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WORLD NEWS Saturday 5 auguSt 2017

Irish PM: Unique solutions needed for Brexit border dilemma

By JILL LAWLESS be “unique solutions if we
Associated Press are to preserve all that
LONDON (AP) — Brexit is we’ve gained” since the
the challenge of a genera- Northern Ireland peace
tion, and “unique solutions” process was cemented
will be needed to prevent two decades ago and bor-
it doing major damage, der barriers were disman-
Ireland’s prime minister said tled.
Friday. The 38-year-old politician,
Leo Varadkar said a so- who became Ireland’s
called “hard Brexit,” in youngest-ever leader in
which Britain leaves the EU June, said he did not want
single market and customs to see a return to a hard
union, would mean “bar- border.
riers to commerce and He said the onus was on
trade” between EU mem- supporters of Brexit “to
ber Ireland and Northern come up with proposals
Ireland, which is part of the for such a border” and
U.K. persuade people it was a
Britain voted last year to good idea.
quit the 28-nation bloc and “They’ve already had 14
is due to formally leave the months to do so,” he said.
EU in March 2019. “If they cannot — and I
The decision has huge im- believe they cannot — we Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar waves as he arrives at the university in Belfast to make a speech
plications for Ireland, the can then talk meaningfully on his first visit to Northern Ireland, Friday Aug. 4, 2017. Varadkar said Friday that a so-called “hard
Brexit,” with Britain leaving the EU single market, would mean “barriers to commerce and trade”
only EU country to share a about solutions that might between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, part of the U.K. saying Brexit is the challenge of
land border with the U.K. At work for all of us. a generation, and “unique solutions” will be needed to prevent it doing major damage.
present the border is all but “At a time when Brexit (Liam McBurney/PA via AP)
invisible, with goods and threatens to drive a wedge
people moving freely back between north and south Divorce talks between Brit- resolving issues around the before the two sides can
and forth. we need to build more ain and the bloc are un- Irish border, the size of Brit- start hammering out their
Speaking in Belfast, Varad- bridges and fewer bor- derway, but EU officials say ain’s exit bill and the status future economic relation-
kar said there will have to ders,” Varadkar said. progress must be made on of EU nationals in the U.K. ship. q

Center-left government of major German state loses majority

By GEIR MOULSON ahead of a national elec- caucus Friday. election, Martin Schulz, ac- solve itself and for a new
Associated Press tion on Sept. 24 in which Twesten, whose old party cused Twesten in a Face- election to take place “as
BERLIN (AP) — The center- Merkel is seeking a fourth hadn’t nominated her to book post of “betrayal of soon as possible.”
left governor of one of Ger- term. represent her constituency the voters” as well as of the It’s not clear when an early
many’s biggest states said Since 2013, a coalition of in the next state vote, said center-left coalition. regional election could be
Friday that he would seek governor Stephan Weil’s she plans to join Merkel’s Weil made clear that he held. In theory at least, it
an early regional election Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats. wouldn’t quit, saying it was could take place the same
after a lawmaker’s defec- Greens has run the state If the party’s caucus ac- up to voters to determine day as the national elec-
tion to Chancellor Angela in northwestern Germany cepts her, that would give who holds a majority. tion.
Merkel’s conservatives cost that is home to automaker two center-right parties a “I will gladly face the will of National polls show the
his coalition government its Volkswagen among other one-seat majority and the the voters at any time, but Social Democrats under
majority. companies. chance to oust Weil. I will not give way to an in- Schulz trailing longtime
The unexpected devel- The coalition had a single- A state election was al- trigue,” he told reporters in German leader Merkel’s
opments in Lower Saxony seat majority in the state ready due in January. Hannover. conservatives by a double-
were a symbolic blow to legislature until Green law- Merkel’s Social Democratic Weil said it was essential for digit margin.q
Germany’s struggling left maker Elke Twesten left her challenger in the national the state legislature to dis-