I live in South West of France in a rural town. I have no connection with the UK and no personnel interest in the question but I do think that leaving the EU is a mistake.
I discovered your Nation for the first time in the 80's as a student.
I was in London in July 1981 for the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. I can remember this particular day. My host family and I were all dressed in Red White and Blue. This was not a problem for me as these colours were also my national colours even if we say in France Blue White and Red. We laughed about that. I also was there in 1982 when the victorious Task Force returned from the Falklands War. The patriotic atmosphere was astonishing. I realised then how a great country and a great people you were.
It’s definitely the same feeling I had, a few years later, when I visited the Cabinet War Museum. If General de Gaulle and the French Resistance are known in France as the savers of our Nation, Winston Churchill saved yours from the Nazi peril.
At this point I cannot forget all your young soldiers who lost their lives in Normandy.
In this regard we have forgotten that in June 1940 Winston Chruchill and Jean Monnet proposed a Franco-British Union which failed as our chief of government, Paul Reynaud, resigned a few hours before signing. France then entered in darkness...
After the Second World War the european construction began. Are the european institutions clear and efficient ? "No ! No ! No !" as Margaret Thatcher would have said.
But I don’t think that leaving the EU will be the solution.
We must work together to change these institutions, to make them more democratic and less bureaucratic.
We must not forget that our world has deeply changed. The last economic crisis proved how our economies can be weak. Last year terrorism killed almost 150 people in France. Last week, near Paris, another terrorist killed a policeman, returning from work, and his wife, in front of their young boy, aged three, who is now an orphan…
Conflicts have disapeared from Europe but our children are living now with a constant threat. All we have to face right now was unimaginable a few years ago. We are at war against invisible and sneaky enemies whose aim is to sink our societies in obscurantism.
However we have the same way of life and the same human values. We must continue to defend our democratic values and our humanity.
We all know that this will be easier if we are strong and united. Europe must be our tool and our weapon.
This is also a tribute we have to pay, together, to Jo Cox and all these victims of terrorism.