European politicians celebrated the Supreme Court ruling against the British government, with figures in the EU believing that a no-deal Brexit is now less likely.
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Boris Johnson’s prorogation (suspension) of parliament was unlawful, after court challenges against the government came from Remainers seeking to frustrate Brexit.
The legal defeat came on top of rebels in the Tory Party voting against the government and the Benn Act, forcing the prime minister to ask for another Brexit extension and leaving Europeans to view the prime minister as having lost control of the Brexit situation, according to Brussels diplomats speaking to The Guardian.
“Another domestic in this long Brexit saga. Parliament hasn’t been able to formulate a position in the last three years so why would they suddenly now?” one diplomat said.
Another official saw the court defeat as a sign that the possibility of a clean, no deal Brexit has decreased.
“Are the chances of an extension request probably very high? Yes,” said the source. “And has the court’s judgment made the chances higher? Cautiously yes.”
Some welcomed the defeat of the Brexit-supporting government, with European Parliament President David Sassoli, the leftist Italian politician who was elevated to the EU role against the wishes of then deputy prime minister of Italy Matteo Salvini, saying: “Important decision from UK Supreme Court to rule prorogation of Parliament as unlawful. Any Brexit agreement needs to be approved by both UK and EU Parliament, so proper democratic scrutiny on both sides of the Channel is essential.”
Others, like Guy ‘The EU Must Become An Empire’ Verhofstadt, mocked the ongoing “Brexit saga” and claimed the decision made by the ten-year-old Supreme Court — a legacy of the Blair government — was proof that “the rule of law in the UK is alive and kicking”.
“I never want to hear Boris Johnson or any other Brexiteer say again that the European Union is undemocratic,” he said, just two months after his European Parliament colleagues voted to support the nomination of the establishment-picked Ursula von der Leyen as president of the bloc’s most powerful body, the European Commission, with the German former defence minister running unchallenged, being the only option on the ballot paper.
While the chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee Norbert Röttgen (whose Twitter banner reads: “Dear British Friends: We Want You to Stay”) expressed his “joy” over the ruling.
“Citizen of the world” Jean-Claude Piris, the former chief of the European Council’s legal service, said: “It gives me good and emotional feelings too.”
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