France’s political elite was stunned on Friday by an opinion poll that showed for the first time a majority of voters opposed the European Union constitutional treaty. Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission, warned of a “political cataclysm” if France voted No to the constitution in a national referendum on May 29.
However, Mr Delors predicted that the Yes campaign, which has only just been launched, would ultimately prevail. “I believe in the good sense of the people. They will not confuse this vote with questions of internal politics,” Mr Delors said in a newspaper interview.
The poll of 802 people, conducted earlier this week, showed that 51 per cent of respondents would vote No if the referendum were held on Sunday. Support for the Yes campaign slumped 14 points from the previous month to 49 per cent, following a tumultuous spell in French politics.
I’m sure that even a few no votes won’t kill the EU, since it’s about as genuinely democratic as the Third Reich it is designed to replace. But it’s good to see that some Frenchmen are beginning to rethink the wisdom of a dictatorial pan-European empire. It wasn’t a good concept when Napoleon and Hitler were running one, and doing the same thing with a few soulless Brussels bureaucrats in charge is no improvement.