Take it or leave it: Merkel kills hopes of more concessions

Angela Merkel has quashed hopes that the European Union could step in to rescue the Brexit agreement with further concessions.

The German chancellor said that a no-deal Brexit would be the “worst and most chaotic scenario”. Picture: AFP

Angela Merkel has quashed hopes that the European Union could step in to rescue the Brexit agreement with further concessions.

Governments across Europe have tried to shore up support for the agreement struck by Theresa May’s cabinet on Thursday amid mounting concern that Britain could end up tearing itself out of the EU without a formal deal.

The German chancellor said that a no-deal Brexit would be the “worst and most chaotic scenario” but clearly signalled her reluctance to yield more ground to the British side.

“We have a document on the table that Britain and the remaining 27 EU states have agreed,” Mrs Merkel said in Potsdam. “There is, as far as I am concerned, no question of further bargaining at present.”

Several German industry bodies have warned members to steel themselves for a disorderly Brexit as Olaf Scholz, the finance minister, said that such an outcome would be “problematic for the entire European Union” but disastrous for Britain.

European leaders have conspicuously refrained from stirring up further controversy today (Friday) in the light of the delicate political situation in London. President Macron of France has instructed ministers and officials to avoid crying victory after what Paris sees as a treaty that was impeccably negotiated by the EU and made few concessions to the UK, according to French officials.

Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, said that it was premature to celebrate a consensus on Brexit because Mrs May may yet fail to secure a parliamentary majority for the deal and Britain could still crash out.

“There’s no way to know if an accord will finally be agreed,” Mr Philippe said during a visit to Dunkirk to examine how Brexit may affect the port. “We have to prepare for the possibility that is still on the table — which we do not want — of an exit with no deal.”

Political turmoil in London was expected in Brussels as an inevitable accompaniment to the final acts of the Brexit saga. “We expected drama,” one EU diplomat said before warning: “Theatre is all well and good but if May goes then so does the agreement.”

One senior EU official responsible for Brexit negotiations echoed Mrs Merkel’s warning that the deal could not be reopened: “On both sides we’ve exhausted our margin of manoeuvre.”

The German chancellor’s overriding priority is to avoid making any concessions that would make leaving the EU look like a viable proposition for other member states. She said that she was happy that both sides had finally arrived at a deal after “long and really not so easy” negotiations, but the rest of the EU would still have to weigh up the draft before it could give its full assent.

Matteo Renzi, the former Italian prime minister, said that the best option for the UK was a new public vote on whether to stay in the EU. “The best solution now is to block everything and hold a second referendum,” he told The Times. “A last-minute deal was better than no deal but in either case the consequences are going to be disastrous for the UK and bad for Europe.”

The British government’s self-evisceration led news websites across Europe for much of Thursday. The responses were a mixture of scorn and rueful admiration of Mrs May’s tenacity. “The United Kingdom has never experienced a crisis like this one,” Bild, the German tabloid, said. “May’s government is slipping away from her … [She] has made so many mistakes over the past few months that you could almost come to pity her.”

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish foreign minister, tweeted: “One is starting to feel some sympathy for PM May. She has brought probably the best possible deal when her country has put itself in the worst possible situation. Many simply refuse to recognise this reality.”

Die Welt, a right-wing broadsheet, said that the prime minister’s future was “hanging by a silken thread”. The Italian daily La Repubblica said the deal that Mrs May had forged was “not only soft, but blind”, because Britain had no idea of its future direction. “It surrenders on every point, from the rights of EU citizens, the payments to Brussels and the Irish border,” it said.

Several big European newspapers reacted with hostility to Dominic Raab’s resignation as Brexit secretary. Peter Sturm, a political commentator for the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said that the decision had demonstrated a “low political maturity”. “Anyone who has promised such ludicrous things as the advocates of Brexit did during the referendum campaign can hardly complain now the reality looks different,” he wrote.

Ramon Perez-Maura, a senior editor at the Spanish newspaper ABC, wrote: “In this labyrinth of egos and mad intentions, the resignation of Dominic Raab is the most absurd.”

Spain greeted the deal with more enthusiasm, singling out the special protocol on Gibraltar. Luis Marco Aguiriano, the country’s Europe minister, said that the agreement was very positive but Madrid had also drawn up plans for a no-deal Brexit. “If the UK leaves without a deal, so does Gibraltar,” he said.

Gibraltar, which has been under British control since 1713, is anxious to preserve free movement of people because 10,000 Spaniards commute across its border to work every day.

— The Times