President Obama urged British voters Thursday to vote “in” when they head to the polls for the coming June “Brexit” referendum.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who supports union himself, pledged to have an EU vote if re-elected, which he was. Cameron is honoring that pledge by holding the June vote.
“You should be proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices — democracy, the rule of law, open markets — across the continent and to its periphery,” Obama wrote Thursday in an op-ed in the Telegraph newspaper.
“The European Union doesn’t moderate British influence — it magnifies it,” Obama continued. “A strong Europe is not a threat to Britain’s global leadership; it enhances Britain’s global leadership.”
“Together, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have turned centuries of war in Europe into decades of peace, and worked as one to make this world a safer, better place. What a remarkable legacy that is,” Obama wrote.
Regardless of Cameron’s and Obama’s sentiments, the Brexit vote looks incredibly close.
Much of the anti-EU sentiment comes from the British right, so Obama’s choice to publish in the conservative-leaning Telegraph is likely strategic.
Among the most prominent EU critics and “leave” supporters is current London Mayor Boris Johnson, who many observers think will replace Cameron as prime minister if the vote is to leave.
Johnson previously warned Obama against publishing such an op-ed.
“[The U.S.] wouldn’t dream of sharing sovereignty,” Johnson said last week. “There is an intrinsic hypocrisy … if that is what [Obama] is going to say.”
Johnson, like Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, is known for sometimes colorful — or controversial — language.
“If we fail to make the change now [on EU membership], then we will continue to be like passengers locked in the back of a minicab with a wonky satnav, driven by a driver who doesn’t have the perfect command of English,” Johnson said last week.
