Seven years have passed since the referendum on Brexit which, with a narrow majority, marked the victory of the British who wanted to leave theEurope and of which the whole UK he will never regret enough. It all began in February 2016 with the then Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron who, in order to strengthen his leadership in the party, had the imprudence to hold a referendum on the permanence or otherwise of the United Kingdom in the European Union. Cameron was convinced that the majority of his fellow citizens would have voted like him to stay in the EU but he was wrong. He lost the referendum and ended his political career. But, even more than Cameron, who proved to be decisive in the ranks of the Conservatives in winning Brexit was that uselessly cultured buffoon of Boris Johnson destined to later become Prime Minister. The correspondent of “la Repubblica” from London, Antonello Guerrera, recalled in the latest issue of "Friday", the excited phases of February 2016 in which Johnson's sister telephoned her communications chief begging him to convince her brother to "not do the bullshit of supporting Brexit". Johnson pretended he hadn't decided yet but was bluffing and in his heart he had already chosen to become the leader of Brexit and then leap towards Downing Street. "Brexit - says his former head of communications today - changed the history of the United Kingdom but without him there would never have been". And to think that 99% of the British diplomatic corps were against Brexit.
Given the results, Johnson should apologize to the British but he's not the type. Seven years after the referendum, the outcome of the United Kingdom's exit from the EU is merciless. Other than well-being and wealth, Brexit was a real "failure", the fine political scientist reminds us in "Sole 24 Ore" Sergio Fabbrini which documents with precision its unappealable judgement. According to the Wall Street Journal, Brexit has cost British households £6,95 billion more, but the country is growing less than the European average (only Russia has done worse) and is even below the pre-pandemic level, it has a higher inflation (from 2019 to 2023 food prices grew by 25% while without Brexit the growth would have been 8%) and poorer than before (by the end of 2023 there will be 5 million poor children in the United Kingdom). The Financial Times reports that “there is unanimous consensus among leading economists that Brexit has significantly worsened the country's economic performance”. That was to be expected. Only ignorance and blind anti-European fury could push for Brexit and the disaster arrived on time.
But – Fabbrini wittily asks – where are the European and also Italian nationalist leaders of the radical right who were praising Brexit? Matteo Salvini, for example, claimed triumphantly after the British referendum that “the time has finally come to regain control of our sovereignty”. We will ask him about it during the next electoral campaign for the election of the European Parliament. Conclusion: Boris Johnson down from the tower, but Salvini with him.
