EU support surges after Brexit

Despite forecasts of a domino effect, several Eurosceptic nations now see leaving as a gamble.

Support for staying in the EU has risen outside of the UK as voters associate the idea of leaving the bloc with the uncertainty now plaguing Britain. Picture: AFP Photo/Niklas Hallen.

Support for staying in the EU has surged in several Eurosceptic nations despite forecasts of a domino effect after Brexit.

The number of Danes wanting to remain in the EU has jumped to 69 per cent from 59.8 per cent before the British referendum result, according to a poll for a Danish news agency.

A similar pattern was found in Finland, where a post-Brexit poll found that backing for EU membership soared to 68 per cent from 56 per cent in March.

In Sweden, another country seen as flirting with departure, support for EU membership was 52 per cent according to a poll held three days after the British decision. This was up from 49 per cent at the start of last month.

Even in Italy, a founder member where anti-EU feeling has been running high, a poll by Ipsos Mori for Corriere della Sera showed a majority of 46 per cent to 28 per cent in favour of staying in.

The Brexit vote had generated “a wake-up call across Europe”, according to Marlene Wind, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen. Voters associated the idea of leaving the EU with uncertainty and “a big gamble”, she said.

While 40.7 per cent of Danes had wanted their own referendum on EU membership before Brexit, that figure had fallen to 32 per cent, polling showed.

“Prior to the Brexit vote there were lots of predictions that a British exit would trigger others to put their EU membership on the line. This poll confirms that nobody wants to put themselves in the kind of mess the British have created for themselves,” Professor Wind said.

A feeling of nervousness about leaving did not mean that voters had suddenly overcome all their issues with the EU, according to Jan Jorgensen, a spokesman for Denmark’s ruling Venstre party.

“This shows that when you can see that this is for real and the consequences that come with leaving the EU, the support becomes greater,” he said. “It is not because the people think the EU is perfect.”

The signs of growing support for EU membership came amid denial in some European capitals that Brexit would really happen.

“In five years there will still be 28 member states,” Hans Jorg Schelling, the Austrian finance minister, told Handelsblatt, the German business daily.

European leaders were discussing “all possibilities” among themselves, from Britain remaining in the EU to “a free-trade agreement on the Swiss or Norwegian model”, the former businessman said.

Mr Schelling added that the United Kingdom could break up with Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the majority of the electorate voted to stay, remaining members of the EU while pro-Brexit England went its own way.

Some senior German politicians were in two minds over whether Britain would leave. Peter Altmaier, chief of staff to Angela Merkel, suggested that a change of heart could be possible in Britain. “At the moment, that seems rather unlikely. But reflection is taking place everywhere — for example what it means to reverse 40 years of integration, to leave the single market or to lose influence over how it is shaped,” he told Der Spiegel. “British institutions should be given the possibility to discuss these consequences.”

Elmar Brok, a veteran member of the European parliament from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said that the referendum was consultative so the British government should be clear about whether it wanted to stay or leave.

The Times