From The Times Online:
THE leader of France’s ruling party has privately admitted that Sunday’s referendum on the European constitution will result in a “no†vote, throwing Europe into turmoil.
“The thing is lost,†Nicolas Sarkozy told French ministers during an ill-tempered meeting. “It will be a little ‘no’ or a big ‘no’,†he was quoted as telling Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whom he accused of leading a feeble campaign.
[…] The mood of pessimism that descended on the French Government after ten successive polls showing the “no†camp leading was echoed by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President, who drafted the constitution. He blamed the failures of the “yes†campaign on the half-heartedness of France’s leaders.
“Our current leaders are of course believers in the idea of Europe but in their heart of hearts they are not men and women who are inspired by a European feeling,†he told a French newspaper.
President Chirac will go on television tonight to deliver a last-ditch appeal to his country to resist the temptation to vote “no†and trigger a crisis for the whole European Union.
Imagine: Chirac spends years treating the rest of Europe as if it were the dim-witted step son of glorious Mother France, and now he’s stunned—stunned!— to find that the citizens of a country prone to De Gaullist nationalism don’t wish to be tethered to a gaggle of their très gauche lessers.
Funny how ol’ Jacques could have missed that. Too simplisme, most likely…
It ain’t over till the fat lady votes.
True enough.
And I won’t be surprised if the French actually pass this thing just to spite those of us who are chiding them.
He likely imagined the general French populace would be sufficiently crafty to understand that the EU constitution would allow their rediculously overburdened welfare state to sustain itself far longer than would otherwise be possible.
France’s politicians are so depressed and desperate now not because they believe in European unification, but because it’s the last alternative they could come up with to keep themselves out of complete economic colapse.
That strange sound coming from a Parisian graveyard is Jimmy singing, “This is the end… “
“French in disarray…”
Again, for crying out loud?
To think that the French people might be the one to dismantle a “unified Europe,” all without our help! Only took ‘em sixty years…
So, how long until we have to go over and save Europe from itself again?
Five, ten years?
Nah, I wouldn’t worry about that Tman. You have to have a military before you can launch a World War.
Oh, hell no. If anything, sell arms to every opposing side in that conflict.
Is it too early to start taking collections now?
The French think they are too good for Europe? I guess Latvians just don’t GET Jerry Lewis enough to suit the snail-eaters.
I just went and tried to read the whole proposed European Union constitution online. My eyes glazed over after about thirty pages. The thing runs at least a couple of hundred pages, and it seems to spell out every tiny little detail of how its subjects will be allowed to conduct their lives.
I think it comes from the fact that unlike the United States constitution, the E.U. version has the government conferring rights on its citizens, rather than the citizens having those rights inherently and conferring limited powers to their govermnent. The E.U. constitution has so much small print in it that it could pretty much be interpreted any way that those in power wish to do so. It looks like the cookbook for the ultimate nanny state.