British result sparks calls for more EU referendums

RIGHT-wing politicians across Europe are now calling for their own referendums in the wake of Britain’s decision to exit the EU.

In France, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen promised voters their own referendum and declared her support for Brexit.

She said: ‘I would have voted for Brexit. France has a thousand more reasons to leave than the UK because we have the euro and Schengen (free movement agreement).

‘This result shows the EU is decaying, there are cracks everywhere.’

The leader of the far-right Danish People’s Party said Denmark should now follow Britain’s lead and hold a referendum on its membership.

Kristian Thulesen Dahl said that if the Danish parliament cannot agree on reforms with the EU, a referendum could give the country a new opportunity.

‘Why not ask the Danes to decide the case in a referendum?’ he added.

And if Denmark goes ahead, Irene Wennemo, state secretary to Sweden’s minister for employment, said the anti-EU sentiment could spread through Scandinavia and raise the possibility of a vote in Sweden.

Eurosceptic feeling is also surging in the Netherlands, with two-thirds of voters rejecting a Ukraine-EU treaty on closer political and economic ties. Anti-EU politician Geert Wilders declared the result in April the ‘beginning of the end’ for the Dutch government and the EU.

Meanwhile, Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star movement has now officially called for a referendum on whether the country should keep the euro. Buoyed by big gains in local elections, Luigi Di Maio, a vice president of the lower house of parliament, said: ‘The euro as it is today does not work. We either have alternative currencies or a “Euro Two”.’

Sigmar Gabriel, the head of Germany’s Social Democrats – Angela Merkel’s coalition partners – said the British vote was a ‘shrill wake-up call’ for European politicians.

‘Whoever fails to heed it, or takes refuge in the usual rituals, will drive Europe against the wall,’ he added.

The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, called for a special ‘conclave’ of EU leaders as early as next month. ‘We need to keep a cool head and need to see what new way of cooperation would be possible,’ he said.

Poland’s foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, said the result showed ‘disillusionment with European integration, and declining trust in the EU’.

And Turkey, whose future membership of the EU played a key role in the UK referendum campaign, cast doubt on the likelihood of it joining in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

‘The European Union’s disintegration has started,’ deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli tweeted. ‘Britain was the first to jump ship.’