Frexit (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "French" or "France" and "exit") is the hypothetical French

withdrawal from the European Union Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides for the possibility of an EU member state leaving the European Union "in accordance with its own constitutional requirements". Currently, the United Kingdom is the only state to ha ...

(EU). The term is similar to ''

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

'', which denotes the UK leaving the EU. The term was mostly used during the campaign leading to the French presidential election of 2017. A poll by the

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...

in June 2016, before the

2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

, found

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to have a 61% unfavourable view of the EU, second only to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

's 71%, with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on 48%. However, when asked about an actual departure from the EU, 45% of French wanted to stay in the bloc while 33% expressed a desire to leave. The figure in favour of remaining increased to 60% in a subsequent poll in 2019. The

United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

held on 23 June 2016, which resulted in 51.9% of votes being cast in favour of exiting the EU, occurred during the

electoral campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

leading to the French presidential election of 2017. Following the referendum result,

Front National The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...

Leader

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician of the far-right National Rally, National Rally party (RN). She served as the party's president from 2011 to 2021, and ran for the French presidency in ...

promised a French referendum on EU membership if she were to win the presidential election. Former President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

met with politicians including Le Pen in the aftermath of the vote and rejected her proposal for a referendum. Fellow 2017 candidate

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (; born 7 March 1961), sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as president of the minor party Debout la France. He was its only member in the National Assembly (France), Nationa ...

Debout la France Debout la France (, , DLF), originally called Debout la République (, , DLR), is a French political party founded by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in 1999 as the "genuine Gaullist" branch of the Rally for the Republic. It was relaunched again in 200 ...

also advocated for a referendum.

François Asselineau François Asselineau (, born 14 September 1957) is a French politician and an Inspector General for finances. Asselineau was a member of the Rally for France (RPF) and UMP before creating his own political party the Popular Republican Union (U ...

's Popular Republican Union instead advocate a unilateral withdrawal of the EU using

article 50 Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides for the possibility of an EU member state leaving the European Union "in accordance with its own constitutional requirements". Currently, the United Kingdom is the only state to hav ...

of the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is a European agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by all EU member states o ...

. In an early use of the term Frexit, Le Pen said "Just call me Madame Frexit" in a Bloomberg Television interview she gave journalist Caroline Connan on 23 June 2015, one year before the

referendum in June 2016. In a January 2018 interview with the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the po ...

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

agreed with

Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...

that the French people were equally disenchanted with

globalisation Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

and if presented with a simple yes / no response to such a complex question, they would "probably" have voted for Frexit in the same circumstances. In August 2019, ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' editorial director

Sylvie Kauffmann Sylvie Kauffmann (born 30 October 1955) is a French journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the newspaper ''Le Monde''. She worked for AFP in France in 1979 and as a foreign correspondent from 1980 to 1988. Kauffmann joined ''Le Monde'' as ...

argued that "Brexit has made Frexit impossible" and that Le Pen "no longer dared push her Frexit argument" by the time of the 2017 presidential election.

Surveys

In January 2019, pollster

Institut français d'opinion publique The Institut français d'opinion publique (IFOP; ) is an international polling and market research firm, whose motto is "Connection creates value". It was founded on 1 December 1938 by Jean Stoetzel, former Sorbonne professor, after he met Ge ...

conducted a survey on several questions that might be asked were the

Citizens' initiative referendum The Référendum d'initiative Citoyenne (abbreviated RIC) is the name given to the proposal for a constitutional amendment in France to permit consultation of the citizenry by referendum concerning the proposition or abrogation of laws, the revoca ...

to be applied in France. One of these questions is about the exit of France from the EU. The result was that 60% opposed it. A

YouGov YouGov plc is a international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. History 2000–2010 Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim ...

/Eurotrack survey conducted in March 2023 among 1002 French citizens found that 48% would vote to remain in the EU, 26% would vote to leave, while another 26% would not know/refused/abstained.

Analyses

Likelihood

In October 2016 (shortly after the UK's decision to leave the EU), the British political analyst Simon Usherwood, a specialist on

euroscepticism Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies and seek reform ...

, opined that France would be the country which was most susceptible to following the UK. Also in late 2016,

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

, who was opposed to Brexit, predicted that France and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

would be the next countries to leave the EU. In March 2017,

Moody's Corporation Moody's Corporation is an American business and financial services company. It is the holding company for Moody's Ratings (previously known as Moody's Investors Service), an American credit rating agency, and Moody's (previously known as Moody ...

stated that "the risk that the election results (...) will reopen the question of the maintenance in France of a single currency and its membership of the European Union, is small but growing". At the same time, the Belgian

Herman Van Rompuy Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009, and later as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. Van Rompuy, a ...

, former

president of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...

, rejected the potential for a Frexit and a Nexit ( the withdrawal of the Netherlands).

Constitutional amendment

In an

OpEd An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted aud ...

for

in April 2017, French jurist Dominique Rousseau wrote "an amendment that would aim to suppress title XV relating to the European Union n the Constitution of France] is impossible because it would call into question the Republican tradition of loyal cooperation with other states.

References

{{Withdrawal from the European Union Proposals in France France and the European Union Withdrawal from the European Union Euroscepticism in France Public policy proposals

Surveys

Analyses

Likelihood

Constitutional amendment

See also

References