks". "legal" for the UK, an opinion that has not appeased the concerns of lawmakers.

The British MPs, who had already rejected the text in January, have scheduled a new historic vote of 19 hours (local time and GMT) to 2 and a half weeks from the expected date of Brexit, March 29.

In order for the agreement to go beyond parliamentary procedure, the head of the government needs the support of half plus one of the 634 MPs who will vote at the end of a debate on the issue. The original withdrawal agreement was rejected in the House of Commons on January 15 by 432 votes to 202, so this time the Prime Minister needs 116 more votes to reach the 318 key figure (provided you still have the support of the parliamentarians who supported you in January).

Many parliamentarians were waiting to set their vote on the legal opinion of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, in charge of legal advice to the government. In a report released in the morning, he acknowledged that additions to the pension treaty, announced Monday night, "would reduce the risk" that the UK will remain "indefinitely and unintentionally" trapped in a customs union with the United States. ;European Union. Butthe legal risks remain unchanged", convicted for throwing a decanter of cold water on hope found that this time the agreement be approved.

In a last minute dramatic effort, May flew the night before to travel to Strasbourg, seat of the Euro-Chamber in northeastern France, to meet the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, with whom he had had more than two hours of negotiations. . Shortly before midnight, they announced that they had reached an agreement on the most conflictive point of the agreement, the "Irish Safeguard".

This one The mechanism aims to prevent the reestablishment of a physical boundary between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland to protect the fragile peace agreement of 1998. But the eurosceptic deputies of the conservative May party fear that it leaves, in fact, the country trapped indefinitely in European networks.

The solution presented by May and Juncker in Strasbourg consists of a complex "joint binding legal instrument" by which the UK can denounce the EU if it considers that it acts in bad faith to impose a permanent "Irish backup". And also to find "alternative arrangements" for the Irish border from December 2020.

Calm fears
But, after hearing Cox 's opinion, this urgent appeal may not be enough to calm the fears of the British Parliament and to reverse the course of the January vote, when 202 MPs voted in favor of the US. agreement and 432 against, among them more than 100 conservative rebels.

One of the key elements of the vote is that the Unionist Democratic Party (DUP), a small formation in Northern Ireland backed by the fragile majority of the May parliamentary majority, strongly opposes it. Northern Ireland is treated differently from that of the party. rest of the United Kingdom.

The leader of the Labor Party, Jeremy Corbynhe was quick to react to May and Juncker's announcement, asking the British MPs to vote against the text, saying that "it looks nothing like the promised changes" here may.

If the deputies renounce the agreement again, according to the British press, the team of May is considering the possibility of presenting it to Parliament a third time, although it depends on the number of MPs voting against him.: a disadvantage of more than 60 seems very difficult to overcome.

The prime minister also promised to consult parliamentarians on Wednesday whether they are favorable or unfavorable to a Brexit without agreement.

If MEPs also reject a Brexit without an agreement, which, given the previous votes, seems very likely, Thursday, a third vote should take place on the possibility of asking the EU to postpone the date of Brexit.

But this one he would need the unanimous approval of the leaders of the other 27 countries of the bloc and they had already warned that they would consider this possibility only if he had a clear goal. And not just to continue extending a blockade they consider motivated by questions of British domestic policy.

A postponement could eventually lead to the convening of early parliamentary elections or to the organization of a second referendum, an option that opposes the categorical rejection of the government but which counts more and more. adept among those who wish to cancel Brexit clearly and clearly.

Juncker warned Monday night: "It's this deal where the Brexit might not take place".