LONDON — The struggle over Brexit spilled onto the streets of London on Saturday in a major protest to demand that the question be put back to the people with a fresh vote that would include the option of staying in the European Union.
Organizers say that the “Put It to the People” march could be one of the biggest Britain has ever seen. The rally comes as an online petition calling for Brexit to be canceled surged past 4 million signatures.
Demonstrators from the Scottish Highlands and the Cornish coast were descending on the British capital on Saturday morning, spilling out of buses and subway stations with placards that read “Brexit, it’s getting silly now” and “Democracy is Knowing What You Voted For.”
Politicians including the London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were expected to address the rally later in the day.
The mass mobilization comes after a week of turmoil and confusion, where seemingly everything and nothing changed.
After a summit in Brussels, Britain’s Brexit Day was pushed back from March 29 until at least April 12, but remains unclear whether Britain will truly leave then or at a later deadline of May 22 or at all. (Cue cheering from the protesters at Parliament Square.)
Britain’s beleaguered Prime Minister Theresa May could try to muscle her twice-rejected deal through Parliament next week. But if that fails — and the odds are against her — then Britain could be headed for a softer Brexit, or a no-deal Brexit, or a general election or even, yes, a second referendum.
Since the Brexit vote in 2016, the prospect of a second referendum has gone from something once barely imaginable to something remotely possible.
Critics argue that a second referendum would be deeply damaging to democracy and a betrayal of those who chose to leave in Britain’s largest vote ever.
Politicians cannot, they say, keep asking the public the same question until it gets the answer it wants.
[Frustrated businesses ask: Will Brexit happen? When? And how?]
Supporters of a second plebiscite say that the first referendum was a singular moment in time and point to allegations of rule-breaking by the campaigns for and against. Besides, they argue, shouldn’t people be allowed to have a say on the actual Brexit deal on the table — isn’t that democratic, too?
With only who-knows-how-many days to go until Britain leaves the European Union, Brexit remains a divisive issue.
But the atmosphere has grown overheated — and toxic.
Anna Soubry, a lawmaker who quit May’s Conservative Party to join a new Independent Group, said she has received death threats for her pro-E.U. position on Brexit. She urged the public who supported a second referendum to come out on Saturday to deflate that kind of abuse.
Attitudes on Britain’s E.U. membership have shifted since 2016, when Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union.
For most of the past year, polls have shown a slight majority would now opt to remain in the bloc. Pollsters say that the small but persistent swing is partly down to changing demographics. Younger people are overwhelmingly pro-E.U., and those teens who couldn’t vote in 2016 are now of voting age. The majority of voters 65 and older voted to leave the bloc, and some of them have since died.
But if a do-over is going to happen, then it’s not just the people cheering and chanting outside of Parliament on Saturday that need to get behind the idea. Only a handful of Conservatives lawmakers are calling for a second referendum, and while the opposition parties back the idea, support from some quarters seems lukewarm.
A second referendum would also take an estimated five months to organize, and there is the vexing issue of what to put on the ballot paper. It would also probably mean that Britain would have to take part in European Parliament elections, which for some is deeply undesirable.
“It’s unlikely at the moment, simply because there just doesn’t seem to be support for Parliament at the moment,” said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London. But, he added, that in these febrile times, “anything is a possibility.”
The British prime minister has made it clear she is opposed to a second referendum. If she doesn’t pass her withdrawal deal on its third outing, however, then Parliament could start to seize control of the Brexit process. One option is to hold a series of “indicative votes” that would help to sift out what Parliament does want.
Some second referendum campaigners say that sequencing is everything and that a new plebiscite has the best shot of becoming a possibility if other options are first disregarded.
Of course, Britain could just cancel the whole Brexit mess. A petition to revoke Article 50 — effectively the E.U. exit papers — is now one of the most popular petitions on the British Parliament’s website.
But even though Britain can, in theory, pull the plug on Brexit, the more likely route to staying in the European Union would be by putting a vote to the people again.
That’s what Emma Knuckey, 38, said she wants. She voted to leave in 2016 in part because of the infamous red double decker bus with its claim that money sent to the European Union could instead be used to fund Britain’s national health-care system.
She’s no longer persuaded by the argument that Brexit would mean more money for Britain’s beloved health service and says she doesn’t like how E.U. citizens living in Britain have been used as “bargaining chips.”
“I’d rather put it to the people,” she said. “I don’t want people to be in any kind of limbo because I was swayed over by a mistake,” she said.
William Booth contributed to this report.
Read more
Theresa May must pass her Brexit deal next week. The odds are against her.
May’s party sheds supporters disgusted over Brexit hard-liners.
What on Earth is going on with Brexit now? Britain’s ongoing drama, explained.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/with-brexit-plans-adrift-protesters-jam-london-to-demand-that-the-people-decide/2019/03/23/eb1ca11a-4ce1-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html
2019-03-23 13:30:04Z
52780245827164
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar