If there’s an upside to the crushing defeat of Prime Minister Theresa May’s laboriously negotiated plan for withdrawing from the European Union, it is that staring in the face of an exit without a deal 10 weeks from now may finally compel British lawmakers to accept reality.
That was far from evident in the immediate aftermath of the 432-202 vote in Parliament on Tuesday. Although it was the worst drubbing a British government had suffered in modern times and a dangerous step toward the cliff’s edge, the vote was cheered by many sides — by hard-core Brexiteers who would sever ties to the Continent at any cost; by “remainers” for whom any glitch in the Brexit process keeps alive the hope of staying in the union or at least softening the terms of a divorce; by Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, who wants to oust May so he can come to power.
Corbyn’s ambitions, at least, were dashed for the moment when many of the politicians from May’s camp who defied her on Tuesday came to her support on Wednesday, opting to keep her in office rather than risk an election in which they had no acceptable alternative candidate.
On the Continent, the exasperation was tangible. “If a deal is impossible, and no one wants no deal, then who will finally have the courage to say what the only positive solution is?” asked Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, which includes the EU’s heads of state and government, in a tweet that implied that the solution should be for Britain to stay in the union.
The 27 other members of the EU have been united in insisting that the withdrawal agreement negotiated with May’s government over 17 months be viewed as a final deal. Among other provisions, that nearly-600-page agreement set a transition period lasting through 2021 to make a trade deal and included a “backstop” that would ensure that no matter what else was decided in that period, the border between the Republic of Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland would remain open.
“It’s not up to us, the French, the Europeans, to tell the Britons what they must do,” said the French minister for European affairs, Nathalie Loiseau. “What we can tell them is ‘Hurry up!’ because March 29 is tomorrow.”
Although debate on Brexit has dominated the British media, social and traditional, for 2 1/2 years now, the British public and its legislators have remained almost as far from agreement as before.
And in their fervor, the British have often behaved as if the debate were only among themselves, and not with the entire bloc. Hard-core advocates of quitting in particular have clung to the illusion that Britain can abandon those elements of the union they dislike, like free movement of people, and keep those that benefit them.
In the tumultuous Parliament sessions of this week, and often before that, May came under withering criticism for not producing a deal. Yet hers was a mission impossible from the outset.
If the votes of this week make at least that much clear, British politicians may at last begin confronting the real options they face. These includes trying to forge a consensus position on a new Brexit deal and hoping the Europeans will consider it; or opting for a new referendum, which is favored by politicians who believe that enough of the public has reconsidered Brexit to scrap the idea; or accepting May’s deal.
These are difficult and contentious choices, and they need time. At this late hour, even before the shock of this week’s votes has subsided, both sides need to take a deep breath and agree on extending the deadline. Leaders of the union have indicated that they would look favorably on an extension of the deadline, and May has given hints in the same direction.
There’s too much at stake to stop trying.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.