La France dit NON!

Yesterday the course of European unification took a major hit as the French, in a nation-wide referendum, voted NON to adopting the new European Union constitution. EU regulations require that all 25 countries in the expanded Union ratify the constitution and thus far nine (including Germany and Italy) have done so. France, in spite of being one of the founding nations of the EU and (up till now) a powerful force for European integration, failed to ratify as 56% of French voters said NON and about 46% OUI.

The government of French President Jacques Chirac lobbied strongly for the YES vote but succumbed to growing attacks on the Constitution from both the right and the left of France’s complex political landscape. Counted among the anti-EU forces was the ultra-right wing nationalist (and racist) National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen. His unlikely allies included the French Communist Party (yes there are still communists in France—practically nowhere else in the world—but still in France!).

As was the case in the North-Rhine Westphalia elections in Germany a week ago, economic factors seem to have predominated in the French electorate’s decision making process. There seems to have been considerable anxiety that the new EU rules under the constitution document would make it easier for cheap eastern European labor to flood into France and out compete the better compensated French laborers and tradesmen. The bulk of the newbies granted EU membership recently have been eastern European nations that were former members of the Soviet empire. An additional concern expressed by NON voters was a perceived loss of French sovereignty and power should the EU Constitution as currently written take effect. It is worth remembering that it was France, alone among western European nations that insisted post-WWII on having its own, independent nuclear deterrent. The French don’t seem comfortable with Brussels calling the shots!

Among the casualties caught in the overkill of the NO vote may be Turkey which has recently begun seeking EU membership (the negotiations to join the EU are known as accession talks). Turkey is hoping to become the first, predominantly Muslim nation, to fulfill entrance requirements for EU membership and to join the club. The NO vote on the Constitutional referendum in France raises serious issues of whether the EU will be able to develop as a unified economic and political counterweight to the current dominance of the United States and the growing economic power of China. On Wednesday of this week, the Dutch will be going to the polls to vote on ratification and current polling data suggest they may very well also reject the Constitution document.