Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, posted a picture on his Instagram with the mention of “cherry picking”, making “fun” of Theresa May’s Brexit plans.
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Some background context is needed for this one. For quite a few months now, the UK has been trying to “cherry pick” what it wants and what it doesn’t from the EU during the Brexit negotiations. This goes as far as offering to continue to fund EU science programs in exchange of receiving part of those funds, access to the single market for goods and services without allowing free movement of people, access to EU’s Galileo satellites, but all of these without having to follow EU rules, law, while trading with whoever the UK wants with their own trade agreements, etc etc. In common language, this is called “cherry picking”, or also “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”, which is usually not possible. For example, in order to have access to EU’s Galileo satellites, the country must be an EU member state. Once the UK leavesthe EU, it will not be an EU member stateanymore. A lot of people seem to fail to grasp this concept, this condition. To give another example, say that to join a specific club you must be 18 or over, speak English and have the German nationality. If you happen to be 17, not speak English and be French, you’ll be outright refused. Same thing with most EU programmes. But, as previously said, most people, especially Brits, seem to fail to grasp this concept. One of them is Theresa May, trying to have her cake and eat it too with her “Chequers” plan.
Going back to the main story, during the 2018 Salzburg informal meeting, held between the 18th and the 20th September in Salzburg, Germany, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, posted a picture on his Instagram, showing him and Theresa May picking cakes, saying “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries”, in an obvious reference to May’s and the Brexit negotiations’ eternal cherry picking over an UK-EU deal after May 2019.
Some people (the British, obviously), interpreted this small joke as a “mockery” towards the British Prime Minister and the UK, joke being “extraordinarily disrespectful”, and calling Donald Tusk “this man […] is an unelected Brussels bureaucrat whose wages are paid in part by the British taxpayer”. Well… “unelected”, not really, as he is appointed by the council members…. The rest of the sentence is just a way to easily manipulate the opinion of readers, repeated again and again by those who dislike the EU.
After this event, and the Salzburg meeting (“humiliation”), Theresa May made a few declarations in the UK, and quite a lot of people attacked the EU, failing, again, to understand the situation. Some Brits even said this entire debacle changed their mind and they went from being “Remainers” to “Leavers” (Brexiters). If all it took was pointing out the reality to their Prime Minister, then maybe they should have voted “Leave” from the beginning. Others brought up history… the British version of it, which is so biased towards the UK that those history books should just be burned. This is due to Tusk being Polish, and the UK supposedly “freed” up the entirety of Europe, according to British history books. Sure, the UK “freed” up Europe from Nazi Germany and Hitler, but this was together with the Allies, being the US, Canada, as well as resistance members that took refuge in the UK, and, let’s not forget it, the sacrifice of millions of Russian soldiers. The Poles, them, after their army was defeated and their country invaded by the Nazi Army, many took refuge abroad, especially in the UK, enlisting in the army. Poles proceeded to enlist in the Navy, in the Air Force and ground army. By the end of the war, over 200 000 Poles were fighting on the Allies side on the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Some of the best RAF pilots in WWII, the air force so loved by many of these Brexiters, were Polish.
It is sad that we are still here, trying to reach a deal between the EU and a country, but that one specific side doesn’t seem to understand the bare minimum, this side being the UK. But seeing how Brits are still living in a different era, where their country is still the best one in the world and have a huge empire, it is not surprising negotiations are not advancing.
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