Historic context
In 2016, the British spoke out in favor of “ brexit “, that is, the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU) : during a referendum organized on 23 June 2016, 51.9 % of UK voters approved Brexit.
After this referendum, the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU took four years to become effective. from 29 March 2017, British Prime Minister Theresa May formally started the Brexit procedure : wrote to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to announce the activation of the article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon that allows any Member State to voluntarily withdraw from the European Union. Since the announcement of the withdrawal decision, the United Kingdom and the European Union had two years to find a withdrawal agreement.
But negotiations to set the terms of the UK’s withdrawal and resolve its future relationship with the European Union have proven very difficult, even extending beyond the two-year period originally planned. Thus, in March 2019, British deputies rejected for the third time an agreement reached in November 2018 between the United Kingdom and the EU. Finally, in October 2019, following the appointment of Conservative and Brexiteer Boris Johnson as Prime Minister three months earlier, a deal was reached between the UK and the EU. The EU Withdrawal Agreement was finally adopted by the House of Commons on 22 January 2020, before being enacted the next day by Queen Elizabeth II, later approved in turn by the MEPs on 29 following January.
Thus, on the 31st January 2020, at 23 hours London time (midnight Brussels time), more than three and a half years after the Brexit referendum, the United Kingdom has officially left the European Union. The country remained a member for forty-seven years. Several thousand supporters of leaving the EU celebrated the event outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. We’re leaving the EU! We’ve done it ! We are never going back!
exclaimed Nigel Farage, the founder of the Brexit Party. For the first time since its creation, a Member State has withdrawn from the Union. A State that, although it had often maintained a tumultuous relationship with the European institutions and the rest of the member countries, was not only a large contributor to its budget but also a nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, London and Brussels still had to negotiate the terms of a free trade agreement, which finally entered into force on 31 December 2020.
media lighting
Issued on the newscast of 20 France hours 2 the 31 January 2020, this report is dedicated to the last hours of the United Kingdom in the European Union (EU). Having officially entered into force this communiqué at 23 hours, London time (midnight Brussels time), the subject does not offer images of the evening of celebrations organized by the government of Boris Johnson and supporters of Brexit.
Held on the same day both in London, around Parliament Square, and in Brussels, inside the European Parliament, it shows various factual and symbolic images of the UK’s departure from the EU. It thus opens with shots of the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, which represents the union of the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, which has become the emblem of supporters of Brexit. Likewise, the report ends with night images of public buildings in London illuminated with the colors of the British flag. The Union Jack also appears numerous times in the theme. : hoisted in Parliament Square at the initiative of the Boris Johnson government, in front of the Palace of Westminster, seat of the British Parliament ; adorning the Mall, the avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace ; wielded by pro-Brexit protesters in London, but also by British pro-Brexit MEPs in Brussels. TO “ brexit » she even has her face painted in the colors of the Union Jack. On the contrary, some Europhile protesters wave the European flag.
The report from France 2 also testifies to the careful staging that same 31 January 2020 by pro-Brexit UK MEPs to celebrate the UK leaving the EU : We see them leaving the European Parliament, in Brussels, symbolically walking in a group behind a bagpiper, pulling their suitcases and waving a British flag. Before posing in front of the European Parliament building and speaking in front of television cameras, as Brexit Party MP Ann Widdecombe does.
The theme also shows the opposition between two camps. : the one of the supporters of the Brexit – HE “ Brexiters » – and that of the defenders of the maintenance of the Union in the EU – HE “ remains “. The first celebrate this historic day – like this “ brexit » which addresses a « bye » on camera : Let’s go ! Hello !
The latter deplore it. This is also the case with the MEPs from the 27 EU Member States, filmed two days earlier, on 29 January 2020 : after the vote that sealed the departure of the British MEPs, MEPs from the other 27 Member States shook hands in the chamber and sang it’s just goodbye (Traditional Scottish farewell songwritten by Scotsman Robert Burns in 1788) to his future former British colleagues.
The official departure of the United Kingdom from the EU was the second international topic covered in January 2020 by the evening news of the five main French channels (TF1, F2, F3, Art and M6) with 38 issues, behind the international tensions between Iran, the United States and Iraq (cf. InaStat no. 57, June 2020).
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