Alain Juppé, the frontrunner in the race for the French centre-right presidential nomination, has reached out to a post-Brexit Britain, suggesting that restrictions on free movement of people should be up for negotiation as he pressed the UK to quickly start “divorce” proceedings, reports the Financial Times.
Mr Juppé said he would push for a pragmatic approach in negotiations over Britain’s new trade status, adding there was room for compromise despite EU leaders warning that full access to the single market was only achievable with open borders.
Brexit, he said in an interview with the Financial Times, “does not mean we are going to punish the UK. We need to find ways to co-operate, to find a solution to have the UK in the European market, one way or another — whether that is part of the European Economic Area or something else”.
The 70-year-old politician added that everything was “up for negotiation”, saying: “The UK can do things differently when it is no longer in. But it should not prevent [other EU members] from moving forward if we want to.”
Mr Juppé joined the chorus of EU leaders urging the UK to notify its decision to exit the bloc by triggering Article 50 “as soon as possible”.
“They can’t say yes, no, maybe,” he said. “Now they must draw the conclusions of the vote. When you get divorced, you don’t stay in the same house. It’s not a question of days, but it has to be fast.”
The mayor of Bordeaux also warned that if he became French president he would scrap the Touquet agreement that allows Britain to carry out border controls in France — and keep unwanted refugees at bay.
The veteran politician, who opinion polls predict would beat Nicolas Sarkozy in the centre-right primary elections this year, said the bilateral deal has proven a humanitarian headache for France and could soon affect Belgium because migrants seeking to get to the UK set up new makeshift camps along the northern coast.