UK, EU plunge into uncertainty post vote

LONDON / AP

Britain has jumped. Now it is wildly searching for the parachute.
The UK’s unprecedented decision to leave the European Union sent shockwaves through the nation and around the world, rocking financial markets, toppling Prime Minister David Cameron and even threatening the ties that bind the United Kingdom.
Britons absorbed the overwhelming realization that their anti-establishment vote has pushed the British economy into treacherous and uncertain territory and sparked a profound crisis for a bloc founded to unify Europe after the devastation of World War II.
“Leave” campaigners hailed the result as a victory for British democracy against the bureaucratic behemoth of the EU. Conservative former London Mayor Boris Johnson said “the British people have spoken up for democracy in Britain and across Europe,” while Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right UK Independence Party, said “the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom.”
But for the 48 percent of British voters who wanted to remain — and for the 2 million EU nationals who live and work in Britain, but could not vote — there was sadness, anger and even panic. At a London train station, commuter Olivia Sangster-Bullers called the result “absolutely disgusting.”
“Good luck to all of us, I say, especially those trying to build a future with our children,” she said.
The decision launches a yearslong process to renegotiate trade, business and political links between the UK and what will become a 27-nation bloc, an unprecedented divorce that could take a decade or more to complete.
Cameron, who had led the campaign to keep Britain in the EU, said he would resign by October and left it to his successor to decide when to invoke Article 50, which triggers a departure from European Union.
“I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months,” a somber Cameron said outside 10 Downing St. “But I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination.”
He also said he had spoken to Queen Elizabeth II “to advise her of the steps that I am taking.”
In a referendum marked by notably high turnout — 72 percent of the more than 46 million registered voters — “leave” won with 52 percent of the votes. The referendum result revealed Britain to be a sharply divided nation: Strong pro-EU votes in the economic and cultural powerhouse of London and semi-autonomous Scotland were countered by sweeping anti-establishment sentiment for an exit across the rest of England, from southern seaside towns to rust-belt former industrial powerhouses in the north.
For many who voted “leave,” the act was a rebellion against the political, economic and social establishment and the derided “experts” — including CEOs, artists, scientists and soldiers — who had written open letters warning of the consequences of an EU exit, or Brexit.
Pro-Brexit voters were persuaded by the argument that leaving the EU meant taking back control of immigration — by abandoning the bloc’s principle of free movement among member states — and reclaiming billions that the UK pays to Brussels each year.
“Remain” supporters said this was a fantasy of sovereignty in an interconnected world, one that ignored the benefits the EU, and EU workers, bring to Britain.

Over one million sign UK petition for 2nd EU vote

London / AFP

More than a million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum, after “Leave” voters won a shock victory to pull Britain out of the European Union, an official website showed Saturday.
The website of the parliamentary petition at one point crashed due to the surge of people adding their names to the call for another nationwide poll following Thursday’s historic vote. “We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based (on) a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum,” says the petition.
Turnout for Thursday’s referendum was 72.2 percent. By 1000 GMT on Saturday some 1,040,000 people had signed the petition on the official government and parliament website—more than 10 times the 100,000 signatures required for a proposal to be discussed in the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament.
The parliament’s Petitions Committee, which considers whether such submissions should be raised in the House, is to hold its next meeting on Tuesday.

Germany: ‘Won’t let anyone take Europe from us’

Berlin / AFP

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Saturday that the EU would weather the shock of the British vote to leave the union as he convened crisis talks.
“I am confident that these countries can also send a message that we won’t let anyone take Europe from us,” he said heading into a meeting in Berlin of his counterparts from the EU’s six founding members.
His French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault urged quick negotiations on Britain’s exit from the union, saying that the pressure would be “very strong” on British Prime Minister David Cameron at an EU summit on Tuesday to speed up the process.
Cameron, who on Friday announced his resignation by October in the wake of the referendum, said it should be his successor who leads the complex negotiations under Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty which sets out a two-year timeframe to leave.
Steinmeier called the European Union “a successful project of peace and stability” and said that there was a “strong desire” within the bloc to defend and strengthen it.
“I think it is absolutely clear that we are in a situation in which neither hysteria nor paralysis are permissible,” he said.
“We must not rush headlong into hectic action, pretending we had all the answers. But we must also not fall into depression or inaction after the British decision.”

Turkey’s Erdogan says Brexit
is ‘start of new era’

Ankara / AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Britain’s planned departure from the European Union signalled the “beginning of a new era” and warned the bloc could face new breakups.
“I see this decision made by the people of Britain as the beginning of a new era for Britain and the EU,” Erdogan said during a fast-breaking dinner, in his first comments on the shock referendum result.
“Like the entire world, we expected a ‘yes’ result in the referendum but it turned out like that,” he said. Voters in Britain decided on Thursday to leave the EU, raising questions over the future of the bloc.
London has traditionally been a strong supporter of Ankara’s long-stalled bid to join the bloc, but the issue turned into a key theme of Britain’s referendum campaign, which was largely focused on immigration. Erdogan said the problem today “is not Turkey but the EU itself.” He warned that new breakups would be “inevitable” unless the EU renewed its policies toward migrants, rising racism and Islamophobia in Europe. “Turkey will naturally take its place within the union if the EU sincerely questions itself and does what’s required swiftly,” he said.
“If that does not happen and the EU proceeds on its path by deepening its inconsistency, it will be inevitable for (the EU) to face new breakups in a short while.”
After applying in 1987, Turkey began EU accession talks in 2005 but its membership bid has been held up by an array of problems.