The contrast with countries next door which have come out of lockdown more gradually (nightclubs only reopened here in Belgium 2 weeks ago) is striking. edition.cnn.com/2021/10/20/uk/…
Even more startling in graph form.
The UK health minister is expected to make an announcement shortly.
Secretary Javid says UK gov will *not* at this time activate plan B to tighten restrictions in response to the rapidly rises cases.
He says UK can learn to live with the virus even through the anticipated difficult winter.
Javids asks people to please wear facemasks when inside crowded spaces, but government will not reimpose the mask mandate it ended several months ago.
(Again, by point of comparison, here in Brussels masks are still required inside all public places - metro, gyms, stores, etc)
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Polish PM Mateusz #Morawiecki and EU Commission President Ursula @VonDerLeyen will have a showdown in the European Parliament this morning over the rule of law.
Mateusz insists he's not looking for #Polexit. Other EU leaders say his actions are inevitably leading there.
There's a lot at stake here.
In the short term, Poland could lose €24bn in grants & €12bn in loans in EU pandemic recovery funds.
In the long term, Poland's continued EU membership could become untenable if Warsaw refuses to follow EU law - sparking a political crisis at home
Slovenia's Foreign Minister Anže Logar opens the European Parliament's #RuleOfLaw debate (he's currently chairing EU foreign minister meetings).
"The EU is a union of law, and the primacy of EU law is the foundation of it."
Commission VP @MarosSefcovic emphasising in his press conference the advantages of the protocol for Northern Ireland, whose "unique position" in both UK and EU customs area is attracting interest from investors worldwide, he says.
Sefcovic is asked what EU will do if UK triggers Article 16.
He says he wants to stay "on a positive note, on the benefits this package and EU market access is offering to Northern Ireland".
Sefcovic notes it was already unprecedented for EU to have "delegated the control of our external borders to our UK partners" but preserving peace on the island of Ireland was worth making this unusual arrangement.
He says proposals for a laxer implementation also unprecedented.
The centre-right European Peoples Party, to which President von der Leyen and Chancellor Merkel belong, has responded to this by putting out a statement saying the Polish government "is pushing Poland on the road to #Polexit" bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
“By declaring that the EU Treaties are not compatible with Polish law, the illegitimate Constitutional Tribunal in #Poland has put the country on the path to Polexit," says EPP MEP Jeroen Lenaers, EPP spokesman for Justice and Home Affairs. eppgroup.eu/newsroom/news/…
The EPP says Prime Minister #Morawiecki, who requested this ruling from the PiS-created tribunal, "has not only legitimised an illegal system of the judiciary in Poland, but he has also questioned the very basis of the European Union," says MEP Lenaers.
Looks like Laschet's CSU rival Markus Söder was waiting to see if CDU/CDU could overtake or tie SPD before taking the knives out.
Now that it's clear SPD 'won', he says the Union has no compelling claim to government formation. zeit.de/amp/news/2021-…
I think it's becoming clear that if we end up with another grand coalition (🟥⬛️) or jamaica coalition (⬛️🟨🟩) it will only be because the logical coalition of the election result, the traffic light (🟥🟨🟩) talks somehow failed.
Which is still a very real possibility.
Scholz agrees with Söder.
“CDU and CSU have not only lost a considerable amount of votes, but they also received the message from citizens that they should no longer be in government but should go into the opposition,” the SPD leader said at a press conference earlier.
If these are accurate, it's disappointing for centre-left and encouraging for centre-right. But it's only an exit poll.
This is effectively too close to call, and leaves open the crucial question of who will come first and have the 1st mandate to try to form a government.
It's going to be a long night.
Not just a long night, but potentially a long several months.
This exit poll suggests that the result will be even more unclear than people expected. A tie or near-tie gives no clear mandate for government formation.
Means #Merkel may remain chancellor as caretaker till 2022.