To leave or not to leave…that is the Shakespearean question the Britons are asking themselves ahead of the June 23 vote when the country will hold a referendum to decide whether it should stay in the European Union.
One of the leading advocates for a Brexit, former London-mayor Boris Johnson, was recently scrutinized for comments that he made suggesting that the anti-Brexit groups have similarities to Adolf Hitler and other infamous tyrants.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson argued that the “bureaucrats in Brussels” are using “different methods” from Hitler but aim at the same thing: “unifying Europe under one authority.”
However, according to a person familiar with Johnson, the article’s headline – “Boris Johnson: The EU wants a superstate, just as Hitler did” – may have been a little exaggerated.
As the Wall Street Journal reported, the person coming to Johnson’s defense argued that the headline was “misleading” although the quotes in the article were “accurate.” “Mr. Johnson was putting forward a view of European history that suggested efforts to centralize European power had all failed, be they were political or tyrannical,” the source told WSJ.
“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods,” Boris Johnson told the Sunday Telegraph. “But fundamentally what is lacking is the eternal problem, which is that there is no underlying loyalty to the idea of Europe. There is no single authority that anybody respects or understands. That is causing this massive democratic void.”
Britain’s PM David Cameron has been on the other side of the debate, advocating that the country stays within the EU, and has now become Johnson’s rival.
Johnson recently tweeted about an article on the Daily Mail, which highlighted leaked letters that reveal Cameron was “plotting anti-Brexit campaigns.”
Let the drama begin!
London’s current Mayor Sadiq Khan, who took office earlier this month, has also been vocal on the Brexit issue.
After being elected, he told Time that leaving the EU would be “catastrophic” for London.
“The E.U’s GDP is bigger than China, is bigger than the U.S. We’ve got a market of 500 million people in the European Union. They’re not just a market, they’re our cousins. If you look at London, there are huge social benefits, huge cultural benefits, huge benefits to our security, but the economic benefits are massive. More than half a million jobs in London are directly dependent on the E.U.” he said.
“I’m going to be a Labour mayor campaigning with a Conservative Prime Minister for us to remain in the European Union. It’s crucial going forward.”
According to Financial Times’ Brexit poll tracker, 46% would prefer to stay in the EU while 44% would vote to leave.
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