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 the Guardian 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”.
According to El País, he said: “Great Britain works on the basis of a parliamentary democracy and not through plebiscites, which remind me of the Third Reich.”
In his statement to the Guardian, 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.
“Nor do I believe that the voting process itself was anything but an accurate representation of current thinking. However, I did say to the assembled journalists that the phrase ‘enemies of the people’ was one associated with Robespierre and therefore carried an unpleasant association; I did say that the press harrying of some judges of the supreme court was nasty (not Nazi).”
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)”.
He added: “I did indeed invoke the German plebiscite of 1935 for just that bullying aspect, but not because I think the Brexiters have descended into fascism. I did indeed say that I wished to live in a parliamentary democracy rather than in a country prepared to upend the totality of its public life on the narrow outcome of a referendum – another name for an opinion poll.”
McEwan also said Eurosceptics had never accepted the results of the last occasion when the UK’s membership of the EU was put to a popular vote and had fought to leave the union for decades.
“In a democracy that was always their right,” he said. “It follows that it is the right of those of us who voted to remain to continue to speak for what we believe is in our country’s best interest and not allow ourselves to be cowed into silence.”