The Hindu : International : Chirac rules out vote on E.U. Constitution

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Saturday, May 01, 2004

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International

Chirac rules out vote on E.U. Constitution

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, APRIL 30. Prudence and caution were the bywords at a rare press conference by French President, Jacques Chirac, on Wednesday, 48 hours prior to Europe's enlargement by welcoming 10 new members.

While Mr. Chirac was slightly more forthcoming on the question of Iraq, where, he insisted, an unambiguous solution (without behind-the-scenes U.S. control) was needed, observers agreed that overall, it was a carefully scripted, lacklustre performance.

Mr. Chirac ruled out the possibility of a referendum on the European Constitution in the near future. Unlike the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who appears to be staking his political future on Europe, Mr. Chirac is not prepared to take any risks.

Although a slim majority of the French are in favour of Europe and its institutions, there is also a great deal of latent hostility towards the technocrats in Brussels who are seen to be making inroads into the sovereignty of nation states. The example of the near-fiasco of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty cannot be far from Mr. Chirac's mind. To almost universal surprise, the Treaty on European Union squeaked through with only the tiniest of margins — less than one per cent of the vote, well below the support anticipated by the then President, Francois Mitterrand, who ordered the referendum.

In addition, Mr. Chirac is not unaware of his own growing unpopularity. A referendum would allow voters to express their disenchantment with his policies and those of his unpopular Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. A defeat in a referendum on the European Constitution would almost certainly mean Mr. Chirac having to hang up his cleats, something the septuagenarian is not prepared to do.

Mr. Chirac was careful too on the question of Turkey's entry into the E.U. France has always performed a delicate balancing act in its relations with Islamic countries. A month ago, Mr. Chirac's ruling UMP Party announced it was hostile to Turkey's entry into Europe. The reasons are not hard to discern. Turkey, with its explosive mix of Islam and poverty, would be the E.U.'s most populous member and as such, would have more votes than either Germany or France.

Today, after its fall-out with Washington over Iraq, France is keen to mend fences with the U.S., Turkey's main backer for E.U. membership.

The one question on which Mr. Chirac did not mince his words was that of tolerating radical Islam on French soil. Referring to the decision to expel an imam who approved of wife beating, stoning and polygamy, Mr. Chirac said France could amend its laws on deportation in order to deal with extremism. An administrative court recently overruled the Government's decision to deport the imam on the grounds that the case against him was not strong enough.

His press conference showed Mr. Chirac as a politically challenged person, willing to take no risks, aware that his path to a third term as head of the French state in 2007 is not likely to be a cake walk.

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