How dare you call yourself European when you're British?
How dare you call me British without considering me European? We British cannot leave Europe any more than Picadilly Circus can leave London...
Many Britons do not consider themselves European.
...The history of Europe is unimaginable without Great Britain, nor can we speak of European literature without Shakespeare.
You are the ones who have left the EU.
Britain has not left Europe!
Well, from the European Union.
We have only left the EU... For now.
How do you know they will come back?
Because we have already passed the anti-EU peak that favored Brexit and now we are beginning to return, little by little, taking small steps closer to the EU.
One is to appoint Cameron as minister?
I know David Cameron well and he is a true Eurosceptic, an Etonian who looks like he stepped out of an 18th century imperial painting.
Well, he campaigned for the EU.
He only said that Brexit was worse than staying.
Instead he called and won the Scottish referendum and Scotland is still Great Britain.
He was right there when he said “It’s the economy, stupid!” And it was the economy that made the Scots stay. But Brexit was not decided by the economy, but by the fear of immigration.
And why would they vote to return to the EU?
The key is what the Labor leader, Keir Starmer, who will win the elections – the Conservatives are finished – will do; Although he is not clear about returning to the EU, we will return if the EU does well, and remains attractive.
What should the EU do to get it right?
Be an object of desire, the best place to live; because that is why Great Britain joined the European project in the 70s, and Spain in the 80s. And that is why Ukraine wants to join today. And, therefore, at the end of this decade we Britons will begin to return to the EU...
Let's see if the EU is interested in Britain returning and we see it as "attractive."
The British will begin by returning to the single market or the customs union; because they will see that if you are not a country that decides the rules, you are just a country that follows the rules.
What do you think makes the EU attractive?
I have now done research in Oxford on 21 countries and the conclusion is that millions of citizens of other countries still want to come to live in Europe.
Are they an opportunity or a threat?
If we Europeans experience it as a threat, we will paradoxically become less attractive to attract the talent, energy and youth of other countries.
Well now I see him very optimistic.
I woke up this morning in Barcelona and looked out the window: there was La Pedrera; the sun was shining; I will eat in an excellent restaurant with interesting Barcelonans...
Wouldn't it also be nice in California?
I would not be so sure of having good healthcare, pension, security... Today we compete with an advantage with the best places in the world to live, but we have panicked as a civilization: we fear the barbarians.
It is a classic since the Roman Empire.
The first time that the word “Europe” is mentioned is in the chronicle of the European victory over the Muslims in Poitiers, year 732.
Does being European mean fearing barbarians?
To the barbarians, Mongols, Turks... It is so easy to unleash that panic in the souls of Europeans! And today I detect it growing in all my trips, that is why we become nationalistic.
Is Russia Europe?
We Europeans have a habit of blaming ourselves for all the evils in the world. Putin has always been a Russian imperialist who does not want to join Europe: he wants to dominate it.
Where does Europe end?
Europe does not have a clear border...Except, perhaps, at the North Pole.
And where does Europe end in the south?
Neither Greeks nor Romans nor Carthaginians believed that such a southern limit existed. And Atlantic Canada would be a perfect member of the EU. And Russia when it doesn't want to be an empire.
Are we still whatever the US lets us be?
The US judges us weak, because we have depended on them for 80 years to be and feel safe. Now we need more hard power – army and weapons – to defend Europe without depending on them.
What would happen with Donald Trump II?
What will happen, because I think he will be re-elected and that the world will be worse with him.
I felt truly European for the first time when I lived in the US... And you?
I felt European for the first time traveling through Europe 50 years ago; but one of my children lives in China and the other in Canada. Europe now only depends on how it acts in the face of what happens in other large regions of the planet.
And what is the danger?
I went to see where my father landed in Normandy and there was a plaque with a quote from De Gaulle: “Patriotism is loving your country; “Nationalism is hating others.”
