This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
On September 16, 2019, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit talks with EU leaders stalled, with Johnson dodging a planned news conference amidst a chorus of abuse from protesters.
Before the talks, Johnson had compared himself to the comic book giant Hulk, but when anti-Brexit protesters gathered, he left Prime Minister Xavier Bettel to field questions solo.
Bettel, visibly angry, pointed at the empty podium in front of the British flag and warned that Britain had failed to come up with any credible way to revive the Brexit withdrawal deal, telling the absent Johnson it was time to 'stop speaking and act.'
"For me, I have just one withdrawal agreement on the table and it's the one from last year," Bettel said. "There are no changes, there are no concrete proposals for the moment on the table and I won't give an agreement to ideas."
Johnson insisted that he had made progress in agreeing to further talks with EU leaders, but his optimism was met with skepticism by European officials.
Finland's European affairs minister, Tytti Tuppurainen, said that the European Union was ready to negotiate when a proper proposal from the UK side was presented, but so far, no such proposal had been seen.
The European Parliament will vote on a resolution rejecting Johnson's demand that the backstop clause be stripped from the deal, and Johnson has vowed to take Britain out of the EU by the scheduled date of October 31, despite parliament's order to strike a deal with Brussels first.
