Startling news from France. Of all the countries in the European Union, the arch socialists and generally goofy French appear to be on the verge of rejecting the EU Constitution in a referendum coming up in May. This is something I would have expected of England or Denmark or one of the more sensible countries, but loony France? What on earth is going on?
In the second poll this month, the French public showed a clear inclination not to vote for the EU Constitution, and surprisingly the strongest opposition is among French leftists, not French nationalist right-wingers. After looking over the document I have to conclude that this must be because the new Constitution doesn't give away enough national sovereignty. The sneaky Brits have weaseled in some wording which protects business and industry from EU government interference, and that must gall the French leftists quite a bit. Could they be voting against this Constitution in hopes of getting a stronger EU government on the next try? Or could it just be the growing anti-Islamic sentiment in France which is making them nervous about future EU members like Bulgaria and Turkey?
The French trend is a surprise to many, so it's getting a lot of press coverage. What's not getting as much coverage and may be even more significant is that a number of other countries are also likely to reject the new EU Constitution. In Britain polls show a very strong majority opposed to not just the EU Constitution, but to continued membership in the EU alltogether. An ICM poll shows a 55-25% split opposed to the EU Constitution, with 70-90% majorities stating a preference for British sovereignty over the EU government on a variety of issues. Since that poll the numbers in Britain have gotten somewhat better for the EU, mainly because Britain was bribed with an offer of the presidency of the EU in 2006 when the referendum there on the Constitution will take place. Even so, The Sun shows only 24% for the Constitution and 56% opposed.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
For those who want to read the entire thing, a link to the main Constitution (220 pages or so) can be found here. along with associated documents.
Dave
2 - Dave Nalle
I just spotted an error which caused about a third of this article to be deleted from the middle of one paragraph to the middle of another. Now fixed, so enjoy.
Dave
3 - DrPat
Ah, that explains it - thanks for the redux!
4 - Dave Nalle
Got to remember to put the quotes in those hyperlinks. Failure to do so can create quite a mess.
Dave
5 - vlado
Dear Dave,
I cannot see the link between anti-Islamic sentiments in France and the forthcoming accession of Bulgaria to the EU. Thank God, Bulgaria has been a Christian country since the 9th century (when it had a common border with Charlemagne's empire).
6 - Dave Nalle
As I understand it Bulgaria is one of the main conduits for moslems coming into Europe. They go through Bulgaria and from there into the rest of Europe. This is enabled by the fact that Bulgaria has a population of almost 1.5 million Moslems some of whom work as middle men hooking Moslems from farther away up with job brokers in Germany and France.
Dave
7 - Dave Nalle
Another interesting tidbit just in about France. Apparently along with worrying about the EU's future and the EU constitution, the French have finally realized that their economy is on the hot rails to hell. Over the protests of socialists and generally lazy cafe-sitting Frenchmen, they're going to abandon the 35 hour work week established as law in 1998 and allow people to work the hours they need to in order to increase productivity. Details on this are in an article in the London Telegraph.
The 35 hour work week law was truly bizarre, with business owners and managers being fined or even jailed if workers did things like take paperwork home to work on. They even had special police watching certain suspect businesses - many of them foreign owned to make sure no one worked too hard.
So finally with their real unemployment topping 20% they realized that productivity and hard work are actually GOOD for the economy and are taking a big step in the right direction.
Dave
8 - alienboy
Dream on Dave, "I'm looking forward to seeing the wisest countries of Europe out from under the yoke of the EU and striding forward to prosperity on their own terms."
I'm willing to bet 100 Euros that you are dead wrong on this...
9 - Dave Nalle
>>I'm willing to bet 100 Euros that you are dead wrong on this...<<
I'll take that bet, Alienboy. You can pay me tomorrow.
Dave