In an interview with the British Guardian and six other European publications, former European Council President Donald Tusk said Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, BGNES reported.

In his first interview since leaving office last week, Donald Tusk said Brexit was one of  “the most painful and saddest experience” of his five years in office, a tumultuous period marked by the Greek eurozone crisis, bitter rows over migration and the election of Donald Trump, The Guardian reported.

Tusk contradicted some other European leaders, saying that it was still better for both the EU and the UK if Brexit did not happen. Many diplomats fear a second referendum leading to a remain result would mean festering divisions in the UK that would block the EU from making decisions – a view Tusk strongly rejected.

Donald Tusk blames former British Prime Minister David Cameron for "the mistake of organizing a referendum he had no chance of winning." Tusk criticizes French Prime Minister Emmanuel

Macron for saying that "NATO is in a brain death" and refusing to open EU membership talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania.

“If we want to treat Macron as a future leader for the whole of Europe, in a political sense, then for this we need a politician who feels more responsible for the EU as a whole and not only for France,” Tusk said. He compared Macron to Angela Merkel, who is campaigning for the integration of the six Western Balkan countries, stating that she is always ready to think of Europe as a whole and sacrifice some domestic and national interests to protect Europe as a whole.