Angela Merkel has expressed that the outcome of the Brexit referendum left her “tormented” and described it as a “disgrace, a humiliation” for the European Union that the UK decided to depart.
In her autobiography Freedom, set to be released on Tuesday, the former German chancellor shares her dismay at suggestions she could have done more to support then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, who wanted to keep the UK in the EU. However, she ultimately concluded that Cameron bore the responsibility for the outcome.
Reflecting on the years leading up to Brexit, Merkel pointed out that the seeds for the UK’s departure were sown when Cameron, in 2005, proposed withdrawing Conservative Party MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP). The decision, which became reality due to the EPP’s endorsement of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, alienated the Conservatives from Europe’s political center.
The Lisbon Treaty introduced key reforms to the EU, which critics deemed undemocratic, fueling Euroscepticism.
Merkel devotes around five pages of her 700-page memoir to Brexit. She details her involvement in the pre-referendum negotiations with Cameron, her efforts to help Britain remain in the EU, and the protracted exit negotiations that followed the referendum. She admits to feeling deeply deflated by the referendum’s outcome.
“To me, the result felt like a humiliation, a disgrace for us, the other members of the European Union. The United Kingdom was abandoning us. This changed how the European Union was perceived globally; we were weakened,” she writes.
Merkel recounts how she had supported Cameron’s efforts to secure reforms in areas such as freedom of movement and trade, hoping these would sway Eurosceptics and allow the UK to remain in a reformed EU.
She writes, “I tried everything within my power to assist David Cameron,” even at the risk of alienating other EU leaders, who had distanced themselves from his demands.
One critical moment, Merkel recalls, was at the February 2016 EU summit when negotiations over the UK’s demands were at a peak. “I stood by David Cameron’s side throughout an entire evening to prevent his complete isolation. Ultimately, I convinced others to make compromises. I did this because I understood from my conversations with him that he had no room for maneuver domestically,” she explains.
However, Merkel acknowledges that there were limits to how much she could help.
She criticizes the UK’s decision in 2004 to forgo transitional restrictions on workers from Eastern Europe, allowing unrestricted immigration after 10 countries joined the EU. This, she argues, provided ammunition for Eurosceptics to cast freedom of movement in a negative light. In contrast, Germany and France had phased in such rights over a seven-year period.
Merkel also points to Cameron’s 2005 decision to leave the EPP as pivotal. She writes, “From that moment, he placed himself at the mercy of Eurosceptics and could never fully escape their influence.”
In her conclusion, Merkel describes Brexit as a “textbook example” of how early misjudgments can have far-reaching consequences.
The former chancellor admits that she wrestled with the idea that she might have been able to prevent the UK’s departure. “After the referendum, I questioned whether I could have made more concessions to keep the UK in the EU. But I ultimately concluded that the political dynamics within the UK at the time made its departure inevitable. Even with the best intentions, the mistakes of the past could not be undone.”
