Chirac urges support for EU treaty

French to vote on constitution

? With his hopes for Europe on the line, President Jacques Chirac went on national television to deliver a dramatic appeal for a continentwide constitution – warning his countrymen that they hold “France’s destiny in their hands” in a weekend referendum.

Urging voters to think of their children, Chirac said Thursday a “oui” vote in Sunday’s referendum would enable France to “defend its interests and remain one of the motors of Europe.”

But he spoke of dire consequences with a “non” vote to the landmark treaty – planned as the next big step in a 50-year process of European integration.

“It would open a period of divisions, of doubts, of uncertainties,” he warned in the address from the presidential Elysee Palace, his last of a tumultuous campaign. “What a responsibility if France, a founder nation of Europe, took the risk of breaking the union of our continent.”

“On Sunday, each of us will have a part of France’s destiny in their hands,” he said.

Latest polls showed French opponents of the text extending their lead, with two surveys giving them about 55 percent. Treaty supporters number about 46 percent, according to the polls.

French rejection would be regarded by other Europeans as “a no to Europe.”

The president dismissed as “an illusion” arguments of opponents, who say the text could be renegotiated to make it more amenable to the French if they vote “no.”

Polls show that many voters don’t believe warnings from Chirac and from EU leaders that the treaty, which took Europe more than two years to put together, cannot be negotiated.

Campaign posters urge French voters to reject the EU constitution along a street in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. France votes on the constitution Sunday, and the latest polls suggest a slim majority of voters will reject the new treaty, which must be approved by all 25 EU member states to take effect.

“There is no other project,” Chirac repeated. “Europe would be broken down, searching for an impossible consensus.”

Chirac did not address mounting speculation he will fire his unpopular prime minister if France rejects the treaty. But he urged the French not to turn the plebiscite into a vote of sanction against his administration.

“We must not mistake the question,” Chirac said. “It is not about saying yes or no to the government. It is about your future, that of your children, of the future of France and the future of Europe. The decision before us goes far beyond traditional political divisions.”

Chirac said a challenge facing Europe was economic competition from the United States, Japan, China and “tomorrow India and others.” Europe also must preserve its social model and defend its “values of peace and justice,” he said.

If voters reject the constitution, Chirac would suffer the humiliation of becoming only the second leader, after Gen. Charles de Gaulle, to lose a referendum since the founding of the French Fifth Republic in 1958.

A “no” could, at least temporarily, kill off the proposed constitution and its stated goal of closer integration among the EU’s 25 member states. Each state must approve the text by referendum or parliamentary vote for it to take effect in 2006.

Proponents say the constitution, which EU leaders signed last October, will streamline EU operations and decision-making and give the bloc a president and foreign minister. But French opponents say it will lead to a loss of sovereignty and an influx of cheap labor.