High hopes: #hugabrit with Joe & Caitie - who founded creative lab Fancylamps - on June 18th.

High hopes: #hugabrit with Joe & Caitie - who founded creative lab Fancylamps - on June 18th. 

How #hugabrit tried to convince the British people to stay in the European Union. And failed.

(updated English version of a text published in German in Cicero and Die Furche)

Murder victim Jo Cox on The Guardian cover: A country in shock

Murder victim Jo Cox on The Guardian cover: A country in shock

The best and the worst British traditions come to show in these last days of panic before Britain holds a referendum about the membership in the European Union.

Polish film director Agnieszka Holland about her work at “House of Cards” and parallels between Frank Underwood and Donald Trump.

Interview published in profil, Austria

There are not many like Agnieszka Holland. The 67 year old Polish filmmaker has pushed through the glass ceiling: A feature film director from Europe playing in the first league of American TV series. And a woman. Holland directed some episodes of the Netflix-Hit “House of Cards”, which follows the power hungry couple Claire and Frank Underwood alias Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey on their way into the White House. “House of Cards” has been called “Shakespeare for the TV age”. Holland also directed the rough police series “The Wire” and the New Orleans saga “Treme”, both for pay TV HBO.

Clemence Alex

What do the subjects of her majesty really think about her? A pub crawl through the pubs with the Queen in the name.

Text: Tessa Szyszkowitz, Photos: Alex Schlacher

Before they discuss business the three gentlemen standing around the Queen’s larder take a good sip of beer. Then they are ready to talk about the upcoming 90th birthday of Elizabeth II. “She has done a fantastic job!”, says Nick Startup with such pride as if he had contributed to her success. Stuart Martin, 71, can only agree: “Especially if you consider that all 12 prime ministers who she had during her reign were all useless.”

Turkish author Elif Shafak talks about the relationship of her government to humour, the problematic deal for the refugees and the responsibility of European populists for the situation in Turkey.

She speaks softly, polite and thoughtful. Even so, each of her words are being heard loud and clear: Many of her 14 books have been bestsellers and many were translated in dozens of languages. Her most recent book was “The architect’s apprentice”, Penguin, 2015. The voice of the 44-year old Turkish intellectual carries considerate weight in social media, too. She has 1,7 million Twitter follower. Shafak lives in Istanbul and London, where she met profil in a coffeeshop in Marylebone for an interview.

Britain might vote to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23rd. Who are the supporters of Brexit in the United Kingdom and abroad?

“We are with them, but we are not of them”, Winston Churchill famously said in the House of Commons in 1953. The legendary British prime minister told his fellow parliamentarians that he was for the project of European unification - but with certain restrictions.

This has never changed. Since the United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973 Britain always insisted on a special role. Yes to the Common Market, No to Euro, Schengen and Political Union. Great Britain wants to keep the British Pound, its borders and the sovereignty of its national parliament. Until now this special status had been accepted in the country and by the EU partners in Brussels. But now the sands are shifting. 2016 could become the year of Brexit, when the British people leave the European Union. On June 23rd Britain votes in a referendum about its EU-membership. Although the conservative party leader David Cameron campaigns for a “Bre-main”, as does the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, the Out campaign seems to gain support. A recent poll of the “Daily Telegraph” showed a lead of Brexit supporters by seven percent.

Boris Johnson

Tessa Szyszkowitz - UK correspondent for Austrian news magazine profil

Probably not, but Europe now seems to face an additional threat.

Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, is campaigning for the UK to leave the EU but to stay in the single market—as if Britain could have its cake and eat it. Even if his motivation for voting for Brexit in the June 23 EU referendum is simply to succeed David Cameron as prime minister, he is endangering his country’s future in the EU, a trading zone of over 500 million people.