{"id":320120,"date":"2017-08-03T18:33:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T17:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/we-thought-the-british-were-rational-french-ambassador-to-uk-shocked-by-brexit\/"},"modified":"2017-08-03T18:33:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T17:33:25","slug":"we-thought-the-british-were-rational-french-ambassador-to-uk-shocked-by-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/we-thought-the-british-were-rational-french-ambassador-to-uk-shocked-by-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We thought the British were rational\u2019: French ambassador to UK shocked by Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The French ambassador to London has called the British irrational for voting to leave the European Union.<\/p>\n

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In an interview with France 24, the French ambassador to the court of St James, Sylvie Bermann, blasted Britain\u2019s 17.4 million Brexit voters, arguing that their decision was based on feelings rather than reason.<\/p>\n

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Read more<\/p>\n


\n \"Emmanuel
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Bermann said the result of the last year\u2019s referendum came as a surprise, and was neither \u201cpragmatic\u201d<\/em> nor \u201crational.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, what surprised me most [during the tenure as ambassador] was Brexit because we have always thought of the British people as being very pragmatic and taking rational decisions based on their economic interests.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYet we know that this time it wasn\u2019t the overriding factor in the decision to leave the EU.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The ambassador, however, insisted that France does not want to punish the UK for Brexit, although she cautioned Theresa May\u2019s government not to harbor \u201cunrealistic expectations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Her diplomatic stance jars somewhat with that of French President Emmanuel Macron, who called Britain\u2019s decision to leave the EU \u201ca crime.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe British are making a serious mistake over the long term. [Foreign Secretary] Boris Johnson enjoys giving flamboyant speeches but has no strategic vision; the turmoil he created the day after Brexit proves it,\u201d<\/em> Macron said in March.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Former UKIP leader] Nigel Farage and Mr Johnson are responsible for this crime: they sailed the ship into battle and jumped overboard at the moment of crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTheresa May has handled it but what has been happening since then?<\/em><\/p>\n

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Read more<\/p>\n


\n \"President-elect
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOn a geopolitical level as well as the financial, realignment and submission to the US. What is going to happen is not \u2018taking back control\u2019: it\u2019s servitude.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 in July, a member of Macron\u2019s \u2018En Marche\u2019 movement and French National Assembly MP Alexandre Holroyd supported the position of his leader, scoffing at the idea of Britain leaving the EU without paying a hefty divorce bill.<\/p>\n

Holroyd said the UK should be \u201cvery familiar\u201d<\/em> with the idea of paying to be a member of the club, since it \u201cinvented clubs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The French MP also reaffirmed that the chief concern of EU leaders is getting the best deal for themselves rather than reaching an amicable agreement with the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll stand behind the commission to find the best deal possible for the members of the European Union, or the future members of the European Union, which are the EU27 countries.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: 3 Aug, 2017 16:03 The French ambassador to London has called the British irrational for voting to leave the European Union. In an interview with France 24, the French ambassador to the court of St James, Sylvie Bermann, blasted Britain\u2019s 17.4 million Brexit voters, arguing that their decision was based on feelings rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":320121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-320120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}