14
The Observer
04.08.19 PoliticsKhuê Pham
Editor, Zeit magazine, GermanyIt has been diffi cult to write with
the eye of a neutral observer about
an event, Brexit, that can feel like
a personal affront. After Berlin,
London was my second home
town, a place where I had gone to
university and lived for four years.
Yet the vote to leave made me realise
that perhaps there was a side to
Britain I had overlooked.
I learn ed a lot since then – not
just about Britain, but also our
blindspots as reporters. I saw
parallels to Brexit not just in Donald
Trump’s election victory later
that year, but also in the rise of
Alternative für Deutschland at the
2017 elections in Germany. All three
raise questions of social inequality
that we have failed to address until
now. The problem is that we are still
looking for ways to resolve them.
People are more disillusioned about
politics than ever, and yet we are
nowhere nearer to cleaning up the
mess.
For our readers at Die Zeit, Boris
Johnson is by far the most intriguing
character in the Brexit drama. He
makes them come out in a rash – it’s
as if they are allergic to him. They
feel he has been disdainful towards
Europeans , treating Europe as a big
joke. That view will stick around
even as prime minister – quoting
witty lines in Latin won’t change
that.
I wrote a profi le of him during
the referendum campaign, and
the impression I had then was of
someone who doesn’t actually have‘Johnson is seen as
treating Europe as
a big joke. Quoting
witty lines in Latin
won’t change that’
a very strong opinion on Europe at
all, and who isn’t really interested
in the detail part of politics , which
requires hard work. His stint as
foreign secretary only confi rmed
that, so I am really surprised how
many British commentators now
endorse him as a prime minister.
Britain’s soft power has already
started to diminish. Caught up in
Brexit, the UK government doesn’t
have the bandwidth to play a role in
European politics any more. I think
the German public has started to
lose interest in the latest details of
the negotiations – they used to think
of Britain as being very cool, now it’s
seen as a big mess.
I am not very hopeful about
good relations between Britain and
Germany in the near future. Merkel
is on her way out and there’s no
strong candidate to succeed her.
The danger is that in a year’s time
both Britain and Germany could
be in a volatile state, both with
leaders who need to prove to the
electorate that they can be tough
in negotiations. I fear the UK will
come to miss Merkel as a pillar of
stability. P OSylvie Kauffmann
Editorial director and contributor,
Le Monde , FranceFirst , I should say that we French
Europeans are grateful to our British
friends for making sure one word
has exited our vocabulary: Frexit.
For Brexit has made Frexit
impossible. Four years ago, Marine
Le Pen could still fl oat the Frexit
temptation and lead some of her
supporters to believe that leaving
the EU would somehow solve
France’s problems.
By the time she launched her
campaign for the 2017 presidential
election, the Brexit referendum had
already had one effect: the Front
National leader no longer dared
push her Frexit argument any
more, confi ning herself instead to
attacking the euro and advocating
a return to the old franc. Even this
proved a bad idea.
In the last TV debate between
the two rounds of the election,
Emmanuel Macron crushed Le Pen
by proving how incoherent her idea
of a French paradise outside the‘Once, we used to
hold up British
parliamentary life
as the Rolls-Royce of
liberal democracy’
eurozone actually was. It took a year
for her to recover, and two years for
her party – now renamed National
Rally – to produce a programme
admitting that leaving the euro was
“not a priority any more”.
But for us , this has been the
only silver lining of the Brexit
saga. Watching the long descent
of Westminster into something
resembling hell has been an
exhausting experience. Theresa
May’s very British resilience was
impressive, but we ended up pitying
her. Nigel Farage’s type was all too
familiar to us: we well understood
just how dangerous he was. Some of
us once found Boris Johnson funny;
we long ago stopped laughing. John
Bercow’s ties and desperate calls for
order made a good show, but on the
whole, this was a cast with too many
villains and too few heroes.
Once, we used to hold up British
parliamentary life as an example,
and watch prime minister’s
questions in the House of Commons
with envy: for us, accustomed to
semi-monarchical presidents of the
Republic, this was the very Rolls-
Royce of liberal democracy. Now
that Rolls-Royce looks more like a
dodgem.
We have come to dread seeing
old British friends, now so obsessed
with Brexit that it is all but
impossible to talk of anything else.
We wondered how it was possible
for such brilliant public servants
and such a legendary diplomatic
service to be unable to come up with
better plans and bring them to the
negotiating table. Instead of taking
back control, the Brits seemed to be
losing their minds.
Then France had its own crisis :
the gilets jaunes. It was violent,
ugly, destabilising. Maybe Brexit
was Britain’s gilets jaunes moment?
The UK version of a widespread
crisis of representative democracy?
Less violent – but, in the end, more
destructive.
Watching this fi nal episode , of the
election of a prime minister by 0.2%
of the population, many of us came
to this conclusion : this is a British
crisis, not a European one. And you
will never solve it without leaving,
one way or another. So please, go
now. Check the freezing temperature
outside, fi x your problem. And then
come back. The door will stay open,
because we do want you back. Just
calmed down a bit. J HAnarchy
in the UK
How newspapers and magazines
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