Thousands of protesters gather in Parliament Square to join in a March for Europe through the center of London on July 2, 2016, to protest the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union.(Photo: Niklas Halle'n, AFP/Getty Images)
Droves of protesters sang and marched their way through London on Saturday in protest of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Union.
Organizers staged a “March for Europe” from Hyde Park to Parliament, hoping to rally support for U.K. lawmakers to block the final steps to leave the 28-nation organization.
The hastily Facebook-organized march may be repeated in coming weeks, Jonathan Shakhosvsky<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
told the Guardian on Saturday.
“And if this isn’t big enough, we’ll do it again next week, and the week after. Normalize the mood, make it less ugly,” Shakhovsky said.
About 48% of the U.K. voted to remain in the June 23 referendum. The anti-Brexit crowd represented a vocal piece of that failing side that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>felt cheated, said Laura Honickberg, from London
in an interview with the BBC.
“(The leave campaign) was based on lies, about money that was going to go to the NHS and now isn’t, about what’s going to happen to the economy,” she said. “These are things that are going to directly impact me.”
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Critics of the protests took to social media and emailed news outlets to equate the marchers to “children throwing a tantrum,” according to the BBC.
“The vote was to leave the EU — that’s democracy for you. Get on with it, stop complaining,” Barry Needham, of Lancashire, told the BBC.
The crowd’s anger is represented by a similar public mood by Americans, according to a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released this week.
USA TODAY
USA TODAY poll: Americans see Brexit anger as widespread
Americans agree by an overwhelming 4-1 margin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that the United Kingdom’s vote to leave was a sign of anger and dissatisfaction that can be seen in other countries, including the United States. That meant just 16% of the 1,000 likely voters polled thought the move was an isolated referendum.
There was no official count of the protesters, but the
Evening Standard newspaper estimated the crowds were close to 30,000.
William Dramard, 36, of Manchester said in an interview with the
Evening Standard that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he was born in France, but moved to Manchester where he met his Finnish wife. “My family exists thanks to the EU,” Dramard’s sign said.
USA TODAY
U.K.'s 'Brexit' vote divides families
“One of the reasons my wife and I came here was because of freedom of movement,” Dramard told the newspaper. “We met here and started our life together here. This is what we consider to be our home now.”
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