Now that there have been a few days, let’s see what the press has to say about the French sabotaging their own…I’m sorry, I mean the EU constitution, shall we?
What’s next for the EU Constitution? from CNN.com
France Votes on EU Charter also from CNN.com
France vote is Bad News for US
French No Vote on European Constitution Rattles Continent
Politicus: After French ‘no’ vote, all bets are off on EU
Is it possible that France could suck any more?
Categories: Random
4:22 pm | 6 comments
June 2nd, 2005 at 1:46 am
I don’t think it’s a question of them “sucking” as much as it is a question of the EU government folks and the governments of France and the UK sucking at selling the EU. The constitution is unreadable… the American one fits on a few pages in the back of a textbook.
check out some of the other press:
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w050531&s=bell060105
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4030538
Most everything I’m reading indicates that the disconnect here is between the french government and the people they govern. The government seems disconnected completely from what the people want. The EU process itself is even more disconnected… few direct referendums and little direct representation. BD, a blog I respect reading on foreign policy, has this take:
http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/archives/004591.html
June 2nd, 2005 at 8:30 am
C’mon Sujal - let Josh make fun of the French. It’s like Eddie Izzard says (paraphrased) “Europe is all doing one thing, and France says no, we’re going to go eat a sandwich.”
I think a large part of the problem in France is that the labor unions specifically did not back this because they worry about losing their cushy jobs (max. 35 hours per week of work, subsidized housing, etc.) The WSJ had a great article about the national French power co. and their union a few weeks ago, they also get subsidized vacations, etc. They’re also completely inefficient and power in France as a result is significantly more expensive than it should be, which stagnates business growth.
Since Josh posted, the Netherlands has also said no to the Constitution. What’s interesting is that there (and probably in France though it’s been less covered) it was a coalition of the far left that didn’t want to lose their social tolerance issues (i.e. gay marriage, etc.) and the far right which doesn’t want to lose control of controlling immigration. Overall, I suspect France and Netherlands and probably the UK and other don’t really want to give up that much national sovereignty to an organization like the EU. And I don’t really blame them for that. The cultures of the various EU constituent contries are widely varied (hell, it was only 60 years ago that they were all embroiled in a huge war) and one constitution is never going to please anyone.
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:13 am
TNR, the Economist and a couple of other places pointed out that xenophobia from the far right in France also was a factor… I don’t think the extremes on both sides were happy about this vote. The labor unions alone could not account for a) the massive turnout or b) the massive no vote.
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:15 am
PS. Consider me one of the many tired of France bashing… it’s so passé…
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:54 am
France-bashing has always and will always be the height of fashion!
I do actually think there is some extreme anti-Europe sentiment in all of the EU countries, at the super right wing ends. The possibility of Turkey joining the EU seems to make a lot of people in Europe very uncomfortable.
June 2nd, 2005 at 11:17 am
I agree with everything that’s been said so far, on both sides. And obviously, I’m not a huge France fan.
That having been said, I agree with Sujal’s point about the constitution being a set of guiding principles. It shouldn’t be an entire set of enumerated laws governing EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF SOCIETY, which is what this seems like. Of course, I’m still going through it (on page 14 now — will keep you posted as the day goes on)