The margin of victory for “Brexit” in the referendum was 52% to 48%.
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Many European officials fear the United Kingdom vote will play into the hands of the far right and left and fuel calls for referendums in other countries.
European leaders, facing the biggest threat to European unity since World War Two, are divided over how swiftly divorce talks should start.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, was reported as saying: “Politicians in London should have the possibility to reconsider the consequences of an exit”. “Previous year it was 17%, and falling”.
When will Britain trigger its “divorce” from the EU?
In the end, British voters appeared to choose the risk of independence over what many “Leave” supporters view as overreach by an undemocratic European Union governing apparatus that is only getting bigger and more intrusive. Anything less would be a slap in the face of democracy.
Still, the upswell of chatter – #regrexit is trending big on twitter – over whether Britain might be able to reconsider speaks to the disbelief gripping this continent in the wake of a vote that has unleashed financial and political mayhem.
Sterling has plunged, and Britain’s political parties are both crippled. The man who led the “Leave’ campaign, former London Mayor Boris Johnson – also of Cameron’s Conservative Party – is widely expected to replace Cameron as prime minister”. The second European Union official, asked whether Britain could launch the process and then ask to stay, said that was not foreseen by the treaty: “Once you trigger it, you cannot take it back”.
“It is very hard to see where the pieces are”.
His comments came as Washington confirmed that Secretary of State John Kerry will come to London on Monday for talks with Mr Hammond as part of a frantic round of diplomacy as the USA grapples with the fallout from Thursday’s referendum which will also see him in Brussels. It has never been invoked before.
Adam in Manchester voted Leave, but felt the reality of his decision sink in after watching David Cameron resign the office of Prime Minister.
But his European Union peers believe notification should be “as soon as possible” to minimise the chaos of a “Brexit”, and preferably by Cameron himself at an European Union summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a weird back-pedal some Brexit supporters have now revealed they “regret” their decision because they were “fed lies” by the Leave campaign and didn’t think that their vote would make a difference.
European officials and observers say such a deal is unlikely, especially considering the thorny issues involved.
He cautioned though that a lot of the market slump on Friday could be explained by the fact that the markets had rallied in the week prior to the referendum on the false assumption that the “Remain” side will win.
“I was really disappointed about the votes even though I voted to leave”.
By Saturday morning, almost 800,000 Brits had signed an online parliamentary petition calling for a second referendum.
In remarks last week, Britain’s Daniel Hannan, who is a member of the European Parliament, provided one of the best summations of why Brexit would be good for Britain.
Dozens of leading economic think tanks and heavyweight financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and British finance ministry, warned ahead of the referendum that the United Kingdom would probably fall into a recession in the event of Brexit.
There has been anger among large sections of the British public about having to leave the European Union, with the younger generation who overwhelmingly voted to remain particularly making themselves heard.
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European Union leaders, like a spurned suitor, called Saturday for the United Kingdom to move on quickly after its seismic vote to abandon the global bloc.
