Brexit: What is the aftermath following the historic vote?

European leaders, facing the biggest threat to European unity since World War Two, are divided over how swiftly divorce talks should start. As world financial markets reopened for the week, the British pound fell another 2.0 percent in early trade on Monday and U.S. S&P 500 stock index futures, the world’s most traded stock futures, fell 0.7 percent. “France, like Germany, thinks that Britain voted, Britain voted for Brexit, and the Brexit should be put in place starting now”, Sapin said.

Vice President Joe Biden, the administration’s less-filtered voice, was more clear about White House disappointment at the result when he spoke to the issue on a trip to Ireland Friday.

A statement issued by the European Council said the EU expected the United Kingdom government to act on the decision of the British people “as soon as possible, however painful that process may be”.

He said EU leaders will hold a summit next week without Britain and would “start a wider reflection of the future of our union”.

Separately, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the negotiations with Britain should not be conducted in such a way as to be seen as a deterrent to other countries, and that there was no hurry for London to trigger the process for leaving.

Those in the know say the referendum on staying or leaving the European Union was called by Prime Minister David Cameron to restrain opponents in his own Conservative Party.

But the vote to leave a bloc that Britain joined 43 years ago also pushed the UK Labour party into chaos over the weekend.

The Sun reported that Cameron had told an aide: “Why should I do all the hard shit?”

“I do not understand why the British government needs until October to decide whether to send the divorce letter to Brussels”, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said to German television.

Emergency meetings were called around Europe Friday to deal with the fallout from the vote.

He also called for reinforcement of the zone of countries that use the euro and said, “To move forward, Europe can not act as before”.

European Union members must “prove to be willing and able to not draw quick and simple conclusions from the referendum in Great Britain, which would only further divide Europe”, she said, adding that her counterparts “should “calmly and prudently analyse and evaluate the situation” before making lasting decisions”.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gestures during a news conference after the weekly cabinet meeting in Moncloa Palace in Madrid.

He also said whatever was the result of Sunday’s Spanish national election, the country would remain committed to the European project.

But Brexit now risks unraveling European Union financial services agreements that have helped turn Britain into Europe’s financial powerhouse, accounting for a quarter of all European Union financial services income, according to the Bank of England.

By now, you have probably heard that United Kingdom voters chose 51.9% to 48.1% to leave the European Union (EU).

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reads his government’s programme at the Turkish parliament in Ankara.

In London, Jeremy Corbyn made clear he would fight any attempt to unseat him by MPs blaming him for a “lacklustre” referendum campaign.

There was also much talk behind the scenes about how quickly the split could be achieved, with some member states reportedly wanting to remove Britain as soon as possible and before incumbent British Prime Minister David Cameron is replaced.

“Despite centering his campaign on Turkey, despite making several outlandish comments, British voters dismissed his claims and have informed Mr. Cameron that his views regarding Turkey were wrong”.

One outcome of the Brexit vote could be “less help from the United Kingdom and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies in the Middle East and elsewhere”, said Daniel Serwer, director of the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Speaking on a visit to Ireland, Vice President Joe Biden said, “We would have preferred a different outcome”, but also said the USA respects the will of the people. “We will continue to build relations with both parties as they forge a new relationship”.

“Britons decided yesterday that they want to leave the European Union, so it doesn’t make any sense to wait until October to try to negotiate the terms of their departure”, Juncker said to Germany’s ARD television station.

“The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered”, a choking Cameron said in his resignation speech, which marked the most tumultuous end to a British premiership since Anthony Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez crisis. “What is needed is worldwide cooperation”.