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Just before the opening of the European summit, the ultraconservatives of the DUP rejected the Brexit compromise proposed by the British Prime Minister. REUTERS / Toby Melville

Wednesday night again, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel said they were more confident than ever on an agreement on Brexit, before the European summit. But this possibility seems to be moving away: the Northern Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a member of the British government coalition, rejects the compromise proposals.

The DUP has just stopped Boris Johnson in his mad race for the signing of a revised agreement, the very day of the opening of the European summit. The British Prime Minister and his advisers had, however, tried in recent days to convince the ten deputies of the small party in Northern Ireland, whose support is crucial for a Brexit agreement to have a chance of being approved in the Westminster Parliament. our correspondent in London, Murielle Delcroix .

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But after hours and hours negotiating, until Thursday morning, the ax fell: in the current state of things, the DUP can not accept the suggested solution on the issue of customs and the right of inspection of Belfast provided for the deal negotiated hard struggle in recent days.

For the DUP, the fact that Boris Johnson has managed to evacuate the much-maligned backstop on the British side is not enough, as the status apart instead provided for the province of Northern Ireland, which differentiates it from the rest of the Great Britain, is unacceptable to the Unionists.

Nevertheless, the DUP does not completely close the door to further discussions and assures that it will continue to work with Downing Street to try to find " an agreement that protects the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom ". But for Boris Johnson, this disavowal and this last-minute veto are humiliating. He prevents him from arriving triumphantly in Brussels to announce his agreement.

Intransigence

At 14 days from the UK's planned release date from the EU, the optimism posted in recent days has therefore fallen back as a bellows, reports our office in Brussels.

Knowing that deadlines are not fixed, there is still time. It was not necessarily necessary to have this text for this summit, even if its holding put a pressure on the negotiators who actually made it possible to advance until this night. Then there may be written procedures again, for example if an agreement could be found that would be acceptable.

The fear for the Europeans from the start was the position of the DUP, and the position of Boris Johnson himself, who still heads a minority government in the House of Commons. Because in the two major chapters of these negotiations, apart from the future Euro-British relationship and the absence of competition, there is the idea of ​​creating a virtual border between the island of Great Britain and the island of Ireland to keep Northern Ireland in the European regulatory field and de facto in the customs union.