It seems as though people are beginning to see who played a major part in Brexit......
"ONE of Germany’s leading business figures has launched a scathing attack on “childish” Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brussels bureaucrats over their behaviour towards Brexit Britain.
Hans-Olaf Henkel, the former President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), has called on them to grow up and strike a free trade deal with Britain.
Mr Henkel, who is one of the most respected business and political figures in his country and is now a Member of the European Parliament, has said a way needs to be found to allow the UK to stay as members of the common market and trade freely without free movement of people.
And in a furious attack on Mrs Merkel, he said she would go down in history as the politician who created Brexit for blocking a fair deal on border controls for David Cameron and opening the floodgates to immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
The hardline approach and threat of tariffs has, according to Mr Henkel, left many business people in Germany “very concerned” because they believe tariffs will hurt them even more than UK.
Mr Henkel described the behaviour of Mrs Merkel and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker as “childish and counterproductive”.
He said: “It is childish because it is obviously a psychological reaction to the vote of the British people and they didn’t expect it, they didn’t like it and they want to punish Britain for a psychological reason rather than a logical reason.
“It’s counterproductive because it will strengthen those people who think that Juncker, Merkel and other people are for even closer European Union and by doing this they will foster rightwing populist movements.”
And raising concerns about the prospect of a trade war with Britain, he said: “It is certainly bad for Germany no question.
“Now that the British people have decided we have to make the best out of it. If we have a hard Brexit, I would remind Frau Merkel that Germany is an exporting country and thousands of jobs depends on exports and one of our largest customers is the UK.
“So if we slam duties on British exports then the UK will slam duties on German exports going to Britain. So neither side is going to benefit from that kind of approach.”
He went on: “They [businesses] are concerned and I think rightly so and I don’t think Frau Merkel is helping. One in four jobs in Germany depends on exports and the UK is one of our largest markets.”
He called on Mrs May to approach the BDI - the German version of the CBI - for support because “they are Britain’s natural allies in this.”
On what should happen, he said: “I think we should offer Britain a clear membership of the common market to trade freely without free movement.
“The idea that free movement is a prerequisite of free trade is ridiculous. Other countries and regions are allowed free trade without free movement.”
He pointed out that a free trade deal deal with Canada has just been struck by the EU “which does not include free movement.”
He also vented his fury over the way Mrs Merkel handled the so-called refugee crisis when she opened the floodgates and allowed in more than a million immigrants into Germany.
He said: “Frau Merkel’s refugee policy was the final nail in the coffin which pushed Britain to Brexit.
It went like this: First story is she let in one million refugees, second story she lets them settle in Germany, story three she will give them passports, story four they will be all be able to come to London.
“Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson told those stories and I think it made the difference as do a lot of the British MEPs I speak to.”
Mr Henkel claimed that Mr Juncker and Mrs Merkel 'pushed Britain out of the EU'
He also warned that with Marine Le Penn making gains in France and Alternative for Germany (AFD) on the rise in his country, that Mrs Merkel has unleashed a new wave of far right politicsa on the continent.
With the main German election next year he noted: “Support for Merkel’s party has shrunk
“AFD - which I resigned from after it was infiltrated by racists - had almost disappeared and now it is back as a force and will get over the five per cent threshold [needed for representation in the German Bundestag].”
He also said that federalists in Brussels in Berlin like Mr Juncker and Mrs Merkel “pushed Britain out of the EU.”
He lashed out over Mrs Merkel refusing to give way on freedom of movement of people when Mr Cameron had tried to renegotiate Britain’s membership and he contrasted it with the way she allowed the rules on movement of money to be ditched to save the euro in Greece.
He said: “If she had been as generous to Cameron on stopping free movement of people as she was to Greece on stopping free movement of capital then Britain would have probably voted to stay.
“When history is written people will say that Frau Merkel was responsible for Brexit.”
