Europe’s newly emboldened nationalist parties expressed their joy and called for referendums in their own countries after British voters opted to leave the European Union. Government leaders prepared to show their dismay.
“There must be a referendum now in France!” Marine Le Pen’s National Front party said in a posting on Twitter a few hours after it became clear that the ‘Brexit’ side had won. “The European Union is crumbling and it’s a good thing! The people of Europe aspire to something else.”
Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s Northern League, said in his post: “Thanks U.K., now it’s our turn.” “Hurrah for the British!” tweeted Geert Wilders, the anti-EU leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, which leads in opinion polls ahead of elections in the Netherlands next spring. “Now it is our turn.”
European governments had been watching anti-EU sentiments rise on the continent long before the referendum was called. The British vote turned on the EU’s perceived failure to control immigration and create good jobs. Many leaders said before the vote that the EU needed to respond to the demands of its citizens regardless of the result.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault tweeted that “Europe goes on but it must react and again find the confidence of its people. It’s urgent.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Twitter that “it looks like a sad day for Europe and the United Kingdom.”
French President Francois Hollande’s office said he’ll meet with cabinet members involved in European policy at 9 a.m. Paris time and then make a statement. Hollande travels to Berlin Monday to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of a scheduled June 28-29 meeting of EU leaders. Finance ministers could confer as soon as this weekend.
In Brussels, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will meet Friday morning with European Council Head Donald Tusk, European Parliament head Martin Schulz and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. Tusk told Germany’s Bild last week that “Brexit could be the beginning of the end not only of the EU, but of the entire western political civilization.”
Just after 6 a.m. London time, with most votes in, the BBC said there was no way back for the pro-EU side, with voters having favored “Leave” by 52 percent to 48 percent.
