Britain voted to leave the European Union Thursday, setting in motion a historic divorce from the continent that raised questions about the future of the soon-to-be 27-member bloc, prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to announce he would resign, and unleashed a storm of volatility on financial markets.
The vote’s final result — 52 percent for Leave and 48 percent for Remain — instantly triggered a global market selloff as the world fretted about the future of London, its biggest financial center. Britain’s currency crashed to a 30-year low and the FTSE share index shed billions of pounds in value.
Hours after the final result was unveiled, Cameron stepped out onto the doorstep of Number 10 Downing Street to announce his resignation in October.
“It would not be right for me to be the captain that steers our country to the next destination,” said Cameron, whose call for a referendum set the stage for Brexit. “The British people have voted to leave the European Union. Their will must be respected.”
George Osborne, the U.K. chancellor of the exchequer and architect of the “Remain” campaign, was also expected to step down.
Meanwhile on the continent, where Europeans were reeling from the shock of a widely unexpected outcome, EU leaders called for calm and said that above all, members of the bloc needed to maintain unity. In the back of many minds was the possibility that Brexit could set off a cascade of referendums in other states where Euroskeptic movements are on the rise.
At a press conference in Brussels, EU Council President Donald Tusk said there would be no “legal vacuum” as a result of Brexit.
“It’s true that the past years have been the most difficult ones in the history of our Union,” the Polish leader said. “But I always remember what my father used to tell me: What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
He added: “It’s a historic moment but for sure, it’s not a moment for hysterical reactions.”
With the European Union facing the biggest blow to its development since its founding, foreign ministers of founding states including Germany and France announced an emergency meeting Saturday in Berlin.
The rapid-response meeting will precede a summit of all EU leaders next week in Brussels, where the main topic will be how to react to Britain’s imminent departure. Tusk said a “wider reflection” was needed on the EU’s future.
‘Victory’
While Remain campaigners bore stony expressions Friday morning, Nigel Farage, leader of the Euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party, was euphoric.
Calling for June 23 to be considered a new “British Independence Day,” Farage declared victory over a well-funded “Remain” campaign that had won the backing of U.S. President Barack Obama, all other EU leaders and multinational companies wedded to the status quo.
“Dare to dream that a dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom,” said Farage shortly after 4 a.m. in Britain. “This will be a victory for real people, for ordinary people, for decent people.”
The European Union was a “doomed project,” added Farage, as Euroskeptic leaders from Marine Le Pen in France to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands rejoiced and called for referendums in their own countries.
Farage said after the results were made official that Britain had left behind a “failing” and “dying” political union and was now “free to make our own trade deals with the rest of the world.”
Cameron exits
Britain’s vote foreshadows years of complex negotiations with the EU. But it had an immediate political impact in Britain, which was sharply divided by geography, age and political leanings during an emotional campaign marred by the murder of pro-Remain Labor MP, Jo Cox.
Late Thursday, senior Leave campaigners, including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, released a letter urging Cameron to stay on as prime minister regardless of the vote’s outcome. The prime minister himself had said he would remain in office no matter how the vote went.
But as the result sank in Friday morning, Cameron emerged from Number 10 Downing Street to say he would leave in October, meaning that he will be present for the first negotiations with other EU powers on the future of Britain’s role in the bloc.
Cameron’s historic wager on the EU galvanized the British nation like few votes before it. Turnout was high, at 71.8 percent, with almost 30 million people voting. As predicted, Scotland and London were the shining lights for the Remain camp, but turnout in those areas was not as high as in many of the areas that voted Leave.
The anti-EU votes were highest in the northeast of England and in Wales — the former was expected, the latter was not.
The U.K. remains a member of the EU until it has negotiated its exit. The fallout was immediate.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the vote “makes clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union.”
All 32 local authority areas returned majorities for Remain. Although Northern Ireland voted in favor of Remain, Irish republican party Sinn Fein said Britain “has forfeited any mandate to represent economic or political interests of people in N. Ireland.”
One simple question
British voters faced a single question Thursday: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?” There were two boxes on the ballot paper, “Remain” and “Leave.”
A record 46,499,537 people were entitled to take part, according to figures from the Electoral Commission. The vote capped months of political drama, intrigue and surprises.
It started off calmly enough but soon became nasty, so nasty that it took a tragic event — the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox — to alter the course of the fight, forcing a halt to the campaigns and a softening of the rhetoric.
The library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, where Cox was shot and stabbed, was being used as a polling station Thursday and hosted a lunchtime vigil for the murdered politician.
In London, two polling stations had to be moved as the equivalent of a month’s worth of rain fell through the night into Thursday morning. The rain did not appear to have deterred voters, many of whom faced long waits to cast their ballot.
This was only the third nationwide referendum in British history. The last one took place five years ago, when voters rejected an attempt to change the way MPs are elected. The first one was in 1975, when voters were asked if the U.K. should continue to be a member of what was then the European Economic Community.