Johnson
no-show lets Xavier Bettel play to the gallery
‘Don’t put
the blame on us,’ for the Brexit ‘mess’, says Luxembourg’s prime minister.
By JACOPO
BARIGAZZI AND CHARLIE COOPER 9/16/19, 7:10 PM CET Updated 9/16/19, 10:52 PM CET
LUXEMBOURG
CITY — In the end, the Incredible Hulk shied away from fewer than 100
protesters.
Rather than
face heckling from a small but boisterous crowd of demonstrators, Boris Johnson
skipped a planned outdoor press conference with his Luxembourgish counterpart
Xavier Bettel on Monday, leaving his host to deliver a grandstanding lecture on
how Brexit had been pursued for Tory Party advantage but with no plan for how
to deliver it.
On Sunday,
the British prime minister had compared Britain (and by extension himself) to
the Incredible Hulk, breaking free of the EU ("The madder Hulk gets, the
stronger Hulk gets").
But after
being loudly booed and jeered by anti-Brexit protesters on his way into the
meeting with Bettel, Johnson's aides appear to have decided that the spectacle
of a joint press conference in the courtyard of Luxembourg's prime minister's
office punctuated by heckles from just a few feet away would not have been a
good look.
“We need
written proposals and the time is ticking — so stop speaking,” Bettel implored
Johnson at one point.
In the
event, the alternative was worse.
Standing in
front of a British flag, Bettel gestured several times at the empty podium next
to him, noting mischievously that he had hoped to thank Johnson for their
exchange of views. In brief remarks, he lambasted the U.K. prime minister for
not putting forward a concrete alternative to the Withdrawal Agreement in
writing. He also lashed out at the Tories for falsely promising that Brexit
would be easy to accomplish, voiced unwavering support for Ireland, and
demanded Brexit supporters stop blaming the EU for the mess they have made.
“We need
written proposals and the time is ticking — so stop speaking,” Bettel implored
Johnson at one point. “Act!”
At another
point, in perhaps his sharpest rebuke, Bettel accused Johnson and the Tories of
seeking partisan advantage.
“You cannot
hold a future hostage for party political gain,” Bettel said, adding later:
"This Brexit is not my choice, it has been a decision from the [Tory]
Party. It was a decision from David Cameron to do it. They decide. They
decide.”
"I
deeply regret it but don’t put the blame on us because now they don’t know how
to get out of this,” he said then paused dramatically for a moment, a
mischievous grin on his face, before adding “situation they put themselves in.
It’s not my choice."
The press
conference itself was delayed by protestors who shouted “stop Brexit” and held
signs saying declaring “Brexit is just not funny” and “Stop this madness.” A
sound-system blasted Beethoven's ninth symphony (the EU anthem) as well as the
Rolling Stones' "(I can't get no) Satisfaction."
After
Johnson's no-show, Downing Street officials said they had suggested holding the
press conference elsewhere, but that the hosts declined, insisting it take
place outside in view of the watching public.
Speaking to
Sky News shortly after the meeting, Johnson explained his decision, saying:
“Clearly going to be a lot of noise and our points might have been drowned
out,” adding that he didn’t think “it would have been fair” on the Luxembourg
prime minister if he had taken part in the press conference.
However, a
Luxembourg official said "everything was done with good intentions. It’s
true that they asked us to change the location, they wanted to hold it inside,
but logistically it was impossible, because we would have had space only for
five to 10 journalists, even less, it wouldn’t have worked, we don’t have the
infrastructure to host all these journalists.”
To cheers
from the crowd, Bettel did not mince his words about what he regards as the
source of the Brexit "mess."
The effect
was that Bettel was gifted a media platform to air the EU's grievances, with no
comeback from Johnson. And his solo press conference vastly overshadowed the
main purpose of Johnson’s visit: a lunch meeting with European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker, who is a former Luxembourg prime minister. The
lunch was described by a EU official as “a lively exchange” in an “atmosphere
that was very friendly” as “the two can talk straight.”
A U.K.
official said Johnson "had a good meeting" with Juncker "where
they agreed to intensify talks. We need to start accelerating talks if we’re
going to make further progress. This is on the back of positive meeting in
Dublin last week [with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar]."
Bettel's
evident frustration with what he said is the failure of the U.K. to submit
workable proposals to replace the controversial Northern Ireland backstop
stands in sharp contrast to Johnson's own stated optimism that there is “a good
chance of a deal” but it is “not necessarily in the bag.”
To cheers
from the crowd, Bettel did not mince his words about what he regards as the
source of the Brexit "mess."
He stressed
that the first priority for the EU “is the preservation of the single market”
along with a “deal that protects the Good Friday Agreement and avoids hard
border on the Irish island at all costs.”
Gesturing
at times toward the empty podium next to him, Bettel said that the U.K. has not
offered any "concrete proposals" to solve the Northern Ireland border
problem. “The only solution that is currently on the table and meets all these
criteria is the Withdrawal Agreement,” he said — referring to the deal struck
with Theresa May's government.
Boris
Johnson said he didn't think “it would have been fair” on the Luxembourg PM if
he had taken part in the press conference | Joshua Sammer/Getty Images
“There are
no changes, there are no concrete proposals for the moment on the table and I
won't give an agreement to ideas, we need written proposals and the time is
ticking. So stop speaking but act if you want that we are able to discuss about
different proposals,” he said. Johnson said in his Sky interview that
"papers had been shared" with EU negotiators in the last two weeks.
The
Luxembourg PM also said he had asked Johnson if he would consider a second
referendum to get out of the political impasse in the U.K., but his British
counterpart had told him he would not.
Bettel also
rejected a proposal that the post-Brexit transition period could be extended by
one or two years: “The fact is that our citizens want to have a certainty ...
if we say [an extension] is for one year or two years and this time will be
needed to find new decisions, this is a nightmare.”
He was also
asked about Johnson's determination to pursue Brexit on October 31, apparently
in contravention of a law passed last week forcing him to apply for an
extension to Article 50. "This wouldn't happen in Luxembourg"
was Bettel's response.
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