France looks like two countries. One half sees in the constitution a chance to move forward in an imperfect world; and another half -- timorous and pessimistic -- sees the constitution as a final betrayal of its utopia.
In France, the surging "no" campaign for next Sunday's referendum on the EU constitution is buoyed by revulsion against the country's elite, anxiety at declining living standards and deep hostility to the shape and complexion of the new Europe of 25.
With opinion polls giving the rejectionist camp a clear lead in the run-up to May 29, the prospect is now visible of an electoral earthquake more powerful even than far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's first round victory in the last presidential race.
Black Sunday, April 21 2002, went down in political lore as the moment when "la France d'en bas" -- the common people "down below" -- rose up to defy the smooth-talking Parisians who claim to represent them. Three years on, not much would appear to have changed.
In the central city of Bourges, capital of the mainly rural department of the Cher, a broad alliance of left-wing parties, unions and pressure groups has come together to mobilise support from the silent masses for the "no of hope".
"To reject the constitution, all you have to do is read it. The yes-men say -- Trust us! Europe is at stake! -- but we trusted them before. And look where we are," Yann Galut, a former Socialist deputy and leading member of the local "no" campaign, told a meeting last Thursday.
To the smell of barbecueing kebabs, some 400 men and women -- many in working overalls -- gathered to hear a torrent of abuse against "liberal" Europe and the betrayal of France's social ideal.
For these people the EU has become an incomprehensible force, responsible for the loss of jobs and businesses, the erosion of public services and the end of a secure way of life. It is not so much the future constitution they are in arms against, as the Europe they already know.
"Vote no to say Stop!," said Jean Dessessart, a senator for the Greens who like Galut rejects the constitution in defiance of his own party leadership. "It is time to change the logic of the ruling classes."
Opposition to the constitution in France comes from many quarters -- the far-right and the far-left as well as Eurosceptic nationalists -- but it is among the mainstream pro-European left that the battle for May 29 will be lost or won.
And on the Cher department, which stretches from the Sancerre wine-growing area on the banks of the Loire to the foothills of the Massif Central, the "no" camp is confident it has won the argument among this key part of the electorate.
"It is absolutely vital that France votes 'no,' because it would not be seen by the rest of Europe as a nationalist 'no' like Britain's. A French 'no' would make people stop and look and ask why," said Michelle Rivet, 50, who runs a sheep farm near the village of Marcais, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Bourges.
Describing herself as a fervent believer in the European ideal, Rivet was attracted by parts of the constitution designed to improve democratic accountability and raise the EU's international profile -- but these were outweighed by the entrenchment of the free-market "liberal" system.
"The constitution means saying yes to all that has happened and all that is going to happen if we keep going down the same road. No wonder people are planning to vote no. This is the first time they have been asked," she said.
In parts of the Cher department poverty is at levels last seen in the 1950s, Rivet said; average farm income is below the minimum wage; and every day news is reported of more 'delocalisations' -- businesses uprooting to eastern Europe to take advantage of lower charges.
For all their ideological differences, opponents of the treaty from Le Pen to the Socialist dissidents share the conviction that power in France has been leached to a Brussels-based technocracy which under the constitution is heading off any alternative to its economic dogma.
Their strength comes from their combined ability to mobilise "la France d'en-bas" -- the same voters who upset the system in 2002. It was after all not just the size of the Le Pen vote that counted then, but the defection of millions of mainstream Socialists to the extreme parties of the left.
"Snap! It is the same message all over again, but each time it gets worse. Because instead of asking themselves how they can change, the elites pretend nothing has happened," said the writer Jean-Francois Kahn, a supporter of the constitution.
More than ever France looks like two countries. One half sees in the constitution a chance to move forward in an imperfect world; and another half -- timorous and pessimistic -- sees the constitution as a final betrayal of its utopia. |
