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Xavier Rolet added that the “UK leaving the European Union is the end of the European Union”. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Rolet, one of 200 business leaders to sign a high-profile letter in February supporting the campaign for the UK to remain in Europe, said such a prospect would be “devastating.”
“I think this 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.” Mr Rolet’s comments are among the most outspoken yet from the chief executive of a FTSE 100 company in the run-up to the UK’s EU referendum on June 23.
He said that the fallout would trigger a major shift in current geopolitical allegiances. “It will mean an advantage for Russia, it will mean a reassessment of the value of the UK relationship and the European relationship by China, and it will mean that the United States has got to come back in and intervene.”
Referencing the Marshall Plan designed to help Europe to get back on its feet economically in the wake of the Second World War, he continued: “The gaze of the United States would have to move back towards Europe, with a view to putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.” [...]