"If Chirac had real vision, he would appoint Dominique de Villiers as his Prime Minister! "
I am assuming you mean Philippe de Villiers of the the ultra Nationalist Far Right MPM (Mouvement Pour la France)
Or do you mean Dominique de Villepin, the crap weasel in the $2000 suit and $200 haircut who trashed the US at the UN?
You should really get your cast of characters straight.
Are you sure you are French?
I meant Dominique de Villiers, of course.
This referendum was about immigration and emigration.
The immigration of poor people from parts unknown, and the emigration of jobs to those same parts.
America is facing an identical crisis, with its own immigration issue percolating to become the issue that decides the 2008 election.
The French are afraid for their jobs, and rightly so, just as the Americans are with open borders, and rightly so.
The center right favors Europe and the opening of these borders. But the people do not.
The left is protective of jobs but has no vision.
Le Pen and the Front National are discredited for their anti-Semitism.
But de Villiers, not de Villepin, stood up and articulated the reason why France rejected this treaty. The big reason is fear of jobs, but he distilled it into one word: Turkey.
And this is PRECISELY what France needs. A man who really SEES the issue, sees the threat to jobs. Immigration and emigration are the issues that will determine the face of this coming century. Villiers (not Villepin) grasps this truth. Unlike Le Pen, his solution is not Kristallnacht, but rather, limitation.
That is what Chirac needs. He needs a Prime Minister who sees the truth and will give voice and a movement to the fears of the people, harnessing them for something positive.
Villepin can do none of these things.