Germany’s president has launched a scathing attack on the politicians leading the UK out of the European Union, quoting the former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine’s warning that Britain is facing its greatest ever loss of sovereignty.
In an outspoken speech to the European parliament, his first as president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier told MEPs that the Brexiters would be unable to deliver on their promise to “take back control”.
“It is wrong to say, in my conviction, that in this world a single European country standing alone and without the EU can make its voice heard or assert its economic interests. Quite to the contrary,” the former German foreign secretary told MEPs in Strasbourg.
“If we, as Europe, don’t become fully fledged partners on the world stage we will all individually become the plaything of other powers and I suspect that is what Michael Heseltine, a Briton of all people, was thinking when he recently said in an interview that Brexit was the biggest loss of sovereignty he can recollect, and he may be right.”
Lord Heseltine was sacked as a government adviser last month by Theresa May for defying the whip by voting in favour of parliament having a veto over the outcome of the prime minister’s Brexit talks with Brussels.
In a full-frontal attack on the leading lights of the Vote Leave campaign, which included the foreign secretary Boris Johnson and the Brexit secretary David Davis, Steinmeier said the promises the campaigners had made for Brexit would come to nothing.
He said: “Populists paint the world black and white and turn fears into political capital … Take back control is a strong slogan that we hear everywhere. Nationalists are unable to deliver it and if it can be delivered at all, it is something we can only do together.
“It is irresponsible to lead people to believe that, in a world that is becoming more complex, the answers are becoming more simple.”
Steinmeier said those “who no longer cleave to difference between lies and facts” were “meddling with the foundations of democracy”. He added: “The world in which we live has become more insecure and unmanageable. Many people worry about the future. They are anxious about losing control.
“They are becoming receptive to the siren calls of those who say, ‘Come back into the warm familiar embrace of the nation. Close the borders, batten down the hatches. That’s the only way we will regain our sovereignty.’”
Describing Britain’s vote to leave as “bitter”, Steinmeier said, Germany fully supported the European project, and he dismissed Donald Trump’s claims the EU was a vehicle for German economic dominance.
He said the EU had delivered peace for 70 years and ensured that his own country had emerged from the terrors of Hitler’s rule. “Above and beyond reasons of state, there is something different and perhaps more important. For many Germans, Europe is now an affair of the heart.”
Switching to English, Steinmeir added: “In my country, yes we want Europe. We want to build a better Europe and we want to be a European Germany.”
Earlier in the day, Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest political bloc in the European parliament, the European People’s party, also warned that British politicians had not yet realised the enormity of what the UK was doing.
On the eve of the parliament’s debate and vote on its resolution detailing MEPs’ red lines for the coming negotiations, Weber said: “Some of the politicians in London have not understood what leaving the European Union means. It means being alone.”
The German MEP also asked that following May’s triggering of article 50 last week, British politicians in the EU institutions refrain from making speeches and seeking to interfere in the work of MEPs when they discussed Brexit and the future of the union. “It has a lot to do with respectful behaviour, I would say,” he said.
“I see in the council when there is debate about the future of Europe, Theresa May leaves the room, and I respect this behaviour.”
He said he believed Julian King, the British European commissioner for security, would “not have a lot of the detailed access to things that Michel Barnier will do”.
Responding to Weber, the leader of Conservative MEPs in the parliament, Ashley Fox, said: “The European parliament claims to represent all the citizens of the EU and until we leave, that includes UK citizens.
“Therefore, Conservative MEPs intend to continue playing a full role in all debates, including discussions on Brexit. To suggest otherwise is both unconstitutional and undemocratic.”
