Katya Adler

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It feels a bit like Alice in Wonderland.

Politics in the UK turned inside out and upside down after last week's general election. Things that certainly were not going to happen (like Labour's Jeremy Corbyn doing well) did, while what was definitely expected to happen (a Tory majority for Theresa May) did not.

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party is scheduled a week from today: that long-awaited face-to-face meeting between the chief Brexit negotiators of the EU and the UK. The very first one since the UK voted to leave the European Union a year ago.

While fireworks and expletives may be ricocheting off the walls behind closed doors, in public both sides will put on their most serious expressions and make out that nothing has changed. At all.

Though, of course, it has.

Nervous wait

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So what does the UK political upheaval mean for Brexit negotiations, slated to start in 10 days' time?

And does the hung parliament indicate that a hard Brexit, a softer Brexit or a cliff-edge Brexit (where there's no deal and the UK simply "falls out" of the EU) becomes more likely?

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It's now almost a year since the UK blind-sided the EU by voting to leave the club.

Almost 12 whole calendar months.

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Angela Merkel is "taking back control" - to borrow the wildly successful, emotive phrase coined by those in the UK campaigning to leave the EU last year.

The German chancellor caused a storm this Sunday, particularly in the English-language press and Twittersphere, when she declared: "The era in which we could fully rely on others is over to some extent."

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"If Potus leaves here with the idea that the EU is in some way useful, that's it. Job done."

The words of a trusted European source when I asked about EU expectations for Donald Trump's first trip to Brussels as US president.

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As far as newspaper headlines go describing Emmanuel Macron's success, Metro's "Le Big Mac" is possibly the most eye-catching.

This is a big win - a huge win - for the 39-year-old former banker and virtual political newbie who will now become France's youngest leader since Napoleon Bonaparte.

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Welcome to the EU/UK dominated Brexit Galaxy of Spin and Counter-Spin. A crazy old place. The galactic atmosphere is such these days that the dimensions of truth are elastic; at times, distorted.

Take the arguments this weekend over whether the Downing Street dinner last Wednesday at which Theresa May hosted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was a complete disaster or not.

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The relief in Brussels is palpable. It believes it is (almost) back from the brink.

A passionate Europhile, Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign is as much blue and yellow as it is the "tricolour" of France.

So how long is that famous piece of string? I certainly don't know.

Nor, I suspect, does the European Commission. Or the press. Or the UK government.