Article snippet: LONDON — What a mess. Instead, Prime Minister Theresa May is working to cobble together a minority government after suffering a major setback in the snap election on Thursday. No party won a majority. And the prospect of negotiating with Brussels over “Brexit” seemed more confusing than ever. Rather than clarity, Britain is staring at an even more complicated predicament, troubled by questions about what sort of government will emerge and whether the shape of the withdrawal negotiations will be altered. For European Union leaders, who were expecting Mrs. May to win a reinforced majority, the uncertainty is unwelcome, especially as they say they want to prioritize issues such as climate change and their relationship with an unpredictable and unfriendly President Trump. And there is resentment that, once again, the British have complicated things out of political hubris. Mrs. May called the snap election hoping to win a strong mandate, and that decision backfired, as did the gambit by her predecessor, David Cameron, to call the referendum on European Union membership in the first place. “I thought surrealism was a Belgian invention,” said Guy Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium who is now the European Parliament’s chief coordinator on Britain’s exit from the bloc. “Yet another own goal: after Cameron, now May.” Without question, Britain is not ready for the negotiating table, having spent the past year largely avoiding a real debate on the topic, other... Link to the full article to read more
A Perplexing Election Leaves U.K. Divided and Confused - The New York Times
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