Theresa May has ‘lost her bet’ by holding a general election and failing to win a majority, the EU’s economy commissioner has gloated.
Frenchman Pierre Moscovici said ‘we don’t really know what the governing situation is this morning’ after voters dealt Prime Minister Theresa May a punishing blow, denying her the stronger mandate she had sought to conduct Brexit talks and weakening her party’s grip on power.
But Germany and France have both insisted that Brexit will still go ahead, with a colleague of Angela Merkel adding: ‘Time is ticking’.
German MEP Manfred Weber, meanwhile, rubbed salt in Mrs May’s wounds by saying ‘Europe is for the moment strong and united and we are waiting for Britain.’
The chairman of the European People’s Party, the largest grouping the EU parliament, added: ‘One year after the decision by the British people to leave the European Union, we see that Europe, Paris for example, Berlin and even Brussels is very stable, so we are ready, and we see disorientation in London, which is not a positive thing.’
Asked whether he expected to negotiate with Theresa May, he said it was purely a domestic matter, adding: ‘We want to start, the time is running, and instability, losing time, is not in your or our interest.
Speaking to French Europe 1 radio, EU commissioner Mr Moscovici said: ‘Mrs May, who was supposed to emerge strengthened, lost her bet and is therefore in a less than clear situation because the truth is that we don’t really know what the governing situation is this morning.’
French prime minister Edouard Philippe, however, said he ‘always thought these [Brexit] discussions wouldn’t be simple’.
He added: ‘In fact, they will be long and complex.
‘I do not believe, however, that one should read into these results a shift in the position expressed by the British over Brexit.’
And in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Britain should form a new government quickly, as months have already been lost in its divorce talks with the EU.
‘I only hope that it will not take too long [to form a government] because we have already lost several months from the time that Britain officially announced Brexit in March,’ Sobotka told Czech Television.
‘But now it will be necessary to wait for who will form a government and what this government will bring to negotiations over Brexit.’
German deputy foreign minister and member of Mrs Merkel’s coalition government Michael Roth said Brexit negotiations need to start ‘as soon as possible’.
He added: ‘Regardless of the question of who will form a government in Britain, time is ticking… We have less than two years to negotiate the exit … so we should not waste any time now.’
He also said he was ‘so proud’ of young Brits ‘who voted for Europe, social justice and solidarity’, adding: ‘Cheers!’
Meanwhile German EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger said ‘the referendum stands, no one is challenging that’, adding: ‘A weak negotiations partner raises the risk of having the negotiations go badly for both sides’.
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