The French have sided with Merkel against the UK during the past two French gov'ts, one of the reasons Brexit was approved by British voters.?
“Soviet Union-lite”See post #9: David Cameron was allowed to renegotiate UK's membership and came away contented on a deal for the UK.
Cameron wasn’t content. He could hardly come out publicly though and say Britain was getting a bad deal right before the referendum when he was the champion for the Remainers. He told the others in the EAu that the danger of secession was real unless they would agree to show some flexibility on Britain’s concerns. They essentially said “take it or leave it.” Then they were shocked when British voters said “we’ll leave it then.”