Frexit
"Frexit" is a portmanteau word for a hypothetical French withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The term was mostly used during the campaign leading to the French presidential election of 2017.
A poll by the Pew Research Center in June 2016, before the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016, found France to have a 61% unfavourable view of the EU, second only to Greece's 71%, with the United Kingdom on 48%.[1] However, when asked about an actual departure from the EU, 45% of French wanted to stay at the heart of the bloc while 33% expressed a desire to leave.[2]
The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum held on 23 June 2016, which resulted in 51.9% of votes being cast in favour of exiting the EU, occurred during the electoral campaign leading to the French presidential election of 2017. Following the referendum result, Front National leader Marine Le Pen promised a French referendum on EU membership if she were to win the presidential election.[3] Former President François Hollande met with politicians including Le Pen in the aftermath of the vote and rejected her proposal for a referendum.[4] Fellow 2017 candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan of France Arise also advocated for a referendum.[5] François Asselineau's Popular Republican Union instead advocate a unilateral withdrawal of the EU using article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon.[6]
In an early use of the term Frexit, Le Pen said "Just call me Madame Frexit" in a Bloomberg Television interview she gave journalist Caroline Connan on 23 June 2015, one year before the Brexit referendum in June 2016.[7] In turn, the terms Grexit and Brexit had gained prominence as early as February 2012[8][9][10] and May 2012,[11][12][13] respectively, in the context of the Greek government-debt crisis.
In a January 2018 interview with the BBC, President of France Emmanuel Macron agreed with Andrew Marr that the French people were equally disenchanted with globalisation and if presented with a simple yes / no response to such a complex question, they would "probably" have voted for Frexit in the same circumstances.[14]
See also
References
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- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/call-me-mrs-frexit-le-pen-sees-france-euro-exit-next
- ↑ Economist Who Coined ‘Grexit’ Now Says Greece Will Stay in Euro. By Flavia Krause-Jackson. Bloomberg Business, 28 June 2015
- ↑ A year in a word: Grexit. By Ralph Atkins. Financial Times, 23 December 2012
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- ↑ "Brexit, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2017. Web. 9 May 2017.
- ↑ President Macron on Trump, Brexit and Frexit BBC, 21 January 2018
