Years after U.K. residents voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the country’s departure, better known as “Brexit,” became official at 11 p.m. local time Friday (or 6 p.m. on the East Coast).
The official exit begins a new, year-long phase of transition after years of complicated negotiations and setbacks and false starts — a turbulent period that underlined the extreme complications of the country’s decision to cut itself out of the larger organization of the E.U.
Next, the U.K. will work out its new legal and economic agreements with the European countries now divided from it.
The British government had said it would project a countdown clock on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence to celebrate the occasion, thougha campaign to ring Big Benat the Brexit hour failed to gain enough momentum (and finances).
Union Jack flags were also set to fly throughout London, while England was circulating a commemorative 50-pence coin to mark the official beginning of Brexit.
Johnson delivered a pre-recorded speech about an hour before the E.U. exit takes place, according toThe New York Times.
In his remarks, the prime minister reportedly called for unity against the backdrop of what has been a divisive and politically fraught issue, given the slim majority of voters who prevailed over a large minority who wished to remain in the E.U.
“Our job as the government, my job, is to bring this country together and take us forward,” theTimesreports Johnson said. “This is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act.”
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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left).VICTORIA JONES/POOL/AFP via Getty
Accordingto the BBC, the government said it would use the moment to “heal divisions, re-unite communities and look forward to the country that we want to build over the next decade.”
But critics have argued all along that Brexit only divides Europe further.
The hashtag #NotMyBrexit began trending on Twitter in the 24 hours leading up to Friday night’s exit.
“Feeling unspeakably sad today,” one userwrote. “Sad my children will grow up without the same freedoms I have enjoyed. Sad that great people will no longer be able to come and work, freely, in the UK.”
source: people.com
