Posted on 06/15/2005 7:51:39 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview.
In an interview with the New York Times, his first since the French rejection of the constitution two weeks ago, the former French president apportions most of the blame to president Jacques Chirac for failure in the referendum campaign.
One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard.
Over the phone he had warned Mr Chirac already in March: "I said, 'Don't do it, don't do it'".
"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".
Mr Giscard d'Estaing also puts the blame on the present generation of political leaders.
Neither Mr Chirac nor other European leaders had a strategy for ratifying the constitution, he said.
"The present generation of leaders, whatever their strengths, never put Europe at the top of their agenda".
Mr Giscard d'Estaing was appointed by EU leaders at the Laeken summit in December 2001 to head a 102-member convention and draft a European Constitution.
Today Mr Giscard believes the constitution probably would have passed in France if the EU leaders had not left open the possibility of full EU membership for Turkey.
This week the bloc's leaders will meet in Brussels to decide the fate of the constitution, or "my document", as Mr Giscard puts it.
The ratification process should continue across Europe, the former president advises and predicts: "In the end, it will pass", he added. "There is no better solution".
am with you all the way. Arrogance is too gentle a description; the self-anointed elitist might as well have said, "let's just do this anyway! The sheeple will willingly follow where we, their Betters, will lead!!!"
Psychologically, it must be unnerving to receive a phone-book-sized package in the mail from the government, asking you to approve it as if it were a contract. There's a difference between making it available, and dropping a bomb in people's laps.
That said, I'm glad the French nannies were such ninnies. :^)
Boy. You're not kidding there. "We shouldn't show it to the "rabble" because they can't understand it."
Good grief. Where's Robespierre when you really need him?
This statement is just too nuanced for me.
- - "receive a phone-book-sized package in the mail" - -
All that paper wasted! Trees are saddened.
I think they understood, Valery.
You've got that right.
The "North American Union" is going to sail right through Congress, without so much as a say-so by Americans.
Not only alive, but one of the principal authors of that ridiculous pseudo-constitution.
Even the French think the French are as dumb as a stump.
I never realized that the French were so incompetent - any financial conman could have told them to get the check first and mail the prospectus later.
Just to keep things in historical perspective... the US Constitution (if memory serves) was never ratified by popular vote.........
Likely it would have failed to be ratified if it had been.
The masses did not vote to ratify the constitution, but representatives did.... hence a REPUBLIC was born.....
True absolute Democracy is a failed construct, it is simply mob rule...... Our founders understood this, and were vehemently opposed to it.... Its sad that not even 2.5 centuries later... we use the word Democracy as the ideal...
Democratic Republics are great constructs, true democracy is a horrible system.
Yeah, keep it secret. That's the ticket.
The french people are (amazingly) wising up a little tt the tin-horn socialist tyrants who run the show.
Oh, but I see the same arrogance right here in the good ole U.S. of A. One party, in particular, thinks the peasants are too dumb to handle their own affairs. From healthcare to driving to building a house, we are all just too dumb for our own good. Thus, democracy is just not for us and should be replaced (unless we are smart enough to vote correctly, i.e. for that above mentioned particular party) by wise and benevolant rulers, appointed for life (read judges).
It is happening as we speak.
Many states had specifically elected constitutional conventions to ratify the constitution. The text was printed in newspapers and vigorously debated in the press. Their was no attempt to hide the text of the document from the people.
Before the vote Giscard boasted about how well-written and clearly understandable the constitution was. He modestly took credit for it's clarity and precision. Amazing to read what he's saying now.
anything 448 pages long has to be suspect...
The peasants in most of the EU are used to the elitism and arrogance of their leaders. They really don't care and will not care as long as the declining economies keep paying the socialized benefits. They actually believe that their personal freedom has been diminished for a good cause - everyone will be taken care of by the government.
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