Chirac and Raffarin meet after 'Non' vote
President Jacques Chirac today met his beleaguered prime minister, who was widely expected to be fired after France roundly rejected the European Union’s first constitution in a referendum that threw the Union’s future into disarray.
Chirac spent 30 minutes with Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who confirmed “there will be developments today or tomorrow”.
He refused to say whether he had offered his resignation, telling reporters only: “I’m going for a stroll around Paris. See you later.”
Aides to Raffarin, in office since May 2002, were seen packing up boxes at the Matignon Hotel, the prime minister’s office.
The referendum results were a humiliating blow to Chirac and a disavowal of his government, left reeling by the decisive victory of those rejecting the constitution – some 55%.
But the results also threw the EU’s future into disarray. Plans to bind the 25 EU members more tightly together through a constitution threatened to be set back for years.
Even the 12-nation euro currency was feeling the effects of the referendum. Fears of a “No” victory were largely factored into trading last week, when the euro fell to seven-month lows against the dollar. In early trading today, the euro dipped again to €1.2526.
Chirac chose to hold a referendum rather than take the EU constitution to parliament, where it would have passed with a wide majority. Today he worked quickly to control the damage.
Other key figures called to the presidential palace included Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious head of the governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, with his eye on the 2007 presidency. A chief rival of Chirac, he is among a handful of possible choices to replace Raffarin.
France’s repudiation of the EU constitution came ahead of Wednesday’s referendum in the Netherlands, where polls show even more resistance to the constitution. The document must be ratified by all 25 EU members, in referendums or by parliament, to take effect in November 2006. France was the first to reject it.
About 55% of voters opposed the constitution. A poll by the TNS-Sofres firm suggested that fear for jobs and a sense of being “fed up” were the main reasons to say no. France has a 10% unemployment rate and those in the “No” camp have claimed the constitution was too market-oriented to protect citizens, growing vulnerable in an expanding EU.
With a nearly 70% turnout, the referendum results left Chirac little choice but change.
“It is your sovereign decision, and I take note,” he told the nation on Sunday night after results were announced.
He said, dryly, that he would inject “new and strong impetus” into the centre-right government “within the very next days”, coded language seen as reading that Raffarin, a Chirac faithful, would go.
However, many “No” supporters called for far more drastic action, some saying that Chirac himself should resign.
The spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party, which had officially joined forces with the government to push for a “Yes” vote, today called for Chirac to dissolve parliament.
“I think that when the people are angry, the first thing to do is give them their voice … and therefore dissolve the National Assembly,” the lower chamber, Julien Dray said on LCI television.
The Socialist Party, another victim of the voting, was effectively split with dissident members opposed to the document becoming major contributors to its rejection.
“The president heard all this and he’ll take into account what the French have said,” Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on France-2 television, referring to referendum results.
Ministers holding a regular meeting with Raffarin today refused to say what had transpired.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, along with Sarkozy and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, is considered a top choice to replace Raffarin. He walked out of the prime minister’s office with Philippe Douste-Blazy, minister of health, another potential choice.
The EU also moved toward damage control.
“The result raises profound questions for all of us about the future direction of Europe,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
But the European Union’s industry commissioner, Guenther Verheugen, said the vote was not a catastrophe and that the situation should not be over-dramatised. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, while conceding the outcome was a “serious problem,” insisted: “We cannot say that the treaty is dead.”
Nine nations already have ratified the constitution: Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
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