The vote in the United Kingdom on Thursday to leave the European Union, which sparked a resignation announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron, already is giving others ideas.
“The mere fact that a country like Great Britain is holding a referendum on whether to leave the EU signals the failure of the European Union,” Beppe Grillo said.
He’s the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star movement in Italy, which wants the euro to be split. The Telegraph reported the goal is have “one for the rich north and one for the south.”
The report said already, voters in France and the Netherlands are joining those in Italy demanding their own European Union-related votes.
The report described the situation as a “contagion” of referendums, a plan that is creating stress for EU leaders who are trying to hold together the nearly 50-year-old coalition.
German leaders, the Telegraph reported, were discounting the negative impact, saying taking retribution through trade and business against the U.K. would be counterproductive.
“Imposing trade barriers, imposing protectionist measures between our two countries – or between the two political centers, the European Union on the one hand and the UK on the other – would be a very, very foolish thing in the 21st century,” said Markus Kerber, representing a German industrial organization.
Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president in this year’s race in America, agreed.
“The Trump administration pledges to strengthen our ties with a free and independent Britain, deepening our bonds in commerce, culture and mutual defense. The whole world is more peaceful and stable when our two countries – and our two peoples – are united together, as they will be under a Trump administration,” he said in a statement.
Front National leader Marine Le Pen in France also called for that nation’s own vote, saying that nation “has a thousand more reasons” than the U.K.
Geert Wilders, a conservative Dutch leader, also was quoted demanding a referendum, saying, “We want be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders, and our own immigration policy.”
Further, the BBC was reporting that Scotland’s own referendum about leaving the U.K. is likely.
The report said Nicola Sturgeon, a critic of the decision to leave the union, cited Scotland’s vote to remain in the EU, a vote that was nullified by Britain’s higher vote total to leave.
She announced plans to start legislation to allow the next independence vote.
“It is … a statement of the obvious that a second referendum must be on the table, and it is on the table. … I intend to take all possible steps and explore all possible options to give effect to how people in Scotland voted – in other words to secure our continuing place in the EU, and in the single market in particular,” she said.
The vote is an “explosive shock,” said French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. “At stake is the breakup pure and simple of the union. Now is the time to invent another Europe.”
Reuters reported that Sinn Fein, the large Irish nationalist party, also called for a vote about whether the United Kingdom should, in fact, be broken up.
The Telegraph also said a poll last month found nearly half of voters in eight big EU nations want a vote on whether to remain. One third of the respondents said they’d leave if they could.
The report noted that “mainstream politicians” in Sweden and Denmark currently are “trying to stamp out” calls for their countries to follow Britain’s lead.
“We belong to the EU and I am not operating on [the belief] that we should have a referendum on that basic question,” Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told the Telegraph.
Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said, “In Sweden, membership of the EU is firmly anchored.”
Agence France-Presse reported German Chancellor Angela Merkel was warning about the risks of splitting Europe even further.
“There is no doubt that this is a blow to Europe and to the European unification process,” she said in the report.
But she said the remaining members must “calmly and prudently analyze and evaluate the situation, before making the right decisions together.”
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/independence-fever-breaking-out-across-europe/
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