Hollande: The door to a Brexit reversal is now closed

FRANCE: Any attempt to reverse Brexit poses a threat to the future of Europe, former French president Francois Hollande has warned, urging the European Union to push through a decision he says Britain will ‘‘live to regret’’.

Hollande said the door to Europe was now ‘‘closed’’ and that prolonged Brexit divorce proceedings presented the bigger risk to the EU.

‘‘It’s shut. The vote has taken place and nobody can question it,’’ he said, dismissing attempts by the Remain camp to do so.

‘‘One cannot open a negotiation thinking that there is any way out other than leaving.’’

While denying any ‘‘spirit of revenge’’, Hollande said that ‘‘the worst thing would be for overly long discussions [on Britain leaving the EU] to prevent the EU from moving forward, and for doubt to set in about the irrevocable nature of Brexit’’.

Hollande said Europe had been generous enough in its handling of former British prime minister David Cameron’s demand for a renegotiation of the terms of Britain’s EU membership.

‘‘We all made efforts to give . . . David Cameron the conditions to enable him to go the British people and convince them [to stay],’’ he insisted.

‘‘If I have one lesson to take away, it is that referendums are boomerangs,’’ he said, adding that history had shown that ‘‘there is always a good reason to say no’’.

Hollande was speaking ahead of the launch of a memoir that is mainly dedicated to putting a positive spin on his five-year mandate, which ended with him being the least popular president in French history.