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Tweets of the Week: May and Juncker, Italy, and Rake News

By Evan Lamos, Malte Ketelsen and Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com

23-11-2018

This time it’s Juncker and May in a Brexit schmooze, Italy thinks it’s got nothing to lose, and Finns are all about rake news.

This edition is brought to you by EFFA, stick around until the end to learn more about them.

But first, what’s that coming over the hill? Is it a Brexit? It at least looks a little more likely now, after Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker met in Brussels on Wednesday, with another meeting set for Saturday.

Nick Gutteridge was there when the UK and Commission leaders met, although not a word was exchanged between the two during their handshake.

One Ukip MEP was predictably outraged about the meeting.

While Juncker spokesman Margaritis Schinas confirmed that, as far as the Commission is concerned, it is now up to EU member states to sign off on the future relationship deal.

If you want to read the juiciest parts of the text, Alex Barker helpfully tweeted some of the most important details.

Although, plenty of readers have already taken issue with one thing in particular: the font. I mean who in their right mind uses Cambria anymore?

But real holes have already started to appear in the text, as Dave Clark found out when doing a simple search of the document for the word Gibraltar.

Of course James Crisp is still gripped by pet passport mania.

Spoof account Martini Seltzermayr revealed the EU wishlist in detail. I think we can all get behind Italy’s demand for a ban on hawaiian pizza:

And UK politician Vince Cable has become so bamboozled by Brexit that he’s grown an extra arm, just for head scratching, reports Stephen Merchant.

Thankfully, we can at least all look forward to a Brexit circus… I mean summit… every six months, maybe for the rest of all of our natural lives. Won’t that be nice.

Onto other beleaguered EU members: Italy this week tried to call the EU’s budget bluff but it turns out Brussels isn’t just all hot air! The Commission decided that Rome’s finances are simply not up to scratch.

Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici insisted that the door remains open for dialogue.

While the FT’s Mehreen Khan warned that we are in for what will probably be a quite boring process. Yay.

Some Italians made their feelings towards Brussels perfectly clear.

But Italy’s interior minister, and the EU’s biggest fan, Matteo Salvini seemed to be busy with other matters though. It’s good to know that he’s more of a cat than a dog person.

Irene Marchi quipped that the twitter account isn’t a fake one and that she is looking forward to Salvini posting pictures of puppies instead of, you know, working and doing his job.

Speaking of politicians that struggle to get through a full five-day-week,

Donald Trump’s intellectual musings on forest management have really hit home in Finland, after the US president said that fires can be prevented by raking away all the dead leaves.

But Finland’s president, who met with Trump shortly before, does not remember sharing such privy insider information, as Trump’s favourite reporter, Jim Acosta, pointed out.

But Finns at least saw the funny side to Trump’s guff, posting pictures of themselves armed to the teeth with fire-busting rakes.

 

Pyry Luminen showed she is the most committed to banishing leaves from the woods though, sharing a picture of just another ordinary day in Finland’s forest.

And Antti Holma says every Finn has a copy of this cautionary painting:

Let’s hope they keep raking America great again!

Thanks to EFFA, the European flavour association, for supporting this episode, check out their tweet, which is all about Flavour Days around Europe!

Keep the tweets coming and we’ll see you next week!

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