Plenty of business leaders have weighed in on the possibility of Britain leaving the European Unions, with many of them voicing opposition to so-called Brexit and the uncertainty it would render.
The CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group Xavier Rolet added to that chorus Sunday with an especially dire warning, telling The Telegraph newspaper that Britain’s departure from the 28-member bloc would cause an “implosion” of the EU. It would be “the end of the European Union,” he said.
Rolet said Brexit would “be a geopolitical event that would reverberate way beyond the European Union. I think it would be devastating to the economy of the United Kingdom, and would not be good for anyone with their headquarters in the European Union. It basically leaves a competitive north and highly indebted, uncompetitive south.”
On June 23, U.K. citizens will vote on whether Britain should stay in the EU.
A “leave” vote would also result in an “advantage for Russia,” Rolet says. It would cause China to reevaluate its relationship with the U.K. and Europe while forcing the United States to intervene once more in Europe “with a view to putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
Rolet was one of 200 business leaders who signed a letter in February to support the “stay” campaign. His comments Sunday came during an interview about the London Stock Exchange’s pending $30 billion merger with German rival Deutsche Börse that will create one of the biggest platforms for derivatives trading in the world. Rolet is expected to step down when the deal goes through.
Despite his dire warnings about the fallout of Britain leaving the EU, Rolet said that it’s not up to businesses to tell the electorate how to vote. “But it’s not illegitimate for business to say, ‘if this happens, that’s what we think the consequence could be.'”
