The German chill hits Downing Street. At 8 on Tuesday morning - London time - the German chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned the British prime minister, Boris Johnson. And he gave him a lapidary message: a new Brexit deal based on the latest proposal presented by the British government”it's practically impossible”. Johnson's response was equally dry: “We are close to breaking up”. The news was released by BBC, citing sources close to the UK chief executive.
In particular, Merkel stressed that in order to reach an agreement that avoids a hard Brexit, it is essential to agree on one point: the permanence of Northern Ireland in the European customs union. Precisely the chapter most disliked by Johnson - and the British Parliament - of the signed agreement by former Prime Minister Theresa May with Brussels and repeatedly rejected by the House of Commons.
According to the BBC source, this morning was "a clarifying moment" and now "the negotiations in Brussels are close to breaking down, despite the progress made by the British government". The problem is that the EU does not believe that the steps taken by Johnson have been forward.
“We would like an agreement with the UK, but time is running out and we are not there yet”, said the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis.
The Latvian then sent out a reassuring signal to the European economies most exposed in the event of a hard Brexit: “The Commission - he said - is ready to financially support countries which, in the event of a no-deal for Brexit, would suffer a crisis".
But it's not over. In the last few hours, the tension between London and Brussels has continued to rise: "We cannot accept in any way that it can be said that the EU wants to sabotage the Good Friday agreement", said the spokeswoman of the European Commission, Mina Andreeva, adding that “the purpose of our work is to protect it in all its dimensions”.
From Brussels they then point out that it is not at all true that the negotiations have stopped, as Downing Street claims instead, which blames the EU for its intransigence. "The technical negotiations are also continuing today - said the spokeswoman - so I don't see how it can be said that they have been interrupted when they are taking place today". The hopes of reaching an agreement, however, are now close to zero.
