‘I’m starting to believe Brexit might not happen,’ Muscat tells Dutch newspaper

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has started to believe that Brexit will not happen, according to an interview he gave to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

“For the first time, I’m starting to believe that Brexit will not happen. I am seeing hopeful signs that indicate things will change,” Muscat told the newspaper.

“It would be good if a political leader in the U.K. stands up and is courageous enough to address this new situation. Someone who says: let’s put the Brexit end-deal to a popular vote,” he said.

Muscat, who has branded Brexit “a disastrous creature” which the European Union should have seen coming, told the Dutch newspaper that the mood in Britain has changed since UK citizens were asked to vote in the referendum.

Muscat also described UK Prime Minister Theresa May as being well-prepared for the negotiations with the EU.

“People who say the Brits don’t know what they are doing are wrong. I have lived in Britain, I know the British mentality. A non-prepared British government official simply doesn’t exist. The problem isn’t that London is prepared badly, but that the EU is prepared extremely well,” the prime minister said.

Muscat has in the past said that Brexit will not be a dead end for the UK, and although many deciding factors such as job security and the rate of inflation will come into force, the British economy had so far stood up well to the pressures of a pending exit from the EU.

Whilst the Brexit vote was mostly determined by issues like care for the elderly and national health service, companies in the UK are now reassessing their long-term investments, worried over how Brexit could affect trade across the EU.