Germany’s biggest newspaper launches a savage attack on the UK as Brexit crisis deepens

AS angry Britons take to the streets over a growing crisis, one of their old rivals took a spectacular potshot at them.

THERE are few other rivalries between countries in which there have been so many insults traded as there has between the United Kingdom and Germany.

Whether it’s over who gets first dibs on the sunbeds at a Mediterranean hotel or discount lager-fuelled chanting at fiery football clashes between the two European powerhouses — it’s a rivalry that never really goes away.

But, as Brexit talks break down and Great Britain edges ever closer to disastrously leaving the EU without any sort of trade deal, the Germans have taken the opportunity to lash out. And, they have not minced their words.

The country’s most popular news platform has laid into the UK. Picture: Supplied

“No country in the world has cultivated arrogance the way Britain has,” the headline reads on a brutal op-ed published in the country’s most widely read news site, Der Spiegel, overnight. “But the sad truth is: What was once the most powerful empire on earth is now a country that can’t even find its way to the door without tripping over its own feet.”

Mocking the former global superpower, journalist Jan Fleischhauer wrote that Britain is “making a fool of itself before the eyes of the entire world” — alongside a picture of British Prime Minister Theresa May doing her infamous onstage dancing.

“When Theresa May shows up in Brussels with yet another Brexit-related proposal, you can be sure that just one day later, it will no longer be worth the paper it is printed on,” he wrote. “She either presents ideas that Brussels has long since rejected or her plans have already been chucked in the round file by her own party.”

The savage piece comes as hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered to oppose Britain’s impending exit from the EU.

Over the weekend, more than 700,000 protesters took part in the “People’s Vote March,” which saw 150 buses of marchers pour into London from all across the country.

More than 700,000 anti-Brexit campaigners descended on London over the weekend. Picture: AFP

“What’s clear is that the only options on the table now from the prime minister are a bad Brexit deal, or no deal whatsoever,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who joined the march, told the BBC. “That’s a million miles away from what was promised two-and-a-half years ago.”

The protest was triggered after talks between the EU and the UK broke down because of uncertainty over what would happen to the Irish border once Brexit is actually triggered.

Not only that, Prime Minister May is facing a backlash in her own party.

Brexit fanboy and aspiring leader Boris Johnson laid down the gauntlet with a savage opinion piece in the UK’s influential right-wing newspaper The Telegraph — saying Britain is now in a “moment of crisis” and Ms May needs to toughen up.

“There comes a point when you have to stand up to bullies. After more than two years of being ruthlessly pushed around by the EU, it is time for the UK to resist,” he wrote.

“In presuming to change the constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom, the EU is treating us with naked contempt.”

Despite another weekend of vicious attacks from within her own ranks, Ms May is expected to say a Brexit deal with the EU is 95 per cent complete when she speaks in the UK’s most powerful house — the House of Commons — tomorrow.

Mother of all Brexit comparisons..#Brexit pic.twitter.com/WVcRL9sgBj

— Jelle Simons (@jelle_simons) October 21, 2018

She will tell MPs the shape of the deal across “the vast majority” of the withdrawal agreement is now clear.

It is understood Ms May will say that since last month’s fractious summit in Salzburg, “important progress” has been made on issues like security, transport and services.

Protocols have been developed on how Brexit will impact Gibraltar and the UK’s military base in Cyprus, she will say.

“And all of this from the last three weeks alone is in addition to the agreements we had already reached,” Ms May’s statement says.

The PM will tell the House of Commons that “taking all of this together, 95 per cent of the withdrawal agreement and its protocols are now settled”.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab says the exit agreement must be finalised by the end of next month to allow new laws to be put in place in time for exit day.

However, opposition party Labour has warned Ms May it will not back her Brexit blueprint when it reaches the House of Commons.

— with AAP