The worrying prediction for Brussels was made by Thomas Aeschi, a right-wing politician in Switzerland from the Swiss People’s Party. He, and other politicians from Iceland, hit out at the suggestion that the UK may be “isolated” outside of the EU. Mr Aeschi made the prediction in 2015, just under a year before the UK voted to leave the bloc. He said: “There are certainly some countries that are on the line, waiting to see how the EU develops. If the UK were to leave, it could trigger a chain reaction.”
Mr Aeschi noted at the time that Denmark and Sweden “would at least start reconsidering their relationship with the EU”.
In 2016, two months before the UK voted to leave the EU, a poll in Sweden showed that the country could be inspired by Brexit.
The survey by Sifo showed that 36 percent of Swedes would want to follow the UK out of the EU in the event of a Leave vote.
The poll was tight, however, as 32 percent said they would still want to stay in the EU.
One of the main political parties in Sweden – the Sweden Democrats – has argued for Swexit, and may have had some impact on opinion in the country.
A poll in June showed that Swedish voters had a less favourable view of the EU than they did at the beginning of 2020.
The survey results came amid an increasingly fractious time for Sweden and the EU as finance ministers debated a landmark proposal for a jointly financed coronavirus recovery fund.
The proportion of Swedes in favour of EU membership declined to 57.2 percent in a survey by Statistics Sweden, from 60.1 percent in the previous November.
In 2019, German philosopher Ulrike Geurot echoed fears of a “chain reaction” in an interview with VPRO.
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He added that the UK had “enormous opportunities” outside of the bloc.
The Icelandic politician continued: “Everyone wants trade deals with Britain, you have a big, high earning market, and you buy a lot of foreign goods.”
However, Belgian MEP Phillipe Lamberts told Express.co.uk in December that the UK would lose influence outside of the EU.
The Co-President of the European Greens said: “I can recognise some people in the UK think the good old days of the empire can come back, and that Britannia can rule again. But this is over.
“The British people will soon realise they only represent one percent of the world population, and no, they don’t have an empire any longer.
“The only way to have influence is to be a part of something bigger.”
