The eventual return of the United Kingdom to the European Union, from which it left after the 2016 Brexit referendum, cannot be considered before many years pass, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes.
"The question of whether and how the UK will return to the EU belongs to a future generation. I believe this is the reality,” said Tony Blair in an interview with AFP and the European news agencies Ansa (Italy), DPA (Germany) and Efe (Spain), which he gave from the offices of his Institute for Global Affairs. Change, in central London.
The 69-year-old former Labor leader had strongly opposed Brexit, even campaigning in Northern Ireland to warn of the consequences of an EU exit in the province, which had been rocked by three decades of violence until the peace deal was signed. in April 1998, almost 25 years ago.
Institutions in this province have been paralyzed for a year due to a boycott by the unionist party DUP, which opposes the provisions for Northern Ireland after Brexit.< /p>
"I think the debate in the UK at the moment is rather about the extent to which we want to rebuild a strong relationship with Europe, which is “We have to, and I hope the Labor Party believes that too,” Blair said. “I think there are a lot of things we can do together,” he added. According to him, the UK and the EU have many issues that they need to deal with together, such as energy and climate, research or even defense and security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
< p>“I think it's very important that we try to get together on technology,” he adds, “because otherwise Europe, of which the United Kingdom is a part, will be crushed between the two technological giants, the United States and the China, and perhaps even from a third, India».
Ambiguity
“The immediate goal is to fix the problems of Brexit, because the damage is obvious,” Tony Blair also insists, citing the frustration of the British in the face of economic difficulties, irregular immigration or even the problems of the public health system, which the Brexiteers had promised to solve precisely thanks to Brexit.
After tensions between the EU and the UK under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who took a hard line on Brexit, and then with interim Prime Minister Liz Truss, the current occupant of Downing Street, Rishi Sunak, seems to want a more calm relationship with the EU.
Sunak recently struck a deal with Brussels to reshape post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland, as well as a new deal with France to combat of irregular immigration.
Opposition Labour, who are far ahead in the polls less than two years before the next general election, are not questioning leaving the EU, with their leader, Keir Starmer, to promise that, when he comes to power, he will make 'Brexit work'.
«I think there is an ambivalence about Brexit among many people in the UK. Although I think people see the problems (caused by Brexit), they don't want to go back to the divisions created by this debate”, explains Tony Blair.
"Therefore I fully understand the position of the Labor Party».
Source: APE-MPE
