A “zombie prime minister” cornered by his “own intransigence” whose failed “kamikaze strategy” had left his country facing a future that had “never looked less certain” – Europe’s media were not kind to Boris Johnson after his fourth successive Commons defeat.
Le Monde said the prime minister had now “lost control of his Brexit strategy, the calendar and even of his own camp, which is deep in internal crisis”. The prime minister had warned in August the road would be bumpy, the French paper said, “but did he really expect to be buffeted to this extent, and so soon?”
The first of Wednesday night’s parliamentary votes “as good as finished off Johnson’s long-promised ‘do-or-die’ Halloween Brexit,” Le Monde said. His second defeat of the evening, in which MPs refused the prime minister an early election before a no-deal Brexit was no longer possible, was “even more bitter”.
Add to that the mounting fury in the Conservative party over his purge of Tory rebels, and Downing St “must surely be having doubts”, the paper concluded. Johnson may still have some options – including calling a vote of no confidence in himself – “but who outside the Westminster bubble still understands the Battle of Brexit?”
Here is the list of the 21 Conservative MPs who voted with the opposition and against the government on Tuesday night’s motion to seize control of the parliamentary timetable in order to pave the way for a bill to block a no-deal Brexit.
Guto Bebb, Aberconwy
Richard Benyon, Newbury
Steve Brine, Winchester
Alistair Burt, North East Bedfordshire
Greg Clark, Tunbridge Wells
Kenneth Clarke, Rushcliffe
David Gauke, South West Hertfordshire
Justine Greening, Putney
Dominic Grieve, Beaconsfield
Sam Gyimah, East Surrey
Philip Hammond, Runnymede and Weybridge
Stephen Hammond, Wimbledon
Richard Harrington, Watford
Margot James, Stourbridge
Sir Oliver Letwin, West Dorset
Anne Milton, Guildford
Caroline Nokes, Romsey and Southampton North
Antoinette Sandbach, Eddisbury
Sir Nicholas Soames, Mid Sussex
Rory Stewart, Penrith and The Border
Edward Vaizey, Wantage
France’s Libération said one of the many problems Johnson faces is “the mistrust he inspires – in the opposition parties, which is not unusual, but also in his own MPs. If he were to win a 15 October election, all now fear he might repeal or otherwise get round the new law, and trigger a no-deal Brexit.”
Another was the Conservatives’ weakened position in parliament, the paper said: “Even if he calls a vote of no confidence in his own government, he still needs a majority – which he no longer has. Ultimately, the only certainty at this hour is that snap elections will happen before the end of 2019.”
Italy’s Corriere della Sera said Johnson now resembled “a boxer in the corner – and he risks dragging all Britain to the mat”. The prime minister’s plan to keep no deal on the table to force Europe to accept his demands was “a kamikaze strategy: Brussels will not give up, so Britain continues to run towards the cliff edge”, the paper said.
With the no-deal option rejected, Johnson turned to new elections, “but Labour refused to fall for it … And so we are faced with an impasse. He could yet try another coup, a single-line bill calling for elections. But the impression remains that his own intransigence has forced him into a corner and he no longer has much to offer his country.”
Brexit, Johnson sconfitto due volte: uscita rinviata, no a voto anticipato https://t.co/ZujvG6kjAc
— Corriere della Sera (@Corriere) September 5, 2019
In Germany, the Süddeutsche Zeitung said Johnson’s early strategy had plainly failed. “How he and his advisers will react, whether he still has an ace up his sleeve, what he will do in the coming days, whether he will try to unblock things with a motion of no confidence in himself – nothing is certain,” the paper said. “But for the time being, it looks as if his power has been weakened and his freedom of action is limited.”
Some warned Johnson should not be written off quite yet: an election could throw him a lifeline. Die Welt argued that the PM’s opponents may not benefit from his current “100% failure rate”. Labour’s calculation “will be that Johnson’s broken promise – ‘We leave on 31 October, do or die’ – will be punished by voters,” the paper predicted.
But, it said, Johnson’s opponents “cannot rely on that. His election platform will be a brutal anti-EU campaign with a clear no-deal promise. And faced with a devoted rightwing media, growing voter frustration and an opposition that still does not know which Brexit it wants, his prospects for success are very good.”
De Volkskrant said Johnson had become “a zombie prime minister”, blocked by the Commons both from maintaining a no-deal Brexit as an option and from holding elections on 15 October, and facing an increasingly rebellious party.
“With no deal off the table for the time being but no elections yet, Johnson is stuck, just like Theresa May before him,” the Dutch paper said. “The Kinnock amendment, which could bring May’s agreement back for a fourth vote, may be small lifebuoy. But it was adopted automatically after the government neglected to provide tellers – an incident that summed up British politics in 2019.”
Boris Johnson is een zombie-premier geworden. Het Lagerhuis dwarsboomde zowel een No Deal-Brexit op 31 oktober als vervroegde verkiezingen op 15 oktober. https://t.co/xSv828IcCQ
— de Volkskrant (@volkskrant) September 4, 2019
Belgium’s Le Soir said Britain was “in uncharted waters”. Johnson had been “checkmated by parliament and is without a majority”, the paper said. “Now he has been refused the early elections that he demanded. The future of Brexit – and of the country – has never been more uncertain.”
The Irish Times took a look at the state of the Conservative party, which it said “can no longer lay claim to its ‘strong and stable’ mantra … It is some feat to make Corbyn look like a statesman, but the man who imagines himself after the great leaders of the ages past has managed just that.”
The Tory rebels “have emerged as the real champions of conservatism”, the paper argued. “Cameron’s referendum has finally united the Tories. But it managed to unite the wrong ones behind the wrong position. Johnson might believe he’s won a battle – but parliament and the Tory rebels will certainly win the war.”
