LONDON: Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday calling on the government to “rethink and reject Brexit.”
A stream of protesters poured through Trafalgar Square and stopped to boo outside Prime Minister Theresa May’s Downing Street office before congregating at a rally outside parliament.
The self-styled People’s March for Europe comes ahead of a key vote in the House of Commons on Monday night.
“Help! We’re trapped on a small island that’s been taken over by mad people!” read one sign held aloft above a sea of blue EU flags.
“Take back control from these clowns,” demanded a banner featuring photos of senior ministers, while another referenced the divorce negotiations, saying: “This best deal is the deal we’ve got!“
“There’s no good reason for leaving the EU — it’s all bad,” said Beverley Townsend, a 55-year-old from eastern England, holding up a sign calling for an “exit from Brexit.”
She and her husband Dave, both draped in EU flags, said they had been lifelong supporters of May’s Conservative party but switched to the pro-European Liberal Democrats.
“I don’t believe May listens to anyone, but we’ve got to do what we can to make the point that this will severely harm our country,” said Townsend.
Dr. John Wale, who works at Warwick University in central England, brought along his two sons aged 16 and 12, both of them holding up EU flags.
“It’s all so negative. Why would you throw away something that is so beneficial to appease the will of a few fanatics?” he said, adding: “The problem is there are more than a few.”
Louisa Paches, a 39-year-old Spaniard wearing a beret in the design with the EU flag, said she had lived in Britain for 13 years but was now thinking of leaving.
“I don’t feel welcome here,” she said, standing with her French partner and two young children, both of whom have British passports.
MPs will on Monday hold their first vote on a crucial piece of legislation intended to smooth Britain’s departure from the European Union.
The Repeal Bill would formally end Britain’s EU membership and transfer of around 12,000 existing EU laws and regulations onto the British statute books.
May’s government is expected to win the vote, but could face rebellions by pro-European members of her own Conservative party as MPs scrutinize the bill in the coming weeks.
May is also under pressure from Conservative Brexit supporters to ensure a clean break when Britain leaves the EU in March 2019, after ministers said they were seeking an implementation period to reduce any disruption.
Britons voted by 52 percent to 48 percent to end their membership of the bloc in a referendum in June 2016.
Thousands rally in London to protest Brexit plan
Thousands rally in London to protest Brexit plan
Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of arming rebels in escalating war of words
- The charge by Ethiopia’s federal police escalates a feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea
- The two countries fought a three-year border war that broke out in 1998
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian police said they had seized thousands of rounds of ammunition sent by Eritrea to rebels in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, an allegation Eritrea dismissed as a falsehood intended to justify starting a war.
The charge by Ethiopia’s federal police escalates a feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea, longstanding foes who reached a peace deal in 2018 that has since given way to renewed threats and acrimony.
The police said in a statement late on Wednesday they had seized 56,000 rounds of ammunition and arrested two suspects this week in the Amhara region, where Fano rebels have waged an insurgency since 2023.
“The preliminary investigation conducted on the two suspects who were caught red-handed has confirmed that the ammunition was sent by the Shabiya government,” the statement said, using a term for Eritrea’s ruling party.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told Reuters that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party (PP) was looking for a pretext to attack.
“The PP regime is floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years,” he said.
In an interview earlier this week with state-run media, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said the Prosperity Party had declared war on his country. He said Eritrea did not want war, but added: “We know how to defend our nation.”
The two countries fought a three-year border war that broke out in 1998, five years after Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia. They signed a historic agreement to normalize relations in 2018 that won Ethiopia’s Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. Eritrean troops then fought in support of Ethiopia’s army during a 2020-22 civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
But relations soured after Asmara was frozen out of the peace deal that ended that conflict. Since then, Eritrea has bristled at repeated public declarations by Abiy that landlocked Ethiopia has a right to sea access — comments many in Eritrea, which lies on the Red Sea, view as an implicit threat of military action.
Abiy has said Ethiopia does not seek conflict with Eritrea and wants to address the issue of sea access through dialogue.
