The debate around withdrawing from the European Union has dominated front pages and column inches for several months in Britain. However, with less than 24-hours until the UK makes the biggest democratic decision for a generation, the word ‘Brexit’ is now beginning to appear in newspapers across the continent and permeate the consciousness of our European neighbours.
Europe is a continent in crisis. Brussels is desperately trying to foster unity while facing rising anti-EU sentiment, the most-severe migration crisis since WWII and a Eurozone struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crash. However, facing the prospect of a member state abandoning the Union, Europe’s leaders are now urging the United Kingdom to stick with it.
Writing in the Guardian, the Prime Minister of Italy today pleaded with the British public to channel the momentum of the referendum campaign into ‘demanding a more effective European Union’. In leaving the bloc, Britain would be swapping ‘autonomy for solitude’ and ‘pride for weakness’, argued the 41-year-old leader in a last-minute bid to stop Britons from making ‘the wrong choice’.
Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán this week published a full-page advertisement in the Daily Mail in which he told UK voters how proud his country is to stand together with Britain in the European Union.
However, not all of the EU is love-bombing Britain. Some of France’s largest companies this week joined forces to place adverts in national newspapers threatening to cut UK investment if voters opt to leave the EU.
Germany’s Angela Merkel has been fairly restrained throughout the campaign due to fears that her intervention would be counterproductive. However, the Chancellor’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has been considerably more vocal. He previously threatened to block post-Brexit Britain’s access to the single market but this week, in a more conciliatory tone, admitted that British Eurosceptics have indeed expressed German concerns about the EU.
The French, like the Germans, have been wary of bellowing threats across the Channel. But this did not prevent, Emmanuel Macron, the French Economy Minister from telling Le Monde that Brexit would isolate the UK and leave it as insignificant as Guernsey. Of course, as polling shows rising French discontent with the European project, some have been urging Britain to take the plunge. National Front leader Marine Le Pen has backed Brexit and calls for all member states to be given the opportunity to leave the ‘decaying’ bloc.
With an estimated 310,000 Britons living in Spain, its leaders have warned of ‘negative consequences’ for UK citizens living and working in the country. Spain’s acting Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, entered the debate this week to criticise David Cameron’s decision to call a referendum which, in his view, has encouraged populist movements across the EU.
Of course, Tusk and Juncker have never been far from the debate. Donald Tusk this week said that Britain’s referendum has been a ‘warning signal’ for the EU and vowed to take a ‘long hard look’ at the future of the bloc regardless of the outcome. ‘Stay with us,’ he pleaded, arguing that future challenges are easier to tackle together.
I appeal to the British citizens: Stay with us. We need you. Together we will cope with future challenges. Apart it will be more difficult.
Facing the prospect of being the first Commission president to lose a member state, Jean-Claude Juncker has said the EU would miss Britain’s ‘pragmatism’ and ‘no-nonsense approach’, however, asserted that the EU would ‘not change its nature’ if the UK does head for the door.
But will these interventions have any effect? Perhaps not. The ‘Remain’ campaign felt fairly confident following President Obama’s ‘back of the queue’ intervention, however, opinion polls showed support for Brexit increased.
With Britain split down the middle and last-minute pleas emanating from all corners of the continent, EU leaders will perhaps be wishing they could turn back the clock to the February reform summit and offer Britain meaningful reform.
‘Nurse! Nurse! He’s out again!’ That’s right, Sir Keir had escaped his handlers and was mingling with the public once more. This time he was ruining the coffee break of some workers at McLaren to talk about apprenticeships. Presumably he takes any opportunity he can to avoid the company of his own MPs at the
However, not all of the EU is love-bombing Britain. Some of France’s largest companies this week joined forces to place adverts in national newspapers threatening to cut UK investment if voters opt to leave the EU.
Germany’s Angela Merkel has been fairly restrained throughout the campaign due to fears that her intervention would be counterproductive. However, the Chancellor’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has been considerably more vocal. He previously threatened to block post-Brexit Britain’s access to the single market but this week, in a more conciliatory tone, admitted that British Eurosceptics have indeed expressed German concerns about the EU.
The French, like the Germans, have been wary of bellowing threats across the Channel. But this did not prevent, Emmanuel Macron, the French Economy Minister from telling Le Monde that Brexit would isolate the UK and leave it as insignificant as Guernsey. Of course, as polling shows rising French discontent with the European project, some have been urging Britain to take the plunge. National Front leader Marine Le Pen has backed Brexit and calls for all member states to be given the opportunity to leave the ‘decaying’ bloc.
With an estimated 310,000 Britons living in Spain, its leaders have warned of ‘negative consequences’ for UK citizens living and working in the country. Spain’s acting Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, entered the debate this week to criticise David Cameron’s decision to call a referendum which, in his view, has encouraged populist movements across the EU.
Of course, Tusk and Juncker have never been far from the debate. Donald Tusk this week said that Britain’s referendum has been a ‘warning signal’ for the EU and vowed to take a ‘long hard look’ at the future of the bloc regardless of the outcome. ‘Stay with us,’ he pleaded, arguing that future challenges are easier to tackle together.
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