Europe is hurting after Brexit, not only politically and economically, but emotionally too.
The World View podcast examines the reaction after one of the EU’s most beloved members decided it had had enough of the relationship and would rather go it alone.
Reporting from Berlin, Derek Scally speaks about how many in Germany were "inconsolable" when the news broke.
“Germany is a remarkably Anglophone country, and the further north you go around Germany, particularly around Hamburg, it’s like a shire of Britain.
“They’re mad about British television and British fashion and British food. It’s a bit of an unrequited love affair.”
In Sweden, Ylva Nilsson, a journalist with Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagblad, says there had always been the feeling that the country had been "marching hand in hand" with the UK, and not just because of their many shared economic interests.
Ylva says that if Sweden is lamenting the loss of its best EU friend, so are the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland.
She says it’s as if the most popular kid in school had moved away.
For Ylva, a journalist who has watched the EU for decades, it is a sad irony that Britain led the way in the creation of today’s EU, having championed both the free market and free movement of people and pushed for quicker accession of eastern European countries.
Pragmatic approach
Derek Scally says the UK’s pragmatic approach to European deal-making will be missed in Berlin.
“[Germans] believe they’ve lost a soulmate when it comes to knocking heads together and getting real world deals done that reflect globalisation and the challenges ahead, as opposed to an emotional notion of Europe of the past.”
Also on the podcast, Denis Staunton reports from London on the Tory leadership battle.
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