Europe calls for 'Oui' vote on Constitution
Germany’s leader is making his third trip to France in a month. The prime minister of Spain is flying back in. Italians are being urged to bombard the French with a common message: “Vote Yes”.
Only the French are casting ballots on May 29. But the rest of Europe is pitching in to save the continent’s first constitution from what could be a fatal “no”.
A week away from France’s referendum – and polls showing a new surge into the lead by the “no” camp – European officials have been campaigning for the French vote as if it were their own.
Some are trying scare tactics, warning that France will be isolated and powerless in Europe if it rejects the treaty. Others have voiced impassioned pleas, reminding the French they helped build Europe and can’t bail out now.
Posters plastered on walls in Rome sum up the spirit pervading the 25-nation European Union as it nervously awaits France’s vote: “The EU constitution belongs to everybody!”
Italy’s Democrats for the Left party say 4,000 posters have been tacked to Roman walls urging Italians to: “Send an e-mail to a French friend to invite him to vote yes.”
By giving the bloc a foreign minister and a president, the treaty aims to give the EU greater standing on the world stage. But, it only takes one country to vote it down.
More than a half-dozen nations have already ratified the charter, by referendum or parliament. France is the next to vote, and polls show a nation divided.
That’s why the plane ride to Paris has become a regular commute for many European leaders.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has repeatedly flown in to stand beside French President Jacques Chirac. Together, the two have implored voters to back the text and not turn their backs on Europe.
“France has a big responsibility not to let other Europeans down,” Schroeder said at a three-way summit last Thursday with Chirac and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. “If we want to develop Europe, we need everyone. But we especially need France.”
Schroeder returns this Thursday for a “yes” rally with French Socialists in the southern city of Toulouse. His visit comes the same day Germany’s parliament is holding its own final vote on the constitution. But there is little concern of a German “no”.
Also Thursday – three days before France’s fiercely contested vote – Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero plans to campaign in the French city of Lille. He was last here in March, giving a special address to French lawmakers after Spain became the first country to say “yes” to the constitution.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has become a regular at “yes” rallies. He lobbied in Lyon earlier this month and was at another rally alongside his French counterpart, Michel Barnier, a few weeks earlier.
Fischer joined Socialists from around Europe at a “yes” rally in France last week in Paris. Also there: Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, former Spanish Premier Felipe Gonzalez, former Portuguese leader Mario Soares, who warned that a “no” from France would be “a great danger for Europe and a backward step”.
The list of dignitaries trooping through in recent weeks is long.
Not everyone likes the attention – particularly those campaigning for a “no”.
French Communist Party official Patrice Cohen-Seat calls it an “armada of propaganda for the ’yes’ that has been really excessive”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s extreme-right, anti-immigrant National Front, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he finds it “shocking” and that “these people should be minding their own business”.
That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, especially in the countdown to France’s vote.
Young Europeans held co-ordinated rallies in cities around Europe, encouraging voters to back the treaty. The Netherlands votes by referendum June 1.
“So much depends on these votes,” said Jon Worth, president of the Young European Federalists, which is organising the youth rallies and plans to hand out flyers urging a “yes” vote at airports, train stations and elsewhere.
French op-ed pages – and newspapers around Europe – have been full of articles and interviews by European officials seeking to counter French critics of the treaty who fear an enlarged Europe will hurt France’s jobs, its economy and dilute its voice internationally.
In a Belgian newspaper, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker sounded a warning aimed at the French ego, that has become a common refrain.
“Just as Europe means nothing without France, France means nothing without Europe,” Juncker, whose country holds the EU presidency, said in an interview with De Standaard.
