The new date extension for an agreed Brexit does not change the dynamic of crisis and installed uncertainty.
Last Thursday, the European Union reached an agreement to delay the exit of the United Kingdom from the bloc for the second time: it will not happen on May 12, but on October 31.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will return to London with more time to reach an exit agreementwith the Labour opposition of Jeremy Corbyn. We must remember that Parliament already rejected her proposals on three occasions with an overwhelming majority.
Inside the E.U. there were two groups: those who wanted to buy time to “see what happens” in the United Kingdom, led by Angela Merkel, and those who hoped for a deadline to resolve the issue, likeEmmanuel Macron. It is the first time in three years of negotiations that France and Germany have different positions. Finally, the 27 members of the imperialist bloc opted for an extension of the deadline, clearly having little trust in May and her ability to reach a deal.
Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, wanted to delay the exit for a year, but was still content with the solution, or rather given up, stating that “it´s always better having a little of something than a lot of nothing”.
Due to all the trouble since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, not Tusk nor Jean-Claude Junker, the president of the European Commission, dared to set a definitive exit date.
The delay forces the United Kingdom to participate in the elections to the European Parliament next May 26, if May is unable to reach an agreement before the 22nd of the same month. This way, there would be a European Parliament with 751 members, including British representatives that would leave their seats after four months.
After two years of work with a net of eight radio telescopes in different continents, the international scientific community has taken a gigantic step: they have photographed a black hole in the M87 galaxy 26,000 light years ago. If we took a picture of Brussels and Westminster we could have the same result: registering the black hole between the E.U. and the United Kingdom.
How Brexit will end is still a mystery for the people involved, for their jobs, their legal situation, those who work and study in the United Kingdom and the U.E. Breaking with the imperialist bloc is a necessity, but based on the mobilization and a leadership that defends the interests of working people.
As we affirmed in the previous article of the Anticapitalist Network on Brexit: “The exit must not be led by the bourgeoisie and its governments, who have no intention of ending the system of capitalist profits. It is fundamental for the working class to not be led by the parties that represent the powerful, to mobilize independently and take up the construction of a socialist and revolutionary political alternative.”
Rubén Tzanoff