BFF-06 Johnson the Brexit ‘Hulk’ finally meets EU’s Juncker

249

ZCZC

BFF-06

BRITAIN-EU-POLITICS-BREXIT-DIPLOMACY

Johnson the Brexit ‘Hulk’ finally meets EU’s Juncker

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Six weeks after he took office and
six weeks before he is due to lead Britain out of the European Union, Prime
Minister Boris Johnson is to meet Jean-Claude Junker.

On Monday, after comparing himself to berserk comic book super-smasher
Hulk, the British leader will enjoy a genteel working lunch with the EU
Commission president.

Downing Street has confidently billed the Luxembourg visit as part of
efforts to negotiate an orderly divorce from the union before an October 17
EU summit.

But Brussels has played down talk of a breakthrough, insisting Johnson has
yet to suggest any “legally operable” proposal to revise a previous
withdrawal accord.

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, who will join the leaders for their
talks in Juncker’s native Grand Duchy, has said he has “no reason to be
optimistic”.

And the European Parliament will this week vote on a resolution rejecting
Johnson’s demand that the so-called “Irish backstop” clause be stripped from
the deal.

Johnson insists this measure, which temporarily keeps the UK in the EU
customs union, has to go if he is to bring the agreement back to the House of
Commons.

But the accord will also have to win the support of the other 27 EU
leaders and the European Parliament if Britain is not to crash out with no
deal on October 31.

And Johnson, in turn, boasts that he would rather be “dead in a ditch”
than ask his European counterparts to postpone Brexit for a third time into
next year.

It is difficult, then, to see what might come from Monday’s lunch, which
will be held behind closed doors with no plan for a joint statement
afterwards.

Nevertheless, before leaving London, Johnson told the Mail on Sunday he
was “very confident” of getting a new deal before the October 17 summit.

– ‘Hulk smash!’ –

“A huge amount of progress is being made,” he said, referring to
“technical talks” on border procedures between his Brexit adviser David Frost
and Barnier’s team.

Johnson compared himself to Marvel comics hero Hulk, the rampaging mutant
alter-ego of a mild-mannered nuclear scientist whose catchphrase is “Hulk
smash!”

“The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets and he always escaped, no
matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be,” Johnson told the paper.

Johnson’s strategy faces opposition at home, where rebel and opposition
MPs have passed a law aimed at forcing him to seek a Brexit delay.

Britain’s Supreme Court will rule this week on a bid to overturn Johnson’s
decision to suspend parliament and limit time to debate the crisis.

And on Wednesday, Barnier will address the European Parliament session in
Strasbourg as MEPs vote to reaffirm and reinforce the EU Brexit stance.

Barnier previously briefed the leaders of political groups in the assembly
on Thursday last week, and he had a downbeat message.

“I can’t objectively tell you whether the contacts we have undertaken with
Mr. Johnson’s government will lead to an agreement between now and mid-
October,” he said.

After that meeting, the speaker of the parliament David Sassoli unveiled
the Brexit resolution, which would insist that the backstop remain in the
deal.

“The resolution says that if there is a no-deal departure, then that is
entirely the responsibility of the United Kingdom,” he said.

After his lunch with Juncker, Johnson is due to meet Luxembourg’s Prime
Minister Xavier Bettel. The pair will hold a joint news conference.

BSS/AFP/MSY/0857 hrs