Posted on 03/17/2005 2:52:47 PM PST by Cornpone
PARIS, March 17 (AFP) - For the first time a majority of French say they plan to vote 'no' in the national referendum on the European constitution to be held in May, according to a poll to be published Friday in the daily Le Parisien.
According to the poll, carried out by the CSA institute, 51 percent intend to vote 'no' and 49 percent 'yes'.
Less than half of French voters are likely to vote in the May 29 referendum, with 53 percent of respondents saying they will abstain or cast blank ballots.
The poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday among a representative sample of 802 over the age of 18.
The margin of error were not immediately available. The latest poll is likely to worry French President Jacques Chirac, who has been campaigning hard for a yes vote.
But the French electorate, angry over economic and labour reforms imposed by the conservative government and wary over Chirac's push to have Turkey become an EU member in the future, is in a volatile mood.
Street protests have been gathering pace in recent weeks and reached a crescendo last Thursday with a crippling national strike in a scene reminiscent of demonstrations in 1995 that eventually brought down the previous centre-right government.
With public support slipping away and the prospect of France -- one of the founding states of the EU, and its second-biggest economy -- becoming the country that torpedoes the EU constitution, Chirac had brought forward plans for the referendum.
Late last month, both houses of the French parliament held a rare joint session in the palace of Versailles to modify France's 1958 constitution so that the referendum on the EU charter can go ahead.
The main parties, Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the opposition Socialists, have officially backed a 'yes' vote, though both have dissident members who say they will join the Communist Party and the far right in voting against.
Former EU commission president Jacques Delors warned of a "political cataclysm" in France in the case of a 'no' vote, in an interview to be published Friday by the newspaper Le Progres.
"If the 'no' prevails, France will be in for a political cataclysm," he said. "In Europe, it will open a very serious crisis which will slow down European construction, to the disadvantage of France," he said.
Delors said he was opposed to calling a referendum to adopt the constitution as a vote by parliament "is as important democratically as a referendum".
The constitution aims to streamline decision-making and forge a more coherent joint foreign policy in the European Union, which is finding its current procedures -- often requiring the unanimity of members -- unwieldy following the bloc's expansion last year from 15 to 25 states.
France and another nine EU member states are to call their voters out to decide the matter. Denmark announced late last month that it would hold its plebiscite on September 27.
Britain -- whose citizens are the most eurosceptic in the European Union -- has yet to announce a date for its referendum, reluctantly agreed to by Prime Minister Tony Blair, though it looks likely to take place in the first half of 2006.
The remaining 15 EU members have decided to ratify the charter through their parliaments, without putting it directly before voters -- a choice that has generated some resentment, particularly in Germany, the EU's biggest economy and biggest contributor to EU coffers.
Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia have already ratified the constitution via parliamentary vote.
Leave it to the French.....demand others to join.....then turn tail and run the other way.
I'm ROFLMAO and then again I ROFLMAO. Now I'm going to buy a bottle of California Champaign and while I'm drinking it, ROFLMAO.
It would wreck all of Chirac's plans for an authoritarian Europe under French control. He, he, he.
Now that is contrariness beyond even France's usual high standards...
Leftist the world over are in apoplexy.
Maybe we could build them a torte or something?
It might bring down Chirac's government. He's invested everything in the EU constitution, and he may not survive a "no" vote. The French would then in all likelihood elect a hard left (or even communist) government to take Chirac's place, like what happened in Spain. Of course, France is already so virulently anti-American that thos would not make much difference.
The poll is rigged, and the French will overwhelmingly vote for the EU, at which point, they'll proclaim it a great come from behind victory that indicates solid, growing support (when the reality is that support is decaying, though still in the majority).
Make no mistake, most everything about the French is corrupt.
Precisely.
It might bring down Chirac's government. He's invested everything in the EU constitution, and he may not survive a "no" vote.
Now that would be the sweetest of all of the Iraq dominoes.
While I don't think CA-style, where almost every single thing is put on the referendum, is particularly good, I think it's sad that a decision regarding a very important thing such as EU constitution is decided by the parliament in some countries.
Wait...Kerry's going to France..to tell them, i their own language, why they should approve it..
If you want it to pass in France..get Jerry Lewis to support it..
A socialist government might not be so bad. As I recall our relations with the French during the Reagan administration with the socialist Mitterand than with the conservatives.
I really don't know whether to laugh hysterically or not.
Chirac clearly envisions himself setting up France as the center hub for this European Empire. I'm certain he even has delusions in spare moments he'll be it's Emperor. I'd love for Chriac to fail, his people abandon him in the vote and be run out in humiliation while allied countries see their leaders re-elected. I have no love for the stated intentions of the EU.
On the other hand who replaces Chirac? Likely someone worse. I am under no illusions the citizens of France are capable of producing someone better. I'd rather keep the diminished Chirac than allow someone worse, without the failed track record, to use that blank slate against us.
Since it's out of my hands, I suppose I should just enjoy the possibility Chirac, the overreaching bully of Europe, is uncomfortable tonight. LOL After all, he's given some of the eastern Block countries (our allies) a lot of grief without right.
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