UK voters agree that Brussels bureaucrats are obsessed with revenge
Hungarian foreign minister comments on UK and Brexit
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A majority of British voters who expressed an opinion in a poll agree with the accusation that Brussels bureaucrats are bent on “Brexit revenge” rather than coming up with good deals with Britain which benefit all Europeans. The findings come after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insulted Britain in a provacative speech in Dublin appearing to liken the UK to Putin’s Russia and the IRA to Ukrainian freedom fighters.
According to the poll 42 percent agreed that Brussels wants Brexit revenge compared to 40 percent who did not but 18 percent did not have an opinion.
The poll showed the continued divisions in the UK with 82 percent of Leave supporters from 2016 saying the EU wants revenge but 79 percent of Remainers disagreeing.
There was also a dramatic age difference with 51 percent of 65-year-olds and over taking the negative view of the EU’s motives but only 33 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds holding that opinion.
But the poll was taken before Ms von der Leyen made her inflamatory speech to Irish MPs at the Dail which appeared to compare Britain to Putin’s Russia just shortly after she had held talks with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
She said: “This country (Ireland) knows what it means to struggle for the right to exist.
“Today, another European nation is fighting for independence. Of course, Ireland is far away from the front line in Ukraine.
“But you understand better than most why this war matters so much to all of us. Just like our friends in Eastern Europe, you know that in Ukraine there is more at stake than the future of one country alone.
“Ukraine is fighting for freedom itself; for self-rule; for the rules-based global order. And Ireland has gone above and beyond in its support to Ukrainians.”
The speech came as the EU is still trying to take the high moral ground over the Northern Ireland protocol instead of attempting to find a compromise which will prevent supermarket shelves in the province being empty or mediciens being blocked from being taken from the UK mainland.
Brussels has been accused of trying to hive off Northern Ireland from the UK as an actr of revenge for Brexit, but in his exclusive interview with Express.co.uk Hungary’s foreign minister said that it was hurting all of Europe.
He said: “What the European Union should push for now is to try to minimise the loss caused by Brexit.
“But instead of a rational and mutual respect approach what we are seeing now is Brussles is making steps which bring us further away not closer.”
He added: “It is no question that they [Brussels] still have the revenge because they felt personally insulted by the fact that the British people stood up and took their liberty to make their own decisions about their own future.
“It is very strange for the bureaucrats in Brussels for a nation to have its own will and if it has its own will then it expresses it and represents it.”
As well as refusing to compromise on the Northern Ireland issue, other alleged acts of revenge include kicking the UK out of the Horizon programme for research and development and the Gallileo programme.
This is despite taking billions of UK taxpayers’ money for the projects and other schemes.
After her talks with Mr Cleverly last week, Ms von der Leyen insisted that there was a “more prgmatic approach” from both sides.
She insisted that the most recent talks in London had ushered in a “more prgamatic approach” on both sides.
But again she tried to pin the blame on the UK and appeared to suggest that it must suffer consequences for choosing Brexit.
She said: “But the consequences of Brexit and the kind of Brexit chosen by the UK cannot be removed entirely. The solutions we find must ensure the Single Market continues to function, in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU. If both sides are sensitive to this careful balance, a workable solution is within reach.”
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