The European press was not exactly pleased with UK Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s big Brexit speech on Tuesday, with some of the continent\u2019s largest papers calling her strategy \u201cshameful,\u201d \u201chostile,\u201d and \u201cdangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leading the chorus of criticism was Spain\u2019s top newspaper El Pais<\/a>, which accused the prime minister of embracing a \u201cshameful, xenophobic nationalism,\u201d<\/em> after years as a shy Europhile in David Cameron\u2019s government.<\/p>\n The end of free movement for EU citizens under a \u2018hard Brexit\u2019 was dubbed a \u201clegally impossible, morally perverse and politically unfeasible\u201d<\/em> requirement in an editorial published Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything in May\u2019s speech grated<\/a>,\u201d<\/em> it added. \u201cThe promise of a \u2018positive\u2019 agreement is fallacious. It is not positive to spurn European citizens or discriminate against residents. Nor does it make sense to threaten Europeans with whom she will have to negotiate over the next two years.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n El Pais went as far as saying May was lying when she promised an \u201cextremist Brexit\u201d<\/em> would bring together the nations of the United Kingdom, a position the paper says goes against Scottish and Irish nationalists\u2019 warnings.<\/p>\n In Germany, May was also harshly judged.\u00a0The front page of Die Welt newspaper showed May over the words \u201clittle Britain \u2013 Prime Minister Theresa May leads Great Britain into isolation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The highly regarded Welt 24 news website, in turn, described the speech as a \u201clittle concealed threat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In an opinion piece for Focus magazine, economist Michael Heise<\/a>\u00a0claims: \u201cTheresa May nourishes a dangerous illusion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He said the hope of keeping the British economy growing while outside the Single Market is simply \u201cunrealistic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Spiegel, meanwhile, titled its coverage of the speech as a mock tantrum: \u201cI want, I want, I want.<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Italian La Repubblica also spoke of a \u201cthreatening<\/a>\u201d<\/em> message to the EU, and a Brexit that is not just hard but \u201ctough.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Portugal\u2019s Publico<\/a>\u00a0sees May as \u201cone of those English \u2013 and there were always many, even among the elites \u2013 who look at the rest of Europe and see only the differences.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In her promises of British trade greatness, Portuguese historian Bruno Reis saw only \u201cnostalgia for Empire times.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Only the French press seemed to be more concerned with US President-elect Donald Trump than with May\u2019s controversial speech, despite disputes between the UK and France currently unfolding over border controls at the Channel Tunnel and at the port of Calais.<\/p>\n Le Monde led with the slightly tongue-in-cheek headline: \u201cTheresa May challenges European \u2018friends.\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European press was not exactly pleased with UK Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s big Brexit speech on Tuesday, with some of the continent\u2019s largest papers calling her strategy \u201cshameful,\u201d \u201chostile,\u201d and \u201cdangerous.\u201d Leading the chorus of criticism was Spain\u2019s top newspaper El Pais, which accused the prime minister of embracing a \u201cshameful, xenophobic nationalism,\u201d after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-290627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}