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Merkel’s comments suggest an opening after the U.K. prime minister made a round of phone calls to other EU leaders, including Merkel, in the days after she suffered a landslide parliamentary defeat of her withdrawal deal this week.
Addressing a regional party event, Merkel framed Brexit as a historic test of the European Union’s ability to withstand crises.
“We also have a responsibility to shape this separation process in a responsible way, so that people don’t look back in 50 years, shaking their heads, and say why weren’t we in a position to make a compromise?” Merkel said Saturday in the Baltic port city of Rostock.
A disorderly Brexit would be “the worst solution” and Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union wouldn’t prevent the U.K. from staying in the EU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as party chairwoman in December, was quoted as saying by Le Monde. [...]
“Let me say emphatically, I will work until the last day to ensure that we have a settled solution for the U.K.’s exit,” Merkel told a regional party conference in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which includes her electoral district. [...]