Nine months after Britain voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union on June 23rd, the beginning of the end of Britain’s membership in the EU has finally arrived. The process which has been referred to from names such as E-Day to Independence Day was begun when Theresa May signed a letter which will be delivered to the European Council President, Donald Tusk, giving official notice of the UK’s departure from the European Union. The letter was delivered by the UK ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, on Wednesday. After months of uncertainty, the path to Brexit will soon become a reality. Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that not everybody living in Britain had voted for Brexit, and as such promised to “represent every person in the whole United Kingdom” during the negotiations, including EU citizens living in Britain, and British citizens living in the EU.
Her sentiments were shared by Chancellor Philip Hammond who stated that triggering Article 50 was “a pivotal moment for Britain” and insisted the government “will get a deal”. Leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn, however, was not as positive and stated that “Britain will undoubtedly change”, but warned it would be “a national failure of historic proportions” if the Prime Minister does not ensure protection for workers’ rights. How exactly Brexit will unfold is still unclear for the most part, but what now follows is up to two years of negotiations with E.U. countries. By March 2019, the two year window for negotiations will have closed and Britain must leave the European Union no matter which deals or arrangement have, or have not, been reached.
Also in Europe, France continues to prepare for its upcoming election, the first round of which will be held on April 23rd. The current nominees are Benoît Hamon for the Socialist Party, François Fillon for the Republican Party, Marine Le Pen for the National Front, Emmanuel Macron for the party “En Marche” and Jean-Luc Mélenchon for “Unsumbissive France”. François Hollande the current president and member of the Socialist Party is eligible to run for a second term but stated that he would not do so due to low approval ratings. Current opinion polls show that Macron and Le Pen are on average six percentage points ahead of Fillon who is currently in the midst of a scandal involving his wife Penelope who has been charged with embezzlement of public funds. Overall, however, the centrist candidate Macron is currently 0.2 points ahead of Le Pen.
U.S President Donald Trump last week released the ‘American Health Care Act’ in an effort to replace the Affordable Care Act of former president Barack Obama. However, Republicans were forced to cancel their repeal of Obama’s Affordable Care Act, sometimes called ‘Obamacare’, as there was not enough support within the party for Trump’s policy to replace Obama’s. After the collapse of the Republican backed healthcare plan, the House Speaker Paul Ryan later said that America would “be living with Obamacare for a while to come”.
It has been a few weeks with events that will create uncertainty for a long while to come. Who will the next French president be? What sort of trade deals will Britain negotiate with the E.U.? These are questions that we cannot know the answer to yet-we shall have to wait and see.
