Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

World

Will the Dutch follow Britain out the door?

– A la carte deal? –

He pointed out that for Britain “as an island, it’s relatively easier to get out of the union” unlike The Netherlands which geographically is part of continental Europe.

Analyst Peter Van Ham said the Dutch mood would depend on whether EU leaders give the Brits a “kneecapping” for daring to leave, or decide to treat fairly a country “that twice saved them in two world wars.”

“If the UK gets a good deal, a kind of Switzerland deal, access to the markets, a pick-and-choose, a la carte kind of deal,” he said, then voters’ impressions that being out of the EU would be like “being North Korea would be less likely,” he told AFP.

After crisis talks in Berlin at the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel there was “no reason to be nasty” in the exit negotiations.

But Van Ham, senior research fellow at the Clingendael think-tank, warned some “people in Brussels are true believers and the European project is very dear to them.”

They might feel it best to “put some pressure on the UK for a while in the hope that the ghost of euroscepticism will be defeated,” he said, adding “I don’t think” it will be.

A poll under the headline “Afraid of Nexit” by the leading conservative daily De Telegraaf Saturday appeared to show the Dutch remain wary of cutting loose from the EU.

People believed a Nexit “would be bad for our wallets. And without Europe, the Netherlands will have less presence on the world stage,” De Telegraaf wrote.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The survey of 1,000 people found if a vote were held today, a majority of Dutch people – 51 percent – would plump to stay in the EU with some 34 percent choosing to go. Some 13 percent were undecided.

About The Author

Pages: 1 2 3

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News