France would vote to leave the EU if it held a referendum, the country’s most celebrated living philosopher has said, as he warned that Europe has become “sad, grey and technocratic.”

Bernard-Henri Levy, who is respected on both sides of the French political divide as a writer and activist, said his fellow countrymen would “probably” abandon the EU if they were given the chance.

He also complained that Europe was being stifled by bureaucrats who have turned the continent into what he described as an intellectual wasteland with no space for “dreams and ideas.”

“If there was a referendum in France, they would probably vote to exit,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

“One of the problems of Europe – which is the explanation for this populist reaction like a Brexit – is that this Europe is not desired any longer. And it does not create desire.”