Once they were seen as the most loyal of all Europeans, but this week President Jacques Chirac faces one of the biggest battles of his political career as he launches a crusade to persuade the French to vote ”oui” in next month’s referendum on the European Union Constitution.
Chirac will use a televised debate on Thursday to lay out his arguments in favour of the draft European Constitution, amid mounting hostility. On Saturday, the president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, warned the French that they will plunge Europe into crisis if they reject the Constitution.
Alarmed by opinion polls that show the ”non” campaign in the lead, Borrell warned that rejecting the treaty on May 29 will have far more serious implications for the future of Europe than they imagine.
”Everywhere in Europe I come across a feeling of serious concern. People thought the problem would come from the British, but are discovering it is coming from a founding [EU] member state without which you cannot imagine the European project continuing,” Borrell told Le Monde.
”The ‘no’ supporters in France think their rejection will cause a salutary crisis or even salvation without a crisis. I think there will be a crisis and it will not be salutary.”
Successive opinion polls have bolstered the ”no” campaign — the latest, released last week, showed 55% of the French public was opposed to the Constitution, against 40% a month ago — and the government and mainstream Socialists have redoubled their efforts to win over the electorate.
They have resorted to gimmicks such as a tour of Casino supermarkets by astronaut-turned-minister Claudie Haigneré, visits by foreign politicians and explanatory meetings for homeless people.
The ”yes” campaign launched réunions d’appartement, at which leading politicians will be beamed into homes to answer questions by video conference. Chirac’s two-hour televised question time with young people — delayed by a week because of the pope’s death — aims to counter the most persistent trend: only the over-65s seem to be emerging as pro-Constitution.
At the same time, many of Chirac’s allies — such as former president and Constitution campaigner Valéry Giscard d’Estaing — are warning him against taking too prominent a role. They say the president, at a disadvantage for being in mid-term, could go the same way as his mentor, General Charles de Gaulle, who resigned after losing a 1969 referendum on regionalisation.
Some observers point out that the fact that the right-wing government and opposition are teaming up in favour of the Constitution has awakened anti-establishment feelings among the electorate. While Chirac takes the credit for having forced Brussels last month to reconsider the ”overly liberal” EU services directorate, his government’s tendency to blame Europe for France’s 10,1% unemployment rate could now be backfiring.
The text of the draft Constitution has not yet been distributed to French homes, but Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said: ”If the ‘no’ side wins, the French will have a much tougher time because we will be in a world of unbridled economic liberalism.”
In a video conference, right-wing UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy told farmers: ”If we are not in Brussels, who will defend the common agricultural policy?”
For the Socialist Party, the referendum has laid bare bitter divisions. While former European Commission president Jacques Delors has been brought out of retirement to campaign on the ”yes” side, opponents of the Constitution have found an eloquent figurehead in former prime minister Laurent Fabius, who is using the campaign to stage a political comeback.
But on closer examination, Fabius emerges as an ally of what Socialist MP Bruno Le Roux calls ”a bunch of racists and nationalists who portray the prospect of Turkey’s potential entry as a future Muslim invasion”. Even though Fabius is one of the few politicians whose arguments are based on the content of the draft Constitution, his bedfellows are National Front leader Jean-Marie le Pen, French nationalist Philippe de Villiers and Trotskyist Arlette Laguiller.
The Greens have been persuaded by the mainstream Socialists to support the Constitution. But when they launched their campaign, they were unconvincing, stating that they were pressing for a ”not entirely enthusiastic ‘yes’, but not a resigned ‘yes’ either”.
In the middle of the confusing message coming from his party, Green Euro MP Jean-Luc Bennahmias seemed to sum up the general mood in France: ”The desire to have a go at the establishment is what is motivating people to tell pollsters that they will vote against the draft Constitution. But when it comes to May 29, I am sure the picture will be different.” — Guardian Unlimited Â