GETTY Jean-Claude Juncker has been warned he risks sparking civil war over Brexit

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A political expert branded the Brussels chief’s actions “stupid and short-sighted” and said his Brexit negotiating stance makes him akin to “some latter day Nicolae Ceausescu”. In a blistering attack academic Sean Swan said the EU Commission boss is “doomed” because he is behaving like a “frustrated child” and not a statesman.

Juncker has been widely derided across Europe for his antagonistic behaviour towards Britain following the Brexit vote, which has seen him hurl a series of empty threats and give petulant interviews. EU leaders are so worried about his erratic and inflammatory behaviour that they are trying to freeze him out of the exit negotiations with Britain and deal directly with Theresa May.

And in scathing comments pro-EU Mr Swan railed against the destabilising effect Juncker’s behaviour could have on both the UK and Brussels going forward. In particular he expressed alarm at the EU chief’s apparent determination to punish Britain for voting to leave the bloc, in a move designed to ward off euroscepticism elsewhere. He said: “This may be the diktat of a high handed elitist or the pouting of a frustrated child, but what it most definitely is not is the stance of a statesman. “The referendum result happened for a reason, a majority of the people are unhappy with UK membership of the EU as it currently exists. “Juncker is going for the doomsday ‘out’ option on this rather than seek to understand why people are discontented and seeking to address their concerns.

GETTY The EU chief has taken an antagonistic stance towards Britain

GETTY Angela Merkel reportedly wants to get Juncker removed from his post

This is a stupid, short-sighted and doomed policy

He added: “This referendum result can – and should be – seen as a demand for reform. “If Juncker assumes the stance of some latter day Nicolae Ceausescu, he may well intimidate some into compliance in the short term, but he will also further stoke Euroscepticism. This is a stupid, short-sighted and doomed policy.” Mr Swan, a political lecturer at Gonzaga University, in the US state of Washington, and the London School of Economics (LSE), added that such a rash approach could cause the disintegration of the EU. And he pointed to the break up of the former Republic of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s, which descended into the horrendous Balkans War, as an example of how such a situation can quickly spiral into bloodshed.

He said: “Let nobody be deluded about what is happening here. We may be witnessing a sort of western 1989. “The collapse of both the EU and the UK is now a real possibility. Perhaps it will be relatively orderly as in the case of the Eastern Bloc, but maybe it will take on aspects of the collapse of Yugoslavia. “Unthinkable? Yes, but everything is unthinkable – right up to the moment it becomes inevitable.”

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