French voters reject EU charter (constitution)

BBC ^ | May 30, 2005

[Betaille]

French voters have rejected the proposed EU constitution in Sunday's referendum, according to an exit poll. The poll quoted by French TV gives the "No" side 55% - in line with surveys published in the run-up to the vote.

[TFine80]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/default.stm

The BBC too.

[stripes1776]

Haha, now its time for those free market anglo-saxon locusts to sweep in and destroy the EU by signing a US-UK free trade deal and maybe get some of those eastern Europe counties too.

That is the smartest bit of thinking I have heard so far in this entire discussion. Do you belong to a think tank? If not, you should.

[RightWhale]

The French are smarter than they seem. The Spanish are not.

[CasearianDaoist]

Actually, I think Europe is one of the few places it can work.

with out that superintending power" the East will balance Germany. France is going to have problems no matter what. Your vision of a superstate will not work in Europe.

The wild card there is the EUro. In this you are quite right, you cannot have a currency without political institutions. They may have to ditch it.

But there where some good things about the EU before they went completely bananas.

I should not say that for the real impetus behind all of this was not commerce, of course, but this bizarre simulation of the USA as vehicle for power from the Eurocrats.

There are good Europeans - we must not confuse them with their governments. The conservative movements over there need our support, no matter how immature those movements are. The media and the political classes in the EU suppresses them. Remember how scandalous it was to be a Conservative 30 years ago?

[cake_crumb]

Yep. The US Constitution wouldn't make an adequate bookmark in that monstrosity the collectivists are pleased to label a "Constitution".

[monkapotamus]

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Vicomte13, you called it.

[bozot]

I guess you will get what you were bargain for.

A more socialist Europe.

Because France will not give it up.
So it will redraw the constitution with a more red ink and sticks more red stars in it...

It will sout better for a communist China and the semi-communist Russia...

Yeah... that would be nice !!!! a communist EURASIA !!!

Let start celebrate the fench NO vote !!!

[AFPhys]

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie described the French rejection as "a defeat for France and a defeat for Europe".
----

LOL --- ROTFLMPO --- The French Defense Minister describes the French People as having defeated France... lol...

What a maroon... how french ... these guys invented the white flag ... lol

[CasearianDaoist]

Did he really "want" it, or was it really a political necessity? I realize that is was not a legal one.

[Regulator]

And you should see Schoeder lately

Ah yes, Herr Schroeder...all I can say is, Go Merkel!

[longtermmemmory]

I do not think they can ditch the euro (retooled deutch mark). Their entire ecconomies are not grafted onto it.

Besides they have only recently admitted inflation MIGHT exist.

[EGPWS]

They voted wrong so they'll have to do it again and again until they get it right.

Yea, like going on the offensive during war times.....

[Mihalis]

The French results are now 57%-43%.
The Dutch will be voting on Wednesday and polls show the "no" vote at 60%.

[Savage Beast]

Chirac's been in over his head since he passed up the opportunity to be a clown with the Ringling Brothers roadshow--The Peter Principle in action.

Now maybe he can get that gig back, Jimmy Carter can resurrect Hee Haw, and both of them can do what they're qualified to do.

[MadIvan]

Chirac is finished. He has been entirely emasculated for the remainder of his term.

A brilliant, wonderful result. The hour of revenge has struck.

Regards, Ivan

[CasearianDaoist]

Oh I did not mean tomorrow, but in time, over the next 10 or 15 years. I did not mean that this vote would cause that.

If the meaning of this vote is that the member states want to retain more independence, then there will be less financial and political integration. In this case problems like we are seeing in Italy today will multiply, and the EUro will have some real trouble. They may have to split it up. Maybe the old EC "core group" will keep it as a sort of "supranational DM," but I think that a currency that is not issued by a true nation cannot last for long. The same will be true about the ECB.

The EU could become much like the OCED. We may have just witness the high water mark for European integration in this generation, perhaps in our lifetimes.

[AFPhys]

Chirac will be replaced by an open socialist, I suspect.

The labor unions and retirees and government workers will choose someone promising six hour work days, PLUS 50 paid holidays a year (leaving a mite over 24hrs of working per week) PLUS retirement at age 54 with 80% of your last year's salary, PLUS full health benefits including such things guaranteed as heart surgery once a year, PLUS a five-year salary bonus upon retirement. Anyone who actually earns more than the average salary will have to surrender 90% to the government.

They aren't too far from this utopia now, but they will get there soon -


Utopia will last about 3.5 years before the whole country is bankrupt.

[July 4th]

This is such a great result. Raffarin will be out by the end of this week. The Dutch can let Europe have it too. Too bad about Britain though - you guys will unlikely get to register your opinion. I would expect Blair to scrap the referendum.

[MadIvan]

Blair is definitely going to scrap it - what's the point of us voting when France and the Netherlands have killed this awful document?

Regards, Ivan