Boris Johnson's Brexit Divide-and-Rule Plan Is Failing
Instead of prodding Germany into a Brexit deal against French wishes, the U.K. prime minister is binding them closer together.
Last-minute charm offensive.
Photographer: Alexandros Michailidis/Straight Out Of The CameraWednesday was supposed to be Boris Johnson’s ultimate showdown: A face-to-face meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, boss of the European Commission, to make a once-and-for-all final decision on a Brexit free trade deal with days to go before a Dec. 31 deadline.
It ended up more like every other crunch point in this tortuous saga: Groundhog Day, with a promise to keep negotiating until Sunday. Despite attempts to wrap the talks up with enough of a buffer for parliamentary ratification if there’s a deal — or emergency contingency planning if there isn’t — it’s now clear to everyone that the discussions could really go right up to the end of the transition period on New Year’s Eve.