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.
"I meant Dominique de Villiers, of course."
There is no such person as Dominique de Villiers.
You have a choice between two French crap-weasels ,
One, Villepin, an effete Eurocrat élitist snob with no experience, whose only claim to fame is his one moment of glory trashing George W Bush and the US in the UN, and
the other, Villiers, an ultra Nationalist xenophobic twit who is a Monarchist.
Since Rudy isn't available, they should have gone with Sarkozy, a new breed of French politician, with the smarts, abilities, and experience to do a good job. In addition, he is pro-American, pro-Capitalist, tough on crime.