All day we have heard spin from EU sources repeated on BBC and Sky that the reaction May got in Salzburg was somehow because of something that May did at that summit or because of something they read about. Few thoughts on this: 👇
1) people have said it was May's uncompromising Welt op-ed that went down badly. But I've re-read it & honestly struggle to see that. In fact in some respects it was as honest as the Government has ever been - saying Brexit will mean fewer rights & less access to single market
2) then I thought perhaps I was missing something in the German so I asked @LeopoldTraugott to translate a bit and read it himself again. But although @theresa_may continues to make her usual points it was hardly a massive insult.
3) then some suggested she was - I forgot the adjective but it might have been - lecturing over dinner. Putting aside the gendered element of that critcism, it can't come at a surprise to anyone that @theresa_may can be a little robotic
4) others blamed @michaelgove comments about a future Government reopening the settlement. This was strange in several ways: A) he's said it before in terms in an op-ed a few months ago B) it's a statement of the entirely obvious & to say reverse would be bizarre ...
4ii) C) it isn't as if EU is going to stay fixed for all time so inevitably future relationship may need periodic revisiting D) Gove seems to me to NOT have been saying change deal during the transition but talking about reopening it in future, after transition, in say a decade
5) others said that the @LiamFox story by @adampayne26 and @BenGartside in business insider rocked the boat. Really? It's a good read but come on.
6/6) so the only conclusion is that - as @lemonde_pol suggests - this was a coordinated attempt to push back pressed by @EmmanuelMacron and deigned to give @theresa_may a figurative slap
