UK campaigners gear up for EU vote

Internationaal Live: With Brexit passions running high, campaigners are hitting Britain’s streets and taking to social media ahead of European elections.

Political parties old and new are gearing up for what has been described as a “zombie” election that was never meant to be held until Britain delayed its scheduled departure from the European Union.

“I see it as a soft referendum,” said Isis Queresma-Cabral, 44, a French citizen in Britain for 19 years and a pro-EU election activist. “(It’s) an opportunity for us European citizens who felt hurt by the first referendum to voice that,” she said.

Brexiteers are similarly minded, with social worker Richard Harris, 37, joining anti-EU firebrand Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party. At its April 12 campaign launch, he predicted “the biggest slap in the face for the party political system that we’ve had in generations.”

Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to ask EU leaders for a second delay this month that could run until October 31 amid continued opposition from MPs to her divorce deal.

The government continues to claim hope it could be scrapped if talks with the main opposition Labour Party break the Brexit deadlock. But few are expecting that in the coming weeks, leaving a febrile atmosphere for European elections that have recently favoured anti-establishment forces in Britain.

Change UK, a new anti-Brexit party formed by breakaway MPs from Britain’s two main parties, could get votes from EU supporters. But Farage’s Brexit Party is topping the polls, picking up endorsements from Brexit supporters disgruntled at both the ruling Conservative and the main opposition Labour Party for their stances on Brexit.

Some Conservative activists have vowed not to campaign in protest at May’s current failure to deliver Brexit — or even to switch allegiance to Farage. Ashley Fox MEP, the party’s leader in Brussels, has called holding the election “a very bad idea” and campaigners have reported hostility and even violence while out canvassing.

However, some angry eurosceptics plan to boycott the poll over Brexit’s “betrayal”. “There’s no point voting,” said 35-year-old London construction worker Charlie Smith.

 

Dhaka, 28 April(campuslive24.com)//MI

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