MaxedOutMama
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Chirac's Shuffle
It was no secret that Chirac had planned to replace France's Prime Minister, Raffarin, if the French did not vote yes on the Constitution. And he did:
Tomorrow the Dutch will vote; the controversy is all about how overwhelmingly they will defeat the measure and what proportion of the electorate will bother to vote. This will be a non-binding referendum, but the major parties have said that they will respect the results if enough people vote:
Shaken by the defeat of the European Union constitution, President Jacques Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was France's voice against the Iraq war, as prime minister on Tuesday.De Villepin was a prominent verbal sacker and burner of Bush. You might want to read the whole article; some are predicting that de Villepin will not be a popular choice in France. Sarkozy is relatively popular; de Villepin has never been elected. However Sarkozy has openly opposed Chirac on some matters.
Villepin, formerly the interior minister, replaces Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was dumped after voters on Sunday roundly rejected the EU charter in a referendum....
Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads Chirac's governing center-right party, will replace Villepin in the interior ministry, lawmaker Yves Jego, who is close to Sarkozy, told France-Info radio. Sarkozy was the interior ministry for two years until April 2004.
Tomorrow the Dutch will vote; the controversy is all about how overwhelmingly they will defeat the measure and what proportion of the electorate will bother to vote. This will be a non-binding referendum, but the major parties have said that they will respect the results if enough people vote:
Turnout is expected to be significantly lower in the Netherlands than in France, at around 50 per cent.So that's the EU scoop for the day. Commentary on the state of the European Union from Spiegel:
However, this is far above the turnout threshold of 30 per cent, named by political parties in the Dutch parliament as a condition for the Parliament to adopt the result.
The Dutch referendum is non-binding, meaning that the Dutch parliament has the final say on ratification of the Constitution.
Maybe, though, it isn't the different reasons people voted No that has sunk Europe into a deep identity crisis but rather the lack of Yes votes. Maybe what happened in France on Sunday was the manifestation of a feeling that has been latent across Europe for a long time: the evaporation of faith in the European model and a renunciation by Europeans of an institution that they no longer see as protective but rather as threatening. The vote was also a warning shot across the bow of an institution Europeans have trouble comprehending for the precise reason that it has done little to make itself understood.Maybe they would have been more likely to vote yes if the constitution weren't hundreds of pages long. Maybe if it were clearer and simpler they might have felt more confidence? My impression after reading it was that it was going to create a powerful executive with little constraint. Maybe that's what made them uneasy, because I really don't think the French citizens are stupid.
"Europe goes on, its institutions are still functioning," said Barroso encouragingly. And of course, the European club can continue to function administratively according to the rules laid down by the Treaty of Nice, which went into effect in 2001. But that won't be of much help as long as the existential questions surrounding the union remain.
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You know, the remark you left in a comment yesterday, said it all: "All one has to do is realize that...people would never want to join an army and fight for that Constitution, and then one realizes why they had to reject it. They have the right to be... - to pursue their own dreams.
...it is a complicated world. We should respect the weak, impaired and hurting while allowing the strong, healthy and confident to seek their own visions."
...it is a complicated world. We should respect the weak, impaired and hurting while allowing the strong, healthy and confident to seek their own visions."
Jen's "lowest common denominator", yes.
The problem with the EU Constitution is that it disrespects the EU citizens. That's fatal. The life of any country lies in its citizens, not in its bureaucrats. I find Chirac's choice of de Villepin very sad for that reason.
So many magnificent, as well as tragic, ideas have emerged from the sweep of European history and thought. Surely the French have the right to seek their own balance, just as the Brits do. Surely allowing all these countries to work on their own visions would enrich Europe, not hurt it. A united Europe does not need to be a Europe of Gleichschaltung.
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The problem with the EU Constitution is that it disrespects the EU citizens. That's fatal. The life of any country lies in its citizens, not in its bureaucrats. I find Chirac's choice of de Villepin very sad for that reason.
So many magnificent, as well as tragic, ideas have emerged from the sweep of European history and thought. Surely the French have the right to seek their own balance, just as the Brits do. Surely allowing all these countries to work on their own visions would enrich Europe, not hurt it. A united Europe does not need to be a Europe of Gleichschaltung.
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