Brussels--People and governments across Europe are watching Britain's elections nervously, with the continent sending the message: we want you in the family but not at any price.
From Paris to Palermo and Berlin to Brussels, David Cameron's promise to hold an EU membership referendum if he is re-elected on May 7 has caused jitters.
Willingness to compromise on Britain's treaty change demands goes only so far, especially when it comes to free movement, a key principle of the 28-nation bloc.
"I would never sacrifice freedom of movement for them," Anna Norris Dzugosova, a 54-year-old Slovak woman married to a British man, told AFP.
Her husband Ted Norris, a former clerk in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain's parliament, said he was "appalled" by the growing "little islander" mentality in his homeland.
"If Britain wants to leave the EU then let them go their own way."
Britain's election is being particularly closely watched in the EU's newer eastern nations, from which hundreds of thousands of people have moved to Britain to find work since the bloc's immigration rules were relaxed a decade ago.
Cameron wants to change the rules governing both migration and the benefits that EU citizens living in Britain are entitled to receive.
But there is growing scepticism that Britons would actually vote for a so-called "Brexit" if Cameron holds his referendum as planned in 2017.
AFP
