Speaking with CNBC at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy, on Saturday, Tsipras said that a British exit without a formal deal should be avoided at all costs.
“I think the damage will be huge and it will be for all of us. Of course for the UK and the UK citizens first of all, but not only for them. I think the huge damage will be if there is a no-deal Brexit for all the European member states and especially for the strong states, their economies are very connected with the UK economy,” he said.
The former prime minister also distanced himself from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “populist playbook” and criticized his hard line on Brexit. Johnson has recently suffered several significant parliamentary defeats at the hands of opposition lawmakers, failing to call early elections or prevent a bill forcing the UK prime minister to ask for another extension to the October 31 Brexit deadline, which is to be signed into law on Monday.
“Populism is not to fight for the rights of your people, it’s not to fight in order to find honest agreement with your partners — this is a democracy, this is not populism. But populism is to sink your people in hate, to divide people and to fight without a goal for realistic decisions,” he told CNBC.
Tsipras, who became Greece’s leader in 2015 before being overtaken aside by New Democracy’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis during elections earlier this year, said that Brexit could be especially negative for the UK working classes and the country’s most vulnerable if there is no radical change in direction with the withdrawal.
