France: Chirac Cabinet tears itself apart over EU constitution

The Times ^ | 04/19/05 | Charles Bremner

[TigerLikesRooster]

April 19, 2005

Chirac Cabinet tears itself apart over EU constitution

From Charles Bremner in Paris

THE prospect of France rejecting the European constitution ignited a blazing Cabinet row yesterday after President Chirac signalled that he aims to sack Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whether the country votes “yes” or “no”.

M Raffarin, whose unpopularity is deemed to be a big factor in the troubles of the “yes” campaign for the May 29 referendum, rounded on Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister and close ally of the President, over damning remarks that he made against his own Government.

After a meeting with M Chirac, M de Villepin said that whatever the result in the referendum, “we will need policies that are much more determined, bolder and more socially conscious . . . in order to take into account the feelings, aspirations and frustrations which are being expressed”.

His words, on national radio, were interpreted as a message to voters from M Chirac that he had understood their grievances against his Government and would sacrifice M Raffarin after the referendum.

At a breakfast Cabinet meeting yesterday, M Raffarin tore into M de Villepin and the two had what officials called “a very violent dispute”. The Interior Minister, who formerly served as M Chirac’s chief-of-staff, told the Prime Minister that he had “spoken on orders”, implying that the President had instructed him to make the remarks.

M de Villepin, one of the most openly ambitious Cabinet members although he has never held any elective office, compounded his offence in the eyes of the Prime Minister by implying that M Chirac would give him the job. “All one’s life one prepares to take on certain tasks, which are sometimes difficult or unpredictable,” M de Villepin said. “After that, it is destiny. It is those above us who decide.” Discontent over M Raffarin’s policies is helping to fuel hostility to the constitution, now running at about 54 per cent of decided voters, according to polls.

M Chirac has said that he has no intention of resigning in the event of a “non”. He clearly thinks that replacing M Raffarin could defuse some of the voters’ anger. France’s appointed prime ministers are known as “the President’s fuse”, meaning that they take the heat for the head of state and are discarded when he wants a fresh start.

The Socialist party, which is in the process of destroying itself over the constitution, leapt on the Cabinet feud, mocking the Government for lacking any confidence in itself. “The Minister of the Interior no longer trusts the Prime Minister,” a party spokeswoman said.

Wounding the Socialist opposition was deemed to have been a motive in M Chirac’s decision last year to put the constitution to a referendum. The ploy worked, but not the way that he intended. A majority of Socialist voters has fallen in behind party dissidents whose “no” campaign is eclipsing the “yes” effort by Francois Hollande, the party leader.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1575357,00.html

[TigerLikesRooster]

I wish I were there to watch de Villepin and Raffarin going at each other.

[ken5050]

If Chirac resigns...he gets indicted the next day..<P.
BTW..what are the odds that the French govt comes up with an excuse to cancel the referendum?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #2

According to some Europeans, they could find a way to postpone it, giving the government more time to sway voters.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Army Air Corps]

Bureaucratic crapweasels playing with the date until they can ensure a "yes" vote? Why, scheming EUrocrats wouldn't do such a thing in older, wiser, calmer Europe? Would they?

/sarcasm

[Grzegorz 246]

This is horrible.

[Vicomte13]

They won't cancel the referendum.

The French voters are moving, and when the French start to move as a people, there is nothing the government can do other than get behind the movement.

There is no history whatever of a French government since the days of the Kings standing against a majority popular movement. The People will not stand for it.

Chirac tries to cancel an election, and there will be a general strike that will last and last and last until Chirac relents, the election is held, and then resigns, after which he will be prosecuted.

The Gouvernement knows that they are going to lose this. They are trying to reposition themselves to be "more royal than the King" on nationalism issues, so that when it happens, Raffarin is out and a new Prime Minister is in who can talk the old RPR language of "La France, la France, la France..."

The catastrophe will be, though, that the yes-man Dominique de Villepin will probably get the job. Chirac is like an old king. He is out of touch and the sand is running out of the glass for him. He is not the President because the People agreed with his policies. He is the President because his opponent was Jean Marie Le Pen, and even the Communists voted for a rightist to protest against Le Pen being the competitor.

Villepin is a pretty-boy yes man who has flattered the arrogance of the old King. That is it. He has no political skills to recommend him. We all saw his diplomatic skills in handling the Americans over the Iraq War. France did not need to get so vocally on the wrong side of that war, and become a veritable enemy of the US, in US Administration official thinking. That was Villepin's doing, with his histrionics.

Everyone sees this.
But Chirac does not see it.
In Elysee with his old guard around him who will tell him what he wants to hear - and there is no-one more unctuously ingratiating than Dominique de Villepin when he wants something from you - Chirac continues to miscalculate.

But he knows that the Constitution will fail, and France will assert itself as France, damn it, and someone will have to be properly executed (politically) for the bad result.

And then someone will have to be elevated to the post.
And that will be Villepin.
He will do for the President of the Republic what he did for French-American relations in the UN.

And with Chirac's departure from the scene in a few years, will also depart Dominique de Villepin. For when a King is gone, his courtiers are no longer the favorites of anyone unless they have been exceptionally good people who have supported others on the way.

Villepin is not that.

[longtermmemmory]

Din't the EU force Ireland to "re-vote" about some EU issue because they rejected the EU?

[Vicomte13]

"Din't the EU force Ireland to "re-vote" about some EU issue because they rejected the EU?"

Perhaps.
But that is Ireland.
This is France.

[dfwgator]

I wish I were there to watch de Villepin and Raffarin going at each other.

[Army Air Corps]

"Din't the EU force Ireland to "re-vote" about some EU issue because they rejected the EU?"

Just ask Happygal about that one.

[ken5050]

Thanks for the excellent comments and insight..one of the real joys of FR..BTW..would you address the comment in #3, please..I was not speaking on my own..it has been discussed in circles..indeed, many are mad at Chirac for choosign a public vote.I assume he felt he would get a large majority a victory of sorts for him..

[Leifur]

They will just keep voting until they get what they want. Who are "they"? The political elite that controls Brussel. Those Euronationalists have tremendous power and will do whatewer it takes to get what they want. Even though there is another bloc in the EU, the British-New Europe bloc, they will just be incorporated into the Euronationalistic bloc as soon as they go to Brussel, it is similar as fiscal conservatives start to spend when they go to Washington, or libertarians that start to make compromises when they go to the Alþing in Reykjavík.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #7

So, de Villepin destroys everything he touches and ruins his master in the process. I hope he could eventually find something positive to do.

[Army Air Corps]

Considering the innate divisions within French politics, what sort of coalitions do you see coming out of this? It has been a long time since I kept-up with the various major parties and their alliances. Do you see the left taking advantage of the situation or will some lesser party or parties gain from the coming political storm within the halls of power?

[Polyxene]

"I wish I were there to watch de Villepin and Raffarin going at each other."

LOL! Dueling pistols at 20 paces?? NAH -- they would probably just slap each other silly.

[Army Air Corps]

Balloons and blunderbusses a la the duel scene from Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines.

[RJL]

“All one’s life one prepares to take on certain tasks, which are sometimes difficult or unpredictable,” M Dominique de Villepin said. “After that, it is destiny. It is those above us who decide.”

What an A$$hole, France deserves this guy.

[RJL]

Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines

IMHO, One of the best movies ever made.

[Grzegorz 246]

Yes, probably the same will happen with this so called constitution.