Brexit talk on "Hard but fair": hope for a second season

United Kingdom and Gibraltar European Union membership referendum

all articles

If "Brexit" were a series on Netflix, then the finale on Friday would be completely open. Deal? No Deal? Soft or hard exit? A turnaround at the last minute? As much as the jigging in London may be annoying, so open - and so exciting - is the end. Not just for viewers in the UK.

But also for people like Petra Braun, who runs a bakery in London and was now a guest at "Hard but fair". Moderator Frank Plasberg discussed on Monday evening under the motto "Sorry, dear Brits: who takes you seriously now?" Braun said in the TV studio, she sees her company "at the demolition edge", because they imported goods from the EU, buys in euros and sold in pounds - and now pass the price increases to customers.

Petra Braun runs a German bakery in London. "After the #referendum, the purchase prices have increased by 20 percent," she explains at #hartaberfair @DasErste. Further consequences of a possible #Brexit would hardly be foreseeable for the small company. pic.twitter.com/SMVwVgNeLF

It does so on behalf of a large proportion of the workforce, from Welsh fishermen to the car industry, who have only begun to realize the implications of leaving the internal market in advance. Absolutely avoid a "no deal", even in the interest of even those people who voted for Brexit only three years ago.

Kevin Kühnert, national chairman of the Jusos, sees this naturally similar. The victims are not the boards of any companies. He is indifferent to "what is going on now with Theresa May and the Tory party". It is conservatives who usually explain the "us left": "First the country, then the party!" That's what they should remember.

The delicate lance Kuhnert would like to wrest from Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn is immediately taken out of his hand. First, Corbyn seems more convinced of Brexit than Theresa May. And the political scientist Anthony Glees calls him a "DDR" left, so a hardliner. When the country is split, then across all parties - so much so that the political landscape now knows two phantom parts, "Brexiteers" and "Remainers".

The @ jusos chairman @ KuehniKev looks to the future. At #hartaberfair @DasErste he explains what findings from the current # Brexit discussion must be included in the upcoming #European election campaign. pic.twitter.com/J9bMlkRYKt

In this spirit, Norbert Röttgen, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the CDU, would like to see more time for Great Britain. Otherwise, "the chaos would be lifted to a new level". In its current state, we are dealing with a country "that has gotten itself into its worst crisis since World War II".

Glees suggests Britain, whatever it wants, should stay in the single market - but withdraw from the political institutions for a while. Just as General de Gaulle "did it with NATO back then".

This contradicts Nikolaus Doll, business journalist at the "world": "Who does not necessarily want to be there, may he go." Doll sees no chaos coming and says that Europe has enough other problems than to deal with the current slogans in the British Parliament every day.

Video: Loose Brexit message - Theresa May on the couch

Video

REUTERS

Glees counters: "But that's democracy!" Wrong decisions would be corrected periodically. Norbert Röttgen agrees and makes an interesting calculation - to the annoyance of Nikolaus Doll. The referendum was a "non-legally binding poll" and a score of 48 to 52 would not be mathematical, but "political half-half".

Majority is majority, thunders Doll and points out that even an extension would not change anything: "They did not want a Schengen, they did not want a Eurozone, they wanted their money back , they will not be convinced Europeans, never ever!", he scolds, until Plasberg intervenes: "Mr. Doll, Mr. Doll!", and then Doll: "Am I the foolish now?"

He is it. Anyway steer Röttgen, Kühnert and Glees gently on the possibility of a second vote. It is a referendum, not a judgment of God. "Parliament is constantly correcting itself," explains Röttgen. Why should not the people do that, now that the consequences are clear?

It is wrong to stylize a legally non-binding referendum to a divine judgment, says @ CDU politician @n_roettgen at #hartaberfair @ DasFreest: "The British are only now to understand the consequences of the # Brexit." pic.twitter.com/PGPBuqyq6d

Petra Braun would also wish that, but he fears that the division of the country must first be overcome. "And that takes more than six weeks," Glees shouts. Doll shakes his head somberly.

Purely by law, Plasberg explains, May could single-handedly blow off Brexit if she did it literally - so there would be no opportunity to sue against it. Glees does not believe that the Prime Minister has the necessary imagination for such a cliffhanger. But: "Everything is possible in politics, and if that were not the case, then there would be no point in getting interested in politics."

So if the guests at "Hard but fair" the screenwriters of "Brexit", then the fans of this sometimes very entertaining series should even hope for a second season.