Patrick Marnham

Frexit – oui ou non?

Britain’s EU vote has thrown French politics into turmoil, too

In France, Brexit has provoked resentment and shock. For many years-Britain has been seen in both Paris and-Brussels as the European ‘bad boy’, out for what it can get and intending to give as little as possible in return. The first news was greeted with headlines such as ‘Can Europe-survive?’ but there was also a note of relief: ‘End of 40 years of love-hate’. Even before the referendum, Emmanuel Macron, the finance minister, had denounced the British record in Europe, claiming that the-United Kingdom had hijacked the great project and diverted the Union from its political destiny in order to reduce it to a single market. Last week, as hostilities within the Labour party and among the ‘Brexit’ leadership erupted, Le Monde presented the story as a Shakespearean epic — ‘Tragic week for Britain as the kingdom’s political system is shattered’.

There is little interest in France in the possibility of a second British referendum and growing anger and astonishment that no plans appear to have been made in London for managing a dangerous situation for both Europe and France. With the British departure, the Union loses 15 per cent of its GDP and 40 per cent of its military capacity. And the eight remaining member states outside the eurozone find that they now represent only 14 per cent of the Union’s wealth. Furthermore, as the government is well aware, France’s largest positive trading balance with any country (currently–€12 billion a year) is with the United Kingdom.

Amid all this excitement, the-unexpected sight of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, sticking a Union Jack into her breakfast croissant with cries of ‘Frexit — Our Turn Next!’ has done little to calm the public mood.

But the greater part of the political class has decided that the way to deal with ‘this disaster’ is not to abandon the European Union but to strengthen it.

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