May: Juncker clash shows Brexit talks will ‘not be easy’

Bloomberg

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May alluded to the leaked details of her disastrous dinner with Jean-Claude Juncker to remind voters that Brexit talks will be tough and she alone is up to the task.
Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper on Sunday said that the European Commission president left the April 26 talks at Downing Street shocked at May’s reluctance to compromise and “ten times more skeptical” of reaching a mutually acceptable deal over Brexit. It said the pair disagreed about the complexity involved in any agreement, about the sequencing of talks, and about budget contributions.
Dismissing the report as “ Brussels gossip,” May didn’t outright deny its accuracy. If anything, the premier has used the growing antagonism with Brussels to bolster her claim that a personal mandate means she can negotiate Brexit more successfully. May’s refrain has been to contrast her show of strength and to depict rival Jeremy Corbyn as a “weak, nonsensical” leader.
“As we have seen in recent days, it will not be easy,” she wrote in the Western Morning News, a regional daily newspaper, as she heads to campaign in southwest England. “Across the table from us sit 27 European member states who are united in their determination to do a deal that works for them.”