Ian McEwan has clarified remarks he made about Brexit last week in which he was reported as saying that the British referendum reminded him of Nazi Germany.
In a statement issued to a foreign news agency on Monday, the author insisted that while he deplored the current intolerant and aggressive political climate, he had never suggested that either the British government or those who voted to leave the EU “even faintly” resembled Nazis.
Speaking at a press conference in Barcelona to promote his latest novel, Nutshell, last week, McEwan was questioned about the Brexit vote and its aftermath.
As well as comparing the treatment of the supreme court judges charged with scrutinising the Brexit process to Robespierre’s terror during the French Revolution, he also drew a parallel between the “bullying aspect” of the national Brexit debate and the German plebiscite of 1935.
However, reports of the press conference in newspapers and websites in Spain had suggested McEwan went further. Among the headlines were: “Hasty decisions made through plebiscites remind me of the Third Reich”, “Ian McEwan: Brexit came about through a plebiscite reminiscent of the Third Reich”, and “McEwan sees reflections of the Third Reich and Robespierre’s terror in Brexit”.
In his statement to a foreign news agency, the author said his words had been “somewhat garbled” when translated into Catalan and Spanish.
“I do not think for a moment that those who voted to leave the EU, or their representatives, resemble Nazis,” he said. “Nor does our government even faintly resemble the Third Reich”.
McEwan said he felt the general tone used by those leading the Brexit process had become “intolerant of dissent” and that those who voted to remain in the EU had been let down by their representatives in parliament, “who seem to have been bullied into silence. (Honourable exceptions have been Kenneth Clark and Michael Heseltine)”.
Courtesy: The Guardian