United Kingdom and Gibraltar European Union membership referendum
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No, says the chancellor again and again, she does not want to speculate now. On what-if questions does Angela Merkel have no desire for this Friday afternoon? There are currently hardly exciting. What if Theresa May did not get a parliamentary majority for the exit agreement with the EU in the third attempt? What if she has to resign? From Merkel comes this Friday - nothing.
In the afternoon, the chancellor enters the German press room in the Brussels Council building. The Heads of State and Government have just discussed how they want to deal with China in the future and whether there should be a common European industrial policy. A word that in recent years had no German CDU politician in the mouth. But Merkel is about the Brexit, again.
It quickly becomes clear that she does not have to speculate at all. Merkel has a pretty clear idea of how the next weeks will be in Brexit. The Chancellor expects the London House of Commons to vote again on the agreement next week, that much is clear. This is how May presented it to her colleagues on Thursday evening. And Merkel seems, as almost everyone in Brussels, that the British Prime Minister will miss the majority again.
Video analysis on May's appearance at the EU summit: "It came to tragicomic scenes"
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Therefore, as if by the way, she announces that they will have to hold another summit meeting before April 12th. Until then, the British have to decide if they want to vote in the European elections. Until that day, the remaining EU members have extended the Brexit deadline should May fail again next week. "We will then meet again before the appointment," says Merkel, "certainly in the presence of the British Prime Minister."
However, Merkel excludes subsequent negotiations. "We will not change the documents, not even in the next few days," she says.
"It's not over yet"
Brexit poker is not over yet. And unlike French President Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel is not known to be so annoyed at some point that she simply throws. Veterans Brussels summit nights remind in these hours of the Greek crisis in the summer of 2015. At that time, the Germans wanted to push the Greeks out of the euro, the French stood against it. Brexit now seems to be the other way round: the Germans are characterized by long-suffering, the French lose patience with the British.
"We have taken care of the Brexit all evening," complains France's Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau in an interview with the SPIEGEL. "And it's not over yet, and we'd like to move forward." May have given every possible help to May. "But we can not do it ourselves," says Loiseau.
But France will not wait endlessly, she also makes that clear. She is not afraid of a permanent blockade of the EU - "because this thing will not go on forever."
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Brexit timetable 22.3. graphic
Merkel wants to avoid an unregulated Brexit in any case. He would be a failure of European politics in their eyes. The fact that a large part of the guilt was to be located among the British themselves does not seem to make the case any more attractive from the viewpoint of the Chancellor.
Draghi warns: SMEs are not prepared for no-deal scenario
So in the end, is it an extension of the Brexit deadline for months or even years? Should May fail again in parliament next week, that would be an option - even if the French are still skeptical. There would have to be "a new initiative, a new political situation in Britain," says Loiseau. "Otherwise, a long extension would not be a solution."
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However, from Merkel's point of view, the desired side effect of an XXL extension would be that companies would have more time to prepare for the no-deal scenario. That this is urgently needed was made clear by the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, who also briefly stopped by the heads of state and government on Friday morning.
The private sector, unlike banks and authorities, is still not sufficiently prepared for a no-deal scenario, Draghi said, according to diplomats. This is a problem especially for small and medium-sized companies. Their owners simply did not want to believe that a no-deal scenario could happen.
The question of whether this is a failure of the entrepreneurs, the associations or the Federal Government, Merkel avoided. She did not even know "if Mario Draghi meant specifically German companies," said the Chancellor. "I think we are actually well prepared." She can only confirm, "that the disorderly exit is not the best solution."