POLITICO A British exit from the European Union would encourage debate in the Czech Republic about whether they should follow suit, the Czech prime minister warned Tuesday.
“The consequences [of Brexit] could really be tremendous,” Bohuslav Sobotka told the Czech news agency CTK. “Debates about leaving the EU could be expected in this country in a few years, too, if Britain left the EU.”
Tomas Prouza, the Czech Republic’s state secretary for EU affairs and a key ally of the prime minister, said that Brexit would make it “politically much more acceptable” for others to propose exits.
“So far in the Czech Republic this is proposed only by fringe parties with minimal public appeal — but if Brexit happens, it would be much more attractive to propose a Czexit for parties like Civic Democratic Party [ODS] (ex-party of former president Václav Klaus) or for the communists,” Prouza said. “If such an idea attracts wider following, it entails a danger of returning us back into the Russian sphere of influence which is against our national interests. But many will work hard to accomplish that.”
Others, including U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, have also warned that a Brexit could lead to a domino effect by creating a template for other Euroskeptic parties elsewhere in the EU.
