The Hindu : International : France braces for "No" vote in E.U. Constitution referendum

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Sunday, May 29, 2005

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International

France braces for "No" vote in E.U. Constitution referendum

Nicholas Watt

Defeat will trigger grave crisis in the European Union

Photo: AP

PRESSING ISSUE: A civil servant shows the way to vote on the electonic machine in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Saturday.

PARIS: The prospect of a resounding Gallic "non" to the E.U. Constitution has sent a jolt across Europe with its leaders on Friday preparing for the gravest crisis since their predecessors attempted to bury centuries of conflict with the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

While Europe has staggered from one setback to another since the founding of the Common Market, nothing would compare with the rejection of such a significant treaty by one of the main driving forces behind the European project.

``It will be a huge black eye,'' says Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies. ``Nobody will really know how to deal with it. It is not a policy issue where you can say we want more socialism. O.K., so you don't like Europe, now what do we do?''

In public, the "oui" [yes] camp has not given up yet. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero campaigned in France on Friday for a ratification. —

Territories begin voting

AFP reports:

Voters on French overseas islands across the globe began voting in a referendum on Saturday, a day ahead of electors in mainland France.

The first voting began at 8 a.m. [local time] on St. Pierre and Miquelon, a group of tiny islands south of Newfoundland, Canada. Other territories voting ahead of the mainland included Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and Tahiti and New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

If polls prove right, France will be the first country to vote down the charter designed to strengthen the E.U.

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