The United Kingdom's exit from the European Union on Friday marks the "dawn of a new era" and of "change" for the country in the opinion of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, voiced in an attempt to bring people together after three and a half years of division over Brexit.
"It is not an end but a beginning," the conservative leader will say in a video message broadcast to the nation at 10 pm GMT, an hour before the UK's historic withdrawal, making it the first country to quit the EU.
"The time has come when the dawn and the curtain rise on a new act," he continues, according to extracts released by his office. "It is a moment of real national renewal and change."
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Boris Johnson also wishes to consign to history the divisions dividing the British since the Brexit vote, when 52% of them were in favour of leaving the EU at the time of the 2016 referendum. "Our job in government - my job - is to unify and take us forward."
To mark Brexit, the government head will on Friday assemble his cabinet in Sunderland (north-east England). The town, which voted 61% in favour of Brexit in 2016, is home to the main European factory of the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan, whose future was compromised in the case of a hard Brexit. This was avoided thanks to the conclusion of a divorce agreement with Brussels.
The Brussels Times
