The latest developments coming out of London, namely the ongoing political uncertainty plaguing the British capital, demonstrates in the most striking way just how fortunate our country’s choice ultimately was, even after the disastrous and deadlocked first half of 2015, to remain within the inner core of the European Union and the European family.
It was June 23, 2016, when the British voted for their country to leave the European Union. BREXIT did not come as a bolt from the blue. It had an architect, and that was none other than David Cameron. The then-British Prime Minister was elected in the 2015 elections with a mandate to negotiate a better relationship—commercial, economic, etc.— — between his country and the European Union. He reached an agreement that both the opposition and his own party considered weak, and he proceeded to hold a referendum as a political maneuver to overcome this obstacle. He believed the result would be in favor of the United Kingdom remaining in the EU, but the citizens chose otherwise… Does all this remind us of anything?
The British are still feeling the effects of those results to this day. The decade from 2016 to 2026 went down in British history as the most unstable. Six different prime ministers—one every one and a half to two years—passed through the residence on Downing Street that everyone knows. The long tenures of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair seem like a distant dream.
At the same time, the economic consequences for Britain were, unfortunately, devastating. Companies closed down—and those that remained no longer had access to the single market —students could no longer stay there and chose universities in other countries, leaving apartments vacant and causing a sharp drop in revenue at restaurants, while at the same time trade barriers—including customs checks and higher prices due to exchange rate differences— brought businesses to their knees and undermined family budgets.
At the same time, Brexit has reignited even fundamental national issues within the United Kingdom, since Northern Ireland never wanted to leave the European Union. Now, there are politicians who view Northern Ireland’s relationship with London as a burden in every respect.
If we add to all this the emergence of extreme, nationalist, far-right political groups such as Farage’s, then one can understand the explosive mix that has built up in the once-mighty Great Britain.
No one has yet come forward to openly admit the huge mistake of Brexit. However, everyone believes that sooner or later, London will return to Brussels as a supplicant in order to rejoin the great European family.
And if all this happened in a country as strong and powerful as the United Kingdom, one can only imagine what would happen if Alexis Tsipras —the leader of the ELAS party, lest we forget—hadn’t performed that infamous about-face during that dramatic summer of 2015?
*Dimitra Kanderaki is an economist and a New Democracy politician representing the Southern Athens District.
