Pro-treaty campaign intensifies as “no” camp holds lead in French referendum

Agence France Presse — English
May 21, 2005 Saturday 4:44 PM GMT

PARIS May 21 — Proponents of the Yes vote in the French referendum
on the EU constitution were making a desperate final push to overhaul
a slender lead of the “no” vote as the campaign entered its last
week Saturday.

The tempo of the campaign was picking up with major rallies being
held across France and the political heavyweights of both sides taking
the microphone.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned that a rejection
of the European constitutional treaty could damage the “capacity
for action” of the enlarged European Union, in an interview with the
German daily newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Like a number of recent polls, the latest survey, conducted by Ifop,
indicated Saturday that 52 percent of decided voters would cast their
ballots to reject the treaty, a one percent drop from a week earlier,
while 48 percent supported the charter. But about one third of the 845
people surveyed said they could change their minds or were undecided.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called on the French to not
turn their backs on Europe by rejecting the treaty, while a leading
advocate for the “no” camp and Socialist party number two, former
prime minister Laurent Fabius, claimed there was a hidden right-wing
agenda behind the “yes” vote.

“Let’s not close ourselves in egoism, in individualism,” Raffarin
said. “I can’t say to our neighbours, ‘we are interested in your
markets but we don’t want to share with you.’ We should not be afraid
of others (…) The future belongs to generous people and countries.

“Today a Frenchman proud to be French doesn’t close himself off with a
“no” and turn his back on his partners,” Raffarin said.

Fabius condemned condemned what he called a “hidden agenda of the
right” behind the pro-treaty campaign.

He said this included a series of national measures delayed by the
vote including a reduction in the number of public servants and a
rise in gas charges.

Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the ruling UMP party, took a more inclusive
tone in his campaign in favour of the treaty, acknowledging that the
questions of the “no” camp will have to be answered even if the people
finally vote for the treaty.

These questions are going to have to be answered whatever the result.
They must be taken into account. I’m not somebody who thinks ‘you
don’t agree with me, your views don’t matter.’ Yes they do matter,
because if people doubt, it’s because we haven’t managed to reassure
them,” Sarkozy told a rally at Rennes in western France.

“Nobody should doubt that this debate has been useful for Europe and
for France,” he said, defending the risky choice to put the European
constitution to a popular vote rather than a parliamentary ratification
as did many other European countries such as Germany.

Sarkozy acknowledged that the French have a problem with Europe,
and that a “yes” vote should be a vote for a changed Europe.

“Europe was created to protect and to defend. We should draw the
conclusions that today Europe worries people,” he said.

Both representatives of the right, National Front boss Jean-Marie Le
Pen, and nationalist leader Philippe de Villiers opposed the treaty.
Le Pen said politicians supported it only so that they could shirk
their responsibilities and blame Brussels when things went wrong.

De Villiers said the survival of France was at stake, and he told a
delegation of Armenians, “we will never accept that Turkey becomes
a member of the EU.”

On Friday European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a
London speech that it was “vital” to ratify the treaty as there was no
back-up plan, while Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero warned
of the dire consequences should the French throw out the measure, which
was overwhelmingly approved in a Spanish referendum earlier this year.