French voters resoundingly rejected the EU Constitution today, sending a message of defiance to their own political establishment and leaving European plans for closer integration in tatters.
The result was announced by a sombre President Chirac, who had personally called the referendum and thrown his political weight behind a document meant to lay down the rules for European cooperation in the coming decades.
Keen to avoid France being blamed for the death of the treaty, however, M. Chirac said tonight that the process of ratification should continue in other EU countries – including Britain.
The EU can withstand a lot of things, and this would not be a "big" deal if say, Belgium, or the Czech Republic had refused to ratify the Constitution, but France? It spells the end for the Prime Minister, Raffarin, for certain, and places Chriac on an extremely tight leash with his country's constituencies. It also places the entire EU into an upheaval that must now be sorted out, and may take a couple of years to do so, especially if the Netherlands now follow suit and reject the treaty as well this week.
I think it's too bad that the French have to use the EU as a means to an end by voicing their displeasure with their own government and thereby affecting the entire European Union, and that's the way this is going to be seen, regardless of the spin that Chirac tries to place on it.
