French Reject EU Constitution

How many Frenchmen does it take to change a light bulb? Just one. He holds it while all of Europe revolves around him. So, when 55% of the French electorate turned out to vote down the proposed EU constitution, drafted by Frenchman and former President of the Republic, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the whole world stopped. The “yes” camp claimed this was the end of the European project, while the victorious “no” crowd claimed to have saved France and its social model. In truth, the people merely opted for a revolution in favor of the status quo.

Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community shortly after the Second World War, the French have been at the heart of Europe because it was the best way for a middling power to retain its significance in the world. With its German partner (a nation that had its own agenda – application for readmission to the human race after the Hitler years), France created Europe not as a grand federation with a new national identity, but rather it helped create a Europe in which to bolster the idea of being French.

Somewhere along the way, the French (and other European) political classes lost sight of that. They added a slew of Eastern European nations to the EU mix, and offered Turkey a chance to talk about possibly joining the club someday. It was hard enough of the French national identity when Britain joined up, and harder still when Spain, Portugal and Italy became members. Now, there were Polish plumbers taking French plumbers jobs and depressing wages while driving up unemployment.

In fact, the economic arguments are the only ones that make any sense in expanding Europe. More official languages won’t help, and increasing cultural subsidies of folk dancing is a bad idea. But matching the free movement of labor to balance the free movement of capital is plausible. According to John Christopher Vignati, delegate-general of the GCCP, the French plumbers’ union, there are 150 Polish plumbers in all of France, and the country could use about 6,000 more. The “no” vote was never about economics.

What caused the rejection of the constitution by the EU’s biggest supporter is a failure to bring the people along with the project. An EU in which the French (or the Dutch, or the British, or the Poles) lose what makes them unique in Europe worries people who are justly proud of their culture and history. The political classes thought how wonderful it would be to have a democratic, responsive EU government. The people who voted yesterday thought how troubling that Brussels was going to matter more than Paris. Despite everything, it remains a game of nations pursuing national goals through international institutions.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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