A return of the United Kingdom to the European Union, from which it left after the 2016 Brexit referendum, has not been an option for many years, estimated the former British prime minister Tony Blair.
“The question of whether and how the United Kingdom returns to the EU belongs to a future generation. I think that is the reality,” Tony Blair said this Saturday in an interview with AFP and the European press agencies Ansa, DPA and Efe. , from the offices of his Institute for Global Change in central London.
The 69-year-old former Labor leader had strongly opposed Brexit, in particular campaigning in Northern Ireland to avoid the consequences of leaving the EU on peace in the province, rocked by three decades of violence until the signed peace agreement. in April 1998, almost 25 years ago.
The institutions of the province have been paralyzed for a year, due to the boycott of the unionist party DUP, which opposes the post-Brexit provisions in Northern Ireland.
“There are many things we can do together”
“I think the debate in the UK at the moment is more about how much we want to rebuild a strong relationship with Europe, what I think we should be doing, and I hope Labor thinks so too,” he said.
Before adding: “I think there are a lot of things we can do together.”
According to him, the United Kingdom and the EU have many issues to deal with in common, such as energy and climate, research or even defense and security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I think it’s very important to try to cooperate on technology,” he adds, “because otherwise Europe, which the UK is a part of, will be crushed between the two tech giants, which are the US and China, and maybe even by a third party, India”.
Ambivalence
“The immediate task is to solve the problems of Brexit, because the damage is evident”, Tony Blair also insists, evoking the disappointment of the British in the face of economic difficulties, illegal immigration or even the problems of the public health system, which ” Brexiters” had promised to solve thanks to Brexit.
After EU-UK tensions under Boris Johnson, holding a hard line on Brexit, then after short-lived Prime Minister Liz Truss, current Downing Street tenant Rishi Sunak appears to want a more appeased deal with The EU.
It recently concluded an agreement with Brussels to tighten post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, as well as a new agreement with France to combat illegal immigration.
L’opposition travailliste, largely en tête dans les probes à moins de deux ans des prochaines élections législativos, ne remet pas en cause la sortie de l’UE, son chef Keir Starmer promettant de “faire fonctionner le Brexit” s’il parvient au can.
“I think there is ambivalence among a lot of people in the UK about Brexit. Although I think people see the problems (caused by Brexit), they don’t want to go back to the divisions created by this debate,” Tony explains. Blair. “So I fully understand Labour’s position,” he concluded.
Source: BFM TV
