National referendums on the European Constitution
Czech Republic	Cancelled
Denmark	Postponed
France	No (55% of 69%)
Ireland	Date not set
Luxembourg	Yes (57% of 88%)
Netherlands	No (62% of 63%)
Poland	Postponed
Portugal	Postponed
Spain	Yes (77% of 42%)
United Kingdom	Postponed
Parliamentary approvals

On 29 May 2005 a referendum was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. The result was a victory for the "No" campaign, with 55 per cent of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69 per cent. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ... A red X, copy pasted from a screenview of a unicode character, until a better replacement can be found. ... A green tick, copy pasted from a screenview of a unicode character, until a better replacement can be found. ... A red X, copy pasted from a screenview of a unicode character, until a better replacement can be found. ... A green tick, copy pasted from a screenview of a unicode character, until a better replacement can be found. ... The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... A referendum (plural: referendums or referenda) or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. ... Ratification is the process of adopting an international treaty, or a constitution or other nationally binding document (such as an amendment to a constitution) by the agreement of multiple subnational entities. ... The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ...

The question put to voters was:

Approuvez-vous le projet de loi qui autorise la ratification du traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe?

"Do you approve the bill authorising the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?"

France was the first country to reject the Constitution, and the second country to go to the polls in a referendum on ratification, after a Spanish referendum approved the treaty by a wide margin in February 2005. France's rejection of the Constitution left the treaty with an uncertain future, with other EU member states pledging to continue with their own arrangements for ratification. On 20 February 2005 a consultative referendum was held in Spain to ask whether the country should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. ...

Campaign

The text of the European Constitution, as distributed to each French voter

Jacques Chirac giving a speech to the French people to vote Yes to the European Constitution.

President Jacques Chirac's decision to hold a referendum was thought to have been influenced in part by the surprise announcement that the United Kingdom was to hold a vote of its own. Although the adoption of a Constitution had initially been played down as a 'tidying-up' exercise with no need for a popular vote, as increasing numbers of EU member states announced their intention to hold a referendum, the French government came under increasing pressure to follow suit. Download high resolution version (1216x1686, 84 KB)Text of the European Constitution, distributed to each French voter. ... Download high resolution version (1216x1686, 84 KB)Text of the European Constitution, distributed to each French voter. ... The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ... Jacques Chirac giving speech to the French People to vote Yes on the EU referendum This work is copyrighted. ... Jacques Chirac giving speech to the French People to vote Yes on the EU referendum This work is copyrighted. ... The President of France, known officially as the President of the Republic (Président de la République in French), is Frances elected Head of State. ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician. ...

The date was announced on 4 March 2005. Opinion polling had shown the "Yes" and "No" campaigns in the lead at various times, but in the weeks leading up the referendum the "No" campaign consistently held the lead. This led many, even some on the "Yes" side, to predict openly that France would reject the Constitution. [1] March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... Opinion polls are surveys of opinion using sampling. ...

Socialist Party vote on stance

On 1 December 2004, the opposition Socialist Party held a vote among its members to determine the stance it would take. The issue of the Constitution had caused considerable divisions within the party, with many members—although broadly in favour of European integration—opposing the Constitution for reasons including a perceived lack of democratic accountability, and the threat they considered it posed to the European social model. The "Yes" side was led by party leader François Hollande while the "No" side was led by deputy leader Laurent Fabius. Out of 127,027 members eligible to vote, 59 per cent voted "Yes", with a turnout of 79 per cent. Out of 102 Socialist Party regional federations, 26 voted "No". December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... François Hollande (born August 12, 1954) is a French politician. ... Laurent Fabius (born August 20, 1946) is a former prime minister of France. ...

Amendment to the French Constitution

The Constitutional Council of France ruled that the European Constitution could not legally coexist with the current Constitution of France. For that reason, a vote was taken to amend the Constitution of France in order to make the two documents compatible. The Constitutional Council was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. ... The current Constitution of France was adopted on October 4, 1958, and has been amended 17 times, most recently on March 28, 2003. ...

This amendment passed in an extraordinary joint session of deputies and senators at the Palace of Versailles on 28 February 2005, with 730 votes in favour and 66 votes against, with 96 abstentions. Both the ruling party and the Socialists supported the constitutional amendment. Communist Party members were the only ones to vote against it. [2] Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour dhonneur, later copied all over Europe Versailles: Garden front The Château de Versailles — often called the Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles — is a royal château, outside the gates of which the... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... The French Communist Party (Parti communiste français or PCF) was founded in 1920. ...

Opinion polls and course of the campaign

Initial opinion polls showed a clear majority in favour of the Constitution, but public opposition grew over time. By May, the "Yes" campaign's lead was smaller than the opinion pollsters' margin of error.

The three major political forces in France (UMP, PS and UDF) supported the proposed Constitution, as did President Chirac. Supporters of the Constitution from the left sought to emphasise that the treaty incorporates a Charter of Fundamental Rights and thus helped to secure the future of the European social model. Somewhat surprisingly considering his usual political orientation, Jacques Chirac defended it as a possible barrier against neoliberal economic policies. The Union for a Popular Movement, initially named the Union for a Presidential Majority, and in both cases also known by its French acronym UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire and Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle, respectively) is a French right-wing, conservative political party. ... The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French center-right political party. ... The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a document containing human rights provisions, solemnly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission in December 2000. ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician. ... The term neoliberalism is used to describe a political-economic philosophy that had major implications for government policies beginning in the 1970s – and increasingly prominent since 1980 – that de-emphasizes or rejects positive government intervention in the economy, focusing instead on achieving progress and even social justice by encouraging free...

Objections to the Constitution in France can be broadly divided into two camps. On the left, many expressed the view that the Constitution would enforce a neoliberal economic model. Among those were some members of the Socialist Party who dissented from the party's stance as decided by its internal referendum, some members of the Green Party (though the party's official policy was also to support ratification), the Communist Party and other parties of the hard left, such as the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League and Workers' Struggle, as well as associations like ATTAC and trade unions such as the CGT or SUD. These critics sought to link the Constitution to the proposed directive on services in the internal market, which is widely opposed in France. Les verts (the Greens) is one Green Party of France. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... The Revolutionary Communist League (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire) (LCR) is a French Trotskyist political party. ... Workers Struggle (Lutte Ouvrière) is the usual name under which the Communist Union (Trotskyist) (Union Communiste (Trotskyste)), a French Trotskyist political party, is known (technically, it is the name of the weekly paper edited by the party). ... Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC - Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour lAide aux Citoyens) is an activist organization for the establishment of a tax on exchange transactions. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... CGT can be a three-letter abbreviation for: Capital gains tax Confederacion General del Trabajo de España, a Spanish trade union Confédération Générale du Travail, the French national trade union center The Confederación General del Trabajo de la República Argentina, the national trade... The Directive on services in the internal market (commonly referred to as the Bolkestein Directive) is an initiative of the European Commission aimed at creating a single market for services within the European Union. ...

There were also prominent opponents of the Constitution from the right, notably Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (a Gaullist) and Philippe de Villiers (of the Movement for France), and from the extreme right, Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, who opposed the Constitution on the grounds that France should not be part of any institution whose decisions can take precedence over what is decided in France at a national level. Another factor in the defeat of the Constitution may have been the linking of the Constitution in the minds of voters with the possibility of the accession of Turkey to the European Union, with which most of the French population disagrees. Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Charles de Gaulle. ... Philippe de Villiers Philippe de Villiers (born March 25, 1949 as viscount Philippe le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon) is a French conservative politician. ... The Movement for France (French: Mouvement pour la France), or MPF, is a small conservative nationalist and traditionalist party, founded on November 20, 1994. ... Portrait of Jean-Marie Le Pen. ... This article is about the French political party, not the WWII French resistance movement Front National. ... Turkey formally applied to join the European Community—the organisation that has since developed into the European Union—on April 14, 1987. ...

Results

Ballots for the referendum.

Most of the départements had a majority of "No" votes. In Bretagne and Pays-de-la-Loire almost all departments had a majority in favour of ratification, as well in Bas-Rhin, parts of the Île-de-France, Haute-Savoie, Rhône and the DOMs of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. The département with the most votes in favour was Martinique, with a 69 per cent "Yes" vote. In metropolitan France, it was Paris, where 66% of votes were "yes". Download high resolution version (692x964, 31 KB)Ballots for the referendum. ... Download high resolution version (692x964, 31 KB)Ballots for the referendum. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties. ... Capital Rennes Area 27,209 km² Regional President Jean-Yves Le Drian (PS) (since 2004) Population   - 2004 estimate   - 1999 census   - Density (Ranked 7th) 3,011,000 2,906,197 111/km² (2004) Arrondissements 15 Cantons 201 Communes 1,268 Départements Côtes-dArmor Ille-et-Vilaine Morbihan Finist... Région Pays-de-la-Loire Information Capital: Nantes Population  - Total  - Density 3 222 061 (1999) 100 /km² Area 32 082 km² Arrondissements 17 Cantons 203 Communes 1 502 President of the regional council Jacques Auxiette Départements Categories: Regions of France | Stub ... History The département was created on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution. ... ÃŽle-de-France can refer to: the historical province of France: see ÃŽle-de-France (province) the modern French administrative région: see ÃŽle-de-France (région) For other meanings without the circumflex accent, see Ile de France. ... Haute-Savoie is a French département, named after the Alps mountain range. ... Rhône can refer to: Rhône River Rhône (département) in France Rhône (Wine Region) in France This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Under the 1946 Constitution of the Fourth Republic, the French colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana in the Caribbean and Réunion in the Indian Ocean became départements doutre-mer (Overseas departments) or DOMs. ... Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (French Saint-Pierre et Miquelon) 46°47′ N 56°12′ W is a French overseas collectivity consisting of several small islands off the eastern coast of Canada near Newfoundland. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Consequences

The possible consequences of a "No" vote were highly debated in France before the referendum, and are now a matter of keen speculation across Europe. Proponents of the Constitution, including President Chirac, have claimed that France's standing in Europe has been considerably weakened. Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician. ...

Pro-EU campaigners for a "No" vote (as opposed to those opposing the EU altogether) argue that the Constitution will be renegotiated. "No" vote campaigners, particularly the prominent socialist Laurent Fabius, have labelled this option Plan B - Some journalists have suspected that this stands for Plan Britannique (Plan British) or Plan Blair. Campaigners for a "Yes" vote have stated that there is no such Plan B and that the 'European project' could be brought to a standstill for at least ten years. Laurent Fabius (born August 20, 1946) is a former prime minister of France. ...

The challenge of renegotiation is made all the greater by the diversity of reasons for the rejection of the treaty, ranging from the far left who saw the Constitution as a "capitalists' charter", to the far right who opposed it on nationalistic grounds. Laurent Fabius has said that if his proposals for changes to the treaty were to be taken into account, he would support a future "Yes" campaign in a new referendum.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has been quickly replaced by Dominique de Villepin. UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy also comes back as Minister of the Interior. The candidacy of Jacques Chirac for the French Presidential Election of 2007 is now less likely. The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin   listen? (born August 3, 1948) is a French conservative politician. ... Dominique de Villepin Photo: David Mendiboure Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born November 14, 1953, in Rabat, Morocco), simply known as Dominique de Villepin   listen?, is a French diplomat and politician. ... The Union for a Popular Movement, initially named the Union for a Presidential Majority, and in both cases also known by its French acronym UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire and Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle, respectively) is a French right-wing, conservative political party. ... Nicolas Sarkozy, c. ... The entrance to the Ministry in Place Beauvau is guarded by one gendarme (to the left) and one policewoman (to the right). ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932) is a French politician. ... 2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikinews has news related to this article:

France votes no in EU referendum

• Official results from the Ministry of the Interior
• Proclamation des résultats du référendum du 29 mai 2005 by the Constitutional Council
• Results by département from Le Monde
• Mobilization : French books sold ; web frequenting (fr) ; appeals to court (fr)
• A left perspective on the No campaign by Jim Wolfreys, writing in International Socialism