Brexit Is `Healthy Shock' for EU Imitators, German Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K.’s Brexit turmoil is a wake-up call that’ll put off other countries from leaving the European Union, Germany’s cabinet minister for European affairs said.

“I’m quite sure that if someone thinks they can solve problems by leaving the club -- that’s a view I rarely hear anymore in the EU,” Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth told German broadcaster DLF in an interview.

“That’s the only healthy shock that I can see right now in relation to Brexit,” he said Tuesday. “Otherwise, it’s a bad, sad and depressing situation.”

Roth, whose Social Democratic Party is Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner, spoke from London, where he met Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan on Monday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka

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