MERKEL'S WORST NIGHTMARE: Germany calls for Referendum as 'people want to be free of EU
BELEAGUERED Angela Merkel is facing calls for a referendum to free German people of "EU slavery" in the wake of Britain's sensational decision to cut ties with Brussels.
By REBECCA PERRING
21:09, Tue, Jun 28, 2016 | UPDATED: 21:23, Tue, Jun 28, 2016
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Frauke Petry is calling for a German EU referendum
Far right figures in Alternative for Germany have promised to call their own vote if they clutch power in country's general election in autumn next year.
A party spokesman branded Brussels a "bureaucracy monster", before adding: "Next year the AfD will enter the German parliament and Dexit will be top on our agenda".
They called the vote a Dexit as it stands for a Deutschland exit from the EU.
"The time is ripe for a new Europe, a Europe of fatherlands, where we peacefully trade with each other, maintain partnerships and respect the will of the national sovereignties.
"One can only warn the German government not to fill the missing British net contribution with German tax money and thus continue the political fallacy."
However a chance of a German EU referendum may not be that simple.
The experience of Nazi manipulation of plebiscites has left a dent in the trust of polls on a national scale.
The country's post-war constitution currently only allows for referendums if the constitution itself or the territories of the states making ip the republic are to be reformed.
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Alternative for Germany are calling for a Dexit
Ralph Kampwirth of the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe said: "Germany is one of the few EU countries with no experience of national referendums.
"In the Weimar Republic there were two national referendums; during the Nazi reign, three plebiscites were held, with biased questions and blatant manipulation of results.
"A referendum does not mandate an organised political opposition - it simply requires a yes or no answer - one reason why both Napoleon and Hitler were enamoured of them."
Mrs Merkel and French president FrancoisHollande are said to be concerned that Brexit will lead to contagion and populist far-right parties would win support for their planes for the disintegration of the EU off the back of it.
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The experience of Nazi manipulation of plebiscites has left a dent in the trust of referendums
So far far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen has called for France to host an EU referendum as she declared her support for Brexit.
The leader of far-right Danish People's Party says Denmark should now follow Britain's lead and hold a referendum on its membership.
Eurosceptic feeling is also surging in the Netherlands, with two-thirds of voters rejecting a Ukraine-EU treaty on closer political and economic ties.
Anti-EU politician Geert Wilders declared the result the “beginning of the end” for the Dutch government and the EU.
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