Posted on 05/24/2005 5:18:54 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
MONTPELLIER, France Over sausage sandwiches and vast amounts of beer and local wine, the thousands of Frenchmen stood around and argued over how best to save France. Save France from Europe, that is, the Europe that France played perhaps the most crucial role in building a half-century ago. But now, say the anti-globalizers and anti-imperialists, the farmers and factory workers who crammed into the smoky exhibition hall in this southern city, Europe has lost its way. They may be treated like traitors and imbeciles by their opponents, they add, but they call themselves patriots.
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Poll after poll predicts that the French will reject the constitutional treaty in a referendum on Sunday. If that happens, certainly the 25-country EU will go on as before under existing treaties and France, one of the original six founders, will remain one of its most important members. But rejection will have deep repercussions for both France and Europe. It will be a humiliating personal defeat for President Jacques Chirac.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Il n'y a pas d'honte être français. Il y a seulement l'honte dans rester de français.
(There is no shame in being French. There is only shame in staying French.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
The French common man has better sense that I gave him credit. Then again, its really Europe that needs saving fromthe French.
The French are actually going to vote "no" because the Constitution is not socialist enough!
What France doesn't realize is that they are screwed either way. They are being left behind whether they are part of Europe or not.
The French people in the hinterlands are not arrogant as most people think they are like the Parisians. That said, they, like the Germans have totally bought into the socialist lie. And "Why not?" short work weeks...no stress. The reason that Scroeder's party got turned out in the Rineland Pfalz on Sunday is because he wanted to regulate the milk coming from the mother's teat. Got socialism? Yes and they will ride it all the way down to their ruin!
Is this a sign that the French Heartland is as frustrated with their snobbish elites as we are with ours?
sorry...that was Nordrhein Westphalen that had the election.
I equate the French a bit like New Hampshire. Here we have this little country that believes its relevent. Like New Hampshire during Presidential elections. Because they have their primary first they think they are relevent to who gets elected, when in fact they are a little state that means nothing.
I hadn't realized it, but I think you're correct in saying the French are screwed no matter what. Didn't they keep their francs while simultaneously using the euro? And wasn't the euro intended to be the great monetary equalizer, hence the raison d'etre for the E.U.?
Please correct me if I am wrong...
This is a good article, and thanks for posting it. I would care more if the French weren't such chicken snits. Always getting someone else to get their noses dirty. Well, it's time to ante up, IMHO. I read somewhere else on this forum that everyone is sick of the French...except maybe really cultured winos... :p
I am of French descent and went to Strasbourg in November. I love that place. It was easy to see why it was my granmere's favorite place on earth. She was an artiste and went to Strasbourg every summer. Oddly enough, I was not treated as an American. Maybe because I can say 'joyeux noel' pretty well, ya think?
Comme d'habitude, Frou
Wanna see ANGRY MEN?
Look at US betrayed Reps this morning.
We'll see. I predict repolling until the results are to the EU liking (remember Ireland and the Euro?) or just plain good ole vote rigging. Chirac ain't exactly above that.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
But, of course, within the European Union France is not a little state that means nothing. Within the European Union, France is the largest state, geographically, and the second largest in population. It with German population decline and French population growth, France will also be the most populous state in the EU by 2030.
On the worldwide stage, France is not a little state that means nothing. The French did, after all, bloc the US and UK from getting either NATO or UN approval of the Iraq War.
One may certainly question the French wisdom in the latter, but the fact remains that France was quite effective at frustrating the American diplomatic effort. Irrelevant little states cannot do such a thing.
Within Europe, France is probably the most important state because of the combination of economic and diplomatic power. Germany, for the moment, has greater economic clout, but it also has serious problems and is in steep population decline. Britain has a very different system and has little diplomatic influence within the EU. Europeans identify the UK with the USA, not Europe, leaving the British the perennial European outsider. France has the greatest diplomatic clout among the insiders, for good or for ill.
One is entitled to be annoyed at France, even to view France with antipathy. But it is self-deception to reduce France to a non-entity in Europe. Within the European Union, France is the most important country. That is why the French referendum is such a dramatic moment. When the French reject the European Constitution, it is dead. It will have to be renegotiated. Holland and Denmark or Spain can be bullied, just as small US states can be bullied by threatening to remove monies. Within the European context, France is the equivalent of Texas: too big, too strong and too rich to be bullied.
I married into a family of French descent, too. The Hugenots were attempting to take over and the family nursemaid saved the children. There is still a place in France with the same name.
Ireland, you say? Fascinating. Hubs has been to Waterford. Said it is beautiful.
My ancestors fled Holland to come to America in the early 1600's because of lack economic opportunities; others fled France to go to Martinique, and eventually to what is now the US, to save their heads in the French Revolution; and other ancestors fled Germany in the late 1800's to escape religious persecution and lack of economic opportunity. It seems like nothing has changed in the homelands. And with France's population explosion (virtually all Muslim), expect to see the guillotine in use in town squares soon.
Yes it was the French Marshall Plan that bailed Europe out of the aftermath of the war that those cheese eating surrender monkeys sat out under German occupation. Who wrote that version of their history..DeGaulle? The New York Times? The Washington Post? Newsweek?
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