I'm pretty confident they will, though I expect particularly harsh proposals will begin negotiations and be blunted somewhat over time. However, the immediate financial cost of the vote may become a pretty significant penalty for the UK economy well before EU exit terms come into focus. Those costs alone may be enough to bring about a new "whoops, about that..." referendum (I like "Bregret" for this possibility, but the Brit press is much better at portmanteaus than I am). Revotes are not totally without precedent either - Ireland, Denmark and France have all had revotes over EU treaty issues. But if the UK does leave, Merkel will make sure they don't leave without feeling some real pain for the rest of the EU to see and benefit from. Germany has much to lose from a disintegrating EU right now, and holds most of the cards in the EU's financial conversations.
I'm pretty confident they will, though I expect particularly harsh proposals will begin negotiations and be blunted somewhat over time. However, the immediate financial cost of the vote may become a pretty significant penalty for the UK economy well before EU exit terms come into focus. Those costs alone may be enough to bring about a new "whoops, about that..." referendum (I like "Bregret" for this possibility, but the Brit press is much better at portmanteaus than I am). Revotes are not totally without precedent either - Ireland, Denmark and France have all had revotes over EU treaty issues. But if the UK does leave, Merkel will make sure they don't leave without feeling some real pain for the rest of the EU to see and benefit from. Germany has much to lose from a disintegrating EU right now, and holds most of the cards in the EU's financial conversations.