Do the French view themselves as Europeans?
It's difficult for me to talk as a Frenchman, especially since I'm American, though I've been living here for more than ten years.One of the major problems here in France is that French often don't know the rest of Europe, nor their fellow Europeans. They often haven't developed their own, personal European vision. As a result they have the impression, reinforced by the media, that the French benefit from an extensive social system which is non-existant or at least rather limited in the rest of Europe. This fear is reinforced by the idea that the social system for Europe will be reduced to the lowest common denominator, that of the country having the least social protection. This is an fear which found a resonator in the latest Bolkelstein directive in the EU, and in the current court case with RyanAir who is exporting workers from Ireland, having them work fulltime in Belgium, but refusing to acknowledge that RyanAir workers are covered by Belgian work laws.
In addition, many French believe that politicians are not to be trusted; Raffarin, the Prime Minister of France, and Jacques Chirac, President, promote a "yes" vote in the referendum for the European Constitution, but they don't have a popular mandate (most French in fact voted against Le Pen rather than for Chirac). Chirac's supporting the European Constitution on TV may actually do more harm than good. At least this debate does have the benefit of increasing French interest in the democratic process.
The French trust the European Commission even less. How can the European Commission be controlled, be responsive to EU citizens, without an adequate check and balance system? Do Europeans have as much access as lobbies to the European Commission, the only body of the EU that can create laws?
It may be that passing this treaty on the constitution may be lesser of two evils; a worse option would be to let "big business" continue on their merry way without any government regulation.
This is part of the current French quandry about the referendum. They have no idea how other Europeans feel about Europe.
posted by Brett @ 3:21 PM
3 Comments:
I think it's very important not to confuse the constitution with the idea of Europe. There is much that's tempting about European unity but this is certainly no contract that I would sign.
Reading through the constitution one finds many of the pro-market policies that have done such damage to the UK under Thatcher and that are currently so beloved of Chirac and his merry men.
Many would consider these political choices to be bad, others may disagree. They are just the choices of a government, certainly not something to be enshrined in a binding contract.
Coming from a country that has never had a constitution, I honestly don't see what good they can do. And as for an all-powerful, unelected Commission...
Frankly, I think that there is far more to be lost here than some lofty dreams of federal Europe.
I must agree with Cecilef, most of the french people don't give a shit about Europe. They're in France and they don't care about what happens in other countries.
But you said that the vote was especially against the government. I think that this jugement is right, but only for the vote of the middle class. They voted against Chirac and Raffarin because of the last laws which where voted. Dumb choice i guess.
But some people( me included :p) voted "no" to stand up against capitalism who is slowly invading Europe. From my point of view, this Constitution totally ignores most of the social status we had in Europe.( i summarize to much, i agree:p)
After the vote, most of the medias said "this was a vote against Europe". This is right for the people who voted against the government( so a really selfish vote), but it was also a vote FOR Europe, because we didn't want a Europe with this Constitution.
No matter people voted against the government policy or against capitalism... It's the same thing. The treaty on the constitution was nothing more than actuel french policy for the whole europa. Saying the French don't fellow Europeans because they voted "no" is like saying the Americans don't fellow Humans because lot of them say "yes" to the death penalty...
At the begining of the debate about the constitution, many French were ready to vote "yes", it's only when they read the text that they finally change their mind. Among youth (which can be supposed to be the more "European") you got 80% of "yes", finally : 55% of "no".
It's because French believe that an other Europa is possible that they vote "no" and today many people are working to build this other Europa.
Our dreams have to be big enought for not beeing lost.
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