If anyone is interested in the French rejection of the EU constitution, some contributors to Crooked Timber (a weblog that generally leans left) have posted some interesting initial reactions:
Chris Bertram introduces an excellent article in the Independent:
The moth-eaten security blanket of nationalism
As the French prepare to vote “non”, my friend Glyn Morgan has a piece in the Independent about the constitution , the conservative nationalism of its opponents on both left and right, and the importance of enlargement. Unfortunately, he argues, faced with problems of demographic transition, immigration, international competition from India and China, and the unilateralism of the only global superpower, much of the left would prefer not to face facts:
crookedtimber.org
Henry Farrell writes:
No Regrets
A few thoughts in response to the (not exactly unexpected) outcome in France.
(1) The old way of pushing European integration – agreements among political elites, followed by the odd referendum here and there – is dead. My best-guess prediction – a lot more emphasis in the future on ‘informal’ integration processes such as the Lisbon agenda. I also predict that some of the key issues will be revisited in a future quasi-constitutional text, which will attempt to lay down the law for once and for all. There are a number of dry-as-dust issues regarding the balance between different institutions, between member states on the Council etc which aren’t attracting much attention outside the specialist community now, but which are likely to provoke interesting political crises down the line. Hence, I think there will be another effort to push through Treaty change a few years from now – but unlike previous efforts, it will be proceeded by a widespread and vociferous public debate. The last Constitutional Convention tried very hard to create political buzz and debate, and failed miserably. Their successors won’t have much difficulty in getting attention, for better or for worse.
(2) The Turkish accession process is likely to be a lot more robust than people are giving it credit for being at the moment....
crookedtimber.org
Maria Farrell takes the oppportunity to express her irritation with the French over a variety of issues:
The sheer gaul of them
Why I’m a little irritated with France:
For falling asleep at the wheel in 2002 and letting back in to the Elysee a fraud who has no vision for France, no values apart from expediency, and whose number one professional objective was using the office to stay out of jail.
For thinking Supermenteur is kind of funny and harmless with his man of the people, socks in his sandals routine, when he’s spent the last 8 years lying to the people and assuring them it’s ok to put off, say, retirement reform till it’s too late to save the pensions of anyone under 40.
For letting Chirac keep as prime minister a one man crumple zone who took all the knocks for the right’s policies but had no mandate to do anything except fold when the public sector unions got stroppy.
For being hoodwinked by the government into blaming everything else on the EU....
crookedtimber.org |
