Chirac: "I Shall Taunt You A Second Time!"

Right on schedule. Turmoil as Chirac plots to disregard 'non' vote.

PRESIDENT CHIRAC of France is preparing to throw Europe into confusion and put Britain on the spot by backing moves to keep the European constitution alive if it is rejected in Sunday’s referendum.
. . .
President Chirac was still insisting last night that renegotiation was out of the question if the French vote "no". British ministers believe that the only way that the French could get eventual approval would be to amend the constitution in a way that would make it unacceptable in Britain.

"We do not know if there is going to be a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but a ‘no’ would create massive uncertainty about what we are supposed to be voting on," a [British] ministerial source said.

Does anyone really know anyway?

Chirac went on French television last night to deliver a dramatic last-ditch appeal for a ‘yes’ vote. He urged the French people not to punish his Government.

Why the hell not? "Chirac" is synonymous with corruption. Why would anyone want more of it?

"The decision before us goes far beyond traditional political divisions," [Chirac] said. The choice was 'about your future and that of your children, of the future of France and the future of Europe. On Sunday, everyone will have a share of the destiny of France in its hands."

Duh. That's why they're voting against it.

He argued that the constitution would strengthen France’s influence in Europe and reinforce the French social model. Rejecting it would create "divisions and doubts" in Europe when "we need a political Europe capable of bringing about a genuine European power."

And Americans are the imperialists? Thanks, Jack, for making the best possible argument against it.

But the latest poll showed the rejectionists’ support growing to 55 per cent — the 13th poll in succession to put the ‘no’ camp ahead. . . . Even as Chirac prepared to deliver his appeal last night the recriminations within his centre-right UMP party had begun, and he was said by colleagues to have accepted that he had bungled by calling a referendum.
. . .
But one option being discussed in senior diplomatic circles is for candidates in the French presidential election in 2007 to promise to ratify the treaty in parliament rather than by referendum.

Yup. Liberte, Equalite, Tyranne.

A detached observer might ask: why are European elites so desperate to ram this through, when so many ordinary folks are opposed to it? One answer GWOYKW cares about: it would consolidate power in the hands of the EU, robbing member state governments of the autonomy to set their own policies on Muslim immigration.