They said the European Union was losing “not just a member state but history, tradition and experience”.
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The Leave campaign amassed 52 per cent of the votes despite widespread support for Remain in Scotland and major cities including London.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation on Friday, said his successor, to be chosen by October, should start the process.
Mr Juncker said the split was “not an amicable divorce” – adding that it was never “a tight love affair anyway”.
“I must say we had looked for a different outcome”.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said negotiations on a British exit, or Brexit, should begin “as soon as possible” and added that “intensive European discussions” are needed.
“It’s in Britain’s interest and in the interest of Europeans not to have a period of uncertainty that would have financial consequences, and that could have economic and political consequences”, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
“I think he’s actually been pretty stunned by the strength of the “leave” cause”, Cameron biographer James Hanning told reporters several days ahead of the referendum.
But most voters, angered by years of Brussels-based EU decisions they complained they had no say in, and anxious that European immigrants and Mideast refugees flooding into Europe would overwhelm the U.K.’s public services and take away jobs and housing, rejected those arguments.
During such negotiations, if the European Union were to offer a tempting deal-say, one that allows the United Kingdom to remain in the single market while putting some restrictions on the freedom of movement of European Union citizens (since migration was a big issue that riled British voters to favor leaving the EU)-then that would represent a “significant change” in conditions.
“We clearly need somebody who the public think of as an alternative prime minister”.
Britain’s vote to leave plunged the European Union into a new existential crisis as it struggles to recover from economic woes, public disenchantment with Brussels-imposed austerity policies in debt-stricken Greece and Europe’s inability to manage the refugee emergency. Britain’s “leave” campaigners have been accused of lacking a plan for the aftermath of a victory, and Johnson and other Brexit leaders were keeping quiet Saturday.
However, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday the government will honor the wish of the British people who opted for a withdrawal from the EU. “It’s a sad day for the European Union”, tweeted Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel – others cautioned that it was now up the European Union to prove its worth to the people of the continent.
Some opponents of the “leave” campaign accused it of pandering to racism and sparking anti-EU movements by far-right politicians in France and the Netherlands.
The EU for its part will be economically and politically damaged, facing the departure not only of its most free-market proponent but also a member with a UN Security Council veto. Stock markets around the world fell in Friday trading.
“It’s ridiculous, the racists have won”, she said.
Mr Corbyn said yesterday he would not resign, and said Britain must react “calmly and rationally” to the divisive referendum result.
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“This option will take the economic risk out of leaving and avoid most of the economic losses that Remainers warned leaving would entail”.
