Brexit craze: Who wants to follow in UK’s footsteps

28.06.2016 18:01

Brexit craze: Who wants to follow in UK’s footsteps

Though Brussels is now pushing Britain to leave the EU post haste, the scare tactics aren’t preventing eurosceptic politicians from keeping prospects for similar referendums in the spotlight of their election campaigns. Here’s a list of who could follow.

Norbert Hofer, who almost became the European Union’s first right wing head of state in Austria’s presidential run-off, says Austria could hold a referendum on EU membership within a year. “If a course is set within a year further towards centralization instead of taking [the EU’s] core values into account, then we must ask Austrians whether they want to be members,” Hofer said in a recent interview with Oesterreich.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen is asking for a referendum in France. At a recent press conference themed “Brexit – and now France,” she said, “I’ve been calling for a referendum of the same kind (in France) since 2013,” while stressing “The British people have given to the Europeans, and also the world, a dazzling lesson in democracy.”

In Slovakia, the Our Slovakia People’s Party announced that they will begin collecting signatures in support of a referendum. “It is high time Slovakia, too, left this sinking European Titanic,” said party leader Marian Kotleba. Meanwhile, Slovakia is set to take over the rotating EU presidency from the Netherlands on July 1.

Finland is jumping on the bandwagon too, as Sebastian Tynkkynen, chairman of the Finns Party youth organization, has also launched a petition calling for a vote on EU membership. So far, it has gathered over 10,000 signatures of the 50,000 required for it to be considered by the Finnish parliament.

Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders is calling for a ‘Nexit’ vote: “We want to be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders, and our own immigration policy.” A poll by TV station Een Vandaag last week showed that at least 54% of the Dutch population are eager to leave the union.