When the going gets tough, the British go to Germany.
The EU is seeing a surge of UK citizens applying to stay in the economic bloc, new data from the BBC shows. Germany is most popular, with nearly 7,500 new citizens from the UK in 2017. That’s more than 12 times the number from 2015, before the Brexit vote passed in 2016.
After Germany, France is the second-most popular, with 1,500 new citizens from the UK. That increase is less dramatic, only increasing by 4.7 times the 2015 number.
“I feel like Europe is pulling apart a bit at the moment,” Paul Petty, who is now a dual citizen of the UK and Germany, told the BBC. “I want to remain part of the EU.”