Mixed media: French resistance

Europe doomed

FRENCH COLUMNIST: France is enraged. It has more than two decades of pent-up anger that it hasn't really been able to express before, to dissipate, to let drain away. It is unacceptable to have had more than 20 years with 3 million people unemployed ... But this is not the moment to vote no. France has every right to be enraged and to try everything it can to change its entire political class. But today, a vote in anger - which is essentially a vote of no - will only risk aggravating the reasons for this disaffection. It will create an even more haphazard and disorganised Europe and sacrifice all chances of remedying the situation.

- Serge July writing in Liberation

SOCIALIST VIEW: Lo and behold, France, which is scheduled to ratify the constitution by a referendum on May 29, gives the impression of wanting to vote against it. If it does, the result will be an earthquake. Although every member nation has played its part in integrating Europe, France has without doubt been the country that provided most of the ideas and master builders.

- Socialist and former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard writing in the Bangkok Post.

LONDON COLUMNIST: If democracy is to mean anything, a no vote - certainly from France, the fons et origo of the European project - should be a shattering vote of no confidence that ought to force the elites of Europe to sit down and rethink what it is their peoples want from the EU. The first thing to get out of their minds is that their unpopularity is due to some deplorable Europhobia. Britain today is a genuinely open nation. We are utterly unfazed when our football teams are monopolised by Dutchmen and Spaniards or our water companies gobbled up by the French. We just do not see why we should have to put up with an EU which is so secretive, fraud-ridden, interfering and wasteful.

- Ferdinand Mount in the Daily Telegraph

FROM DENMARK: The French will vote no to the EU constitution simply because they have the opportunity to vote against EU bureaucracy - unlike the Germans, whose decision was left to their Parliament. I reckon virtually all other EU member states will follow France's example and thereby leave the EU to ponder over "what next".

- Keith Buck, Copenhagen, writing on the BBC website.

Sky will not fall

FROM PARIS: There is a second fallacious claim: that a vote of no in France or elsewhere would bring Europe to a standstill. In reality, post-no Europe would be the same as pre-referendum Europe: the texts that govern the EU, including the Nice treaty, would continue to apply. There would be plenty of time to negotiate a new, more acceptable constitution.

- Bernard Cassen writing in Le Monde Diplomatique.

THE BLOGGER: While an EU without France is barely conceivable (though it might simplify language issues), the converse is also true. Plus the French have said no to a treaty before, and then changed their collective mind. This still seems the likeliest course to me. France will say no. Over the course of the next year, almost everyone else will say yes. France's voters will face the prospect of Europe going on without them, and they will see the situation differently.

- Doug Merrill on http: fistfulofeuros.net

FOREIGN POLICY WONK: Should France's "vote no" campaigners succeed, there is still reason for optimism. That's because the best bits of the constitution will probably survive. It is possible that a French vote of no could result in the EU sticking solely with its current treaties, or that the other 24 member states will proceed with ratification sans France. A more likely outcome is that Europe's leaders will convene a mini-intergovernment conference to salvage the parts of the constitution that matter most ... and key elements will be rescued.

- Mark Leonard writing in Foreign Policy magazine

LEFT-LEANING BRIT: A pause for reflection on how to produce a short, clear and eloquent constitution, not dominated by a particular economic ideology, will do no harm. Javier Solana, Europe's foreign-minister-in-waiting, is already active in a virtually equivalent job and can continue. The council of ministers could endorse the idea of a European President, if it wishes. Europe will not go backwards, let alone collapse.

- Jonathan Steele in the Guardian