Theresa May to meet Emmanuel Macron Thursday amid persistent Brexit uncertainty

Today Theresa May will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in France, as the British PM races to secure support for a deal pending her country’s upcoming exit from the European Union.

Ms May will meet with Mr Macron in an attempt to directly appeal to France in search of support for her Brexit plan. She has also sent a host of cabinet ministers to the other major capitals of Europe in a desperate attempt to sell the proposal. This move is widely viewed as an attempt to bypass direct negotiations with the EU, being led by the supranational body’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Mr Barnier has repeatedly expressed his opposition to Ms May’s major “soft Brexit” proposal—which she put forward at a Chequers meeting last month.

In the midst of the British PM’s Brexit crisis and her larger crisis of keeping her government together, the EU has shown a remarkable degree of cohesion and unity in managing the negotiations. Therefore, expect that Ms May’s appeal to Mr Macron to be largely unsuccessful. Before she will be able to negotiate a deal with Europe, it is likely that the internal divisions over Brexit in the UK itself must be overcome.