Reaction to Brexit Beuel resident Paul O’Hara became a German after the vote
Bechlinghoven · On 23 June 2016, the British voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. The day after the Brexit vote, Paul O’Hara from the UK applied for German citizenship.
Paul O’Hara will not forget 23 June 2016 in a hurry. It was the day the British voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. The next day, O’Hara went to the Bonn Foreign Nationals Office and applied for German citizenship. “We were totally shocked,” said the 57-year-old, who lives with his wife Birgit in Bechlinghoven.
The software developer still has a charming English accent although he has lived for more than 30 years in Germany. He was not allowed to vote as only those British living abroad for fewer than 15 years were eligible.
O’Hara says his initial reaction was also partly a protest. He was pleased when he later learned he could keep his British passport. “But I was prepared to give it up,” he emphasises.
O’Hara, who studied geology, originally only wanted to come to Germany for a few months. “I visited good friends who were sharing a flat in Rheinbach and had a room free,” he explains laughing. A few months turned into 30 years.
In that time, Germany has become part of him. “I have very good friends here and the weather is better than in England,” he says, smiling. And what does he miss about home? “My parents,” he says immediately. “Particularly now they are elderly.”
He still has good friends in Keighley, Yorkshire. “When he writes that he is coming, then they all step up,” adds his wife, Birgit. Just like last Christmas. Christmas Eve is traditionally spent in the pub in England, she explains.
There are a few things Paul O’Hara cannot do without, such as PG Tips, a type of tea that he brings back large boxes of after every visit to England. Branston pickle (a sweet-sour chutney), mint sauce and Robertson’s Scotch marmalade are also essentials in the O’Hara household. And then he reads the Independent and the Guardian online and seldom misses the BBC news.
It is clear to him that his compatriots wanted to protest. O’Hara followed how those against Europe stirred things up. “For example, red buses drove through constituencies with huge letters on them. They said that after Brexit, £350 million per week would go to the NHS health service rather than the EU. What rubbish! But people believed it,” says the man who has recently become German.
He is now seeing the consequences of the decision in his own family and circle of friends. His brother-in-law has lost his job as an engineer with an international company.
Paul O’Hara says we are seeing restructuring and the transfer of parts of businesses abroad everywhere. The British hotel and tourist branch has just complained it could be short of 60,000 employees because of restrictive entry policies. The English pound is losing value and prices for imported good, especially foodstuffs, are rising. “No one wins under Brexit,” says Paul O’Hara. (Original text: Cem Akalin. Translated by Kate Carey)
