Though earlier in the week Donald Tusk spoke in favor of granting the United Kingdom another Brexit flextension, EU leaders will officially decide what to do today. As the European Union does not want to see the Kingdom crash out of the bloc without a deal (which would be bad for the EU27 as well), they are likely to back another three-month delay.
However, France appears a bit fed up with the United Kingdom’s indecisiveness and feels that a long delay might be meaningless if things continue in the same vein in the UK. France has consistently been tougher with the UK than the other members of the European Union. Nevertheless, the other member states could likely persuade France to back the commonly favored option, which is a delay until January 31. If not agreed today, we would know the EU’s final decision on Monday, at the latest.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that if a three-month delay is granted, he wants to hold elections on December 12. Opposition parties continue to insist that ruling out a no-deal scenario first is more important, so it is unclear whether Johnson’s bid for an election would gather the needed two-thirds of the votes in Parliament.
The Prime Minister appears to be holding his newly-negotiated deal with the EU hostage in order to get MPs to back an election. He said that if his plan for snap elections is approved, he would put forth a new timetable for amendments and consideration of the withdrawal agreement bill that would allow Parliament to tweak it.
