The British Embassy in Bern with the flags of Great Britain and the EU.
On June 24 the official result of the vote was out early in the morning: the UK is going to leave the EU (European Union)! Shockwaves rocked the markets. Fortunes were erased. Nobody had anticipated that this would happen. Everybody thought that by a small margin the UK would opt to stay. It seems that even Boris Johnson, who as a lead figure for leaving the EU, was taken by surprise. He then soon announced that he would not want to be a candidate for the job of the next prime minister.
Great Britain is quite divided over the issue. Greater London was clearly for staying in the EU. Scotland and North Ireland also wanted to stay and might now possibly leave the UK to reapply as new members of the EU. At the moment the consequences of the Brexit no one is really able to fully anticipate and it will take years to sort it all out.
Switzerland is working closely with the EU but is also not a member of the EU. It is feared that some of our important negation points with the EU are now put on the back burner as the EU has more pressing matters to attend to.
In crisis moments many investors opt for the stable Swiss Franc. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is buying heaps of € in order to keep the Swiss Franc from rising and hurting our export industry. Switzerland also hopes that big UK companies will move their seat to Switzerland.
Another unexpected Brexit happened last week when during the Euro Soccer Cup the prestigious English team lost the eighth finals on June 27 to Iceland (1-2), a nation of just a few hundred thousand heads!
