Vote no to EU!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=572&ncid=572&e=2&u=/nm/20050426/lf_nm/eu_france_referendum_dc

EU Constitution Puzzles Rural France

Tue Apr 26, 9:09 AM ET

By Kerstin Gehmlich

CHALONS-EN-CHAMPAGNE, France (Reuters) - "The constitution? That's something to do with the euro, isn't it?"

An elderly woman looks uncertainly at a small group handing out booklets encouraging people to vote in a May 29 referendum that could embarrass French President Jacques Chirac and send shockwaves rippling out across the European Union.

Constance Bauchu and friends have criss-crossed France over the past three weeks, asking voters onto their blue and yellow campaign bus to educate them about the EU constitution and help them decide whether France should ratify the treaty.

"There's a lot of uncertainty," the 20-year-old psychology student says. "And a lot of indifference. Some people don't even look at us and just walk past. It's a shame."

A majority of French voters intend to reject the treaty, and more than one-third say they are not interested in the referendum, according to opinion polls.

A 'non' by founding member France could throw the EU into a crisis after years of painstaking negotiations that created a document which requires the backing of each of the European Union's 25 member nations.

It would also be a huge embarrassment to Chirac, whose support for the treaty risks being undermined by a backlash from voters unhappy with high unemployment and economic reforms carried out or promised by the conservative government.

To ignite passion over the text, the French government and the European Commission have sent three buses on a "Tour de France," packed with brochures, flags and leaflets.

Pensioner Guy Roland quickly strides past the bus parked among the wooden-timbered houses and wine shops in this sleepy town at the heart of France's champagne-producing region.

"I'll vote 'no'," he says angrily to Bauchu and her three young colleagues. "We have enough unemployed people here as it is. With the constitution, we'll have 10,000 times as many -- with this stupid directive on harmonizing the services sector."

"That directive is not part of the treaty," Bauchu says of the so-called Bolkestein directive on liberalizing services, and smiles patiently as she hands Roland a copy of the constitution.

"They'll still do it. I just know it," Roland replies.

JOB WOES

Pollsters cite unemployment as the No. 1 concern of the French electorate and say dissatisfied voters could seek to punish the government by rejecting the treaty.

About two-thirds of people say their social and economic situation will influence their vote on May 29, a recent poll found. Around the town of Chalons, unemployment is around 10 percent, about the national average.

Like in the rest of France, many people here work in manufacturing and agriculture, and many of them are worried about their jobs, says Sandrine Calvy from the communist-linked CGT trade union, representing some 2,000 workers in the region.

"We fear that more firms in and around Chalons-en-Champagne will close, that material will be transferred to Eastern Europe and that French workers will have to accept those countries' lower wages," she says.

"We are for Europe and for a European Constitution, but it has to be improved on social matters," she says.

Jacques Adnot, deputy mayor in this town of some 60,000 inhabitants, says Europe needs the constitution. He says many jobs in the region depend on exports to EU neighbors.

"If we didn't have Europe, we wouldn't have the same economic development in agriculture or industry," said Adnot, a member of the center-right UDF party, which supports the treaty.

"We have to explain to people on the ground what Europe and the constitution are about."

COMPLICATED FOR "NORMAL PEOPLE"

On the square in front of Chalons' town hall, Brigitte Franzetti flicks through a copy of the constitution, which seeks to streamline decision-making in an enlarged bloc of 25 members.

"I will vote yes," the 45-year-old post office worker says.

"We have to be a united force in Europe to be able to form resistance to George W. Bush's United States," she says.

Marianne Blaszczyk, 57, says she is less sure.

"It's complicated," she sighs. "Politicians are dealing with this every day. But for normal people like me, it's hard to grasp," she says, pointing at the small-printed treaty.

"I think many French will vote 'no' because they just don't understand what the constitution is about," she says.

Blaszczyk was one of some 80 people stopping by the bus in Chalons within four hours -- a good morning, the team says.

The day before, just 45 people showed up during the entire day -- well below the 600 daily visitors for whom the team has packed material into its bus for the four-week trip.

The campaign, financed by the French government and EU Commission and organized by the CIDEM -- a collective of civil associations, is supposed to stay neutral on the EU constitution itself, but urge people to cast a vote.

Bauchu says her personal view has changed during the trip.

"I was a 'yes' supporter when we started," she says.

"But during the trip, I have heard so many good arguments for the 'no', as well as for the 'yes'. I haven't quite made up my mind yet."