Analysis. When information is lacking, Brussels journalists are often reduced to describing the menu of summit meetings. So we learned, thanks to Daily Telegraph, that David Frost, Boris Johnson's negotiator, started his day on Monday March 2 in Brussels with a "Full English breakfast", with "Sausages, beans, bacon and eggs", just before joining, at the head of a huge delegation (100 experts), his European alter ego, Michel Barnier, in one of the floors of the European Commission. The British were all wearing a Union Jack badge for the first day of negotiations on the future relationship between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.
These anecdotes can make you smile, but they tell a lot about the state of mind in London. The teams are pumped up, full of optimism, do not miss an opportunity to celebrate the "Regained sovereignty" of their country. Opposite, Europeans seem more depressed than ever, unable to agree on their common budget and facing a new migration crisis.
Boris Johnson won an unexpected victory in the general elections of December 2019. He has a historic conservative majority in the House of Commons and has cleaned up his cabinet, keeping only docile and convinced Brexiters, sincerely convinced that their country , freed from community constraints, will finally be able to sail towards a bright future.
A ready team
In a clever and brutal speech, delivered in Brussels on February 17, David Frost tried to theorize this state of mind: the EU was a revolution but belongs to the past; the future is for the nationalists and the Brexiters. Starting from a biased description of the Union, which supposedly deprived its members of their sovereignty, the diplomat claims that “We will have a considerable advantage over the EU: the possibility of establishing our own rules, of evolving faster than the EU can, on new sectors, based on scientific bases, not about fear of the future. "
Will this assurance suffice for him to impose his views on Brussels? No, obviously: negotiation will be difficult, but it should still be much more balanced than that of divorce, which saw London gradually abandon all its claims. A photograph summarizes the position of the troops on the British side, when Theresa May was at Downing Street. In this July 2017 photo, David Davis, the then Brexit Minister, faces Michel Barnier in his office. They are launching one of their first negotiation sessions. The Frenchman has placed a pile of files in front of him, Mr. Davis does not even hold an A4 sheet in his hand. The subliminal message is formidable: the Europeans potashés their subject, the British came to Brussels as amateurs.
