'The EU was France's baby. We can't throw her out now'

'The EU was France's baby. We can't throw her out now'
The Daily Telegraph
By Alice Thomson

"It's the Asterix complex," says the German ambassador to France. A French businessman agrees: "The French have got it into their heads that if they vote for this constitution, the sky will fall on their heads."

It is Asterix and The Great Divide wherever you go in France at the moment.Everyone is arguing over the referendum.

The French are revelling in it. "We love a good philosophical debate," says Marie-Laure Vigreux, a publisher. Like 50 million other French citizens, she and her husband, François, were sent a copy of the constitution by post.

"We read it in bed together," says Mrs Vigreux. "My husband says he will vote No but, in the end, I think we will both vote Yes. The European Union was France's baby. We conceived her, we nurtured her - we can't throw her out now."

The Yes campaign is hoping for this kind of last-minute about-turn. According to the soothsayers, more than 23 per cent are undecided. But for the last few weeks, the No campaign has appeared to be winning.

Many Frenchmen have become convinced that the EU has turned into a bogeyman who is trying to curtail their long lunches and summer holidays. Some believe that it is the cause of their high unemployment, of beggars on the street, even of the sogginess in baguettes.

Asterix and Obelix do not want Polish plumbers in their village. They do not want Anglo-Saxons flying in on their cheap Ryanair tickets when Air France is floundering. They have had enough of those Brussels directives that tell them they cannot shoot little birds because the English have an obsession with animals.

It is bad enough that Europe is now made up of 25 members, but adding Turkey, a Muslim country of 100 million, would be too much for many Frenchmen.

In the Tuileries in Paris, mothers are watching their children bounce on trampolines. Annabel Roberts, a British journalist married to a Frenchman, says: "This referendum is about expansion. People here always thought they controlled Europe, but now they can't any more and they're frightened. The French only like being on the European train if they think they are in the driving seat."

Romain Seitlinger, an investment banker sitting in a café, is more blunt.

"Everyone used to go to state schools - it was what I liked about this country, the egalité. But how can I send my sons there when they are filled with children who don't speak French?"

The waiter overhears our conversation. "I say yes, yes, yes - but no toTurkey," he says. "They do not respect our way of life." For many, the referendum is not about the constitution, it is about the way Europe has drifted.

"We should never have allowed more than eight countries into Europe," says Robert Bobet, who runs a chain of bakeries in Paris. "It is not selfish to say we can't pay for Lithuania and Latvia."

His friend, Gilles LeClerc, is voting No as a protest against President Chirac. "Every time we get rid of him, he comes back; he's been messing up France for 40 years," says Mr LeClerc.

He is not impressed by Mr Chirac's promise to slash VAT on restaurant bills if there is a Yes vote. "We don't have revolutions or guillotines any more, but this referendum will decapitate him."

At a No rally at Port Dauphine, people cite other reasons for voting No.

Mr Chirac has given warning that a No vote will turn France into a black sheep, but the first speaker does not care. "The black sheep is up in arms,the black sheep won't say Yes, the black sheep is going to make a meal of the wolf," he says.

Everyone thinks that he or she understands the constitution. It may have been written by a Frenchman, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, but they believe it is an Anglo-Saxon plot. They are convinced that it will bring in British and American working practices, longer working hours, free markets, cheapburgers and inferior bras. The French are worried that they will not be able to compete.

Carole Myard, a beautician, explains: "Life is not worth living if you only get two weeks' holiday a year."

Serge Saugues, a mechanic, agrees. "The Americans and British work like dogs. We need our evenings and our holidays to drink wine, see our women,watch the world."

Mr Chirac has produced the singer Johnny Hallyday, the film-makers Jean-Jacques Annaud and Claude Lelouch, the actor Jeanne Moreau and the singer Marianne Faithfull to underline the message that France will not lose its cultural identity under the proposed constitution.

But Arnaud Leparmentier, the European editor of Le Monde, says that this ploy has not worked. "This constitution is seen as a British plot:pro-America, pro-free markets and against the French way of life."

Down the road, however, they are extolling the constitution at a meeting for Liberté Cherie. Sabine Herold, their spokesman, says: "I think that only the European Union can break the hold of the unions and drag France into the 21st century. We have 10 per cent unemployment, we are in a rut. We need to become more Anglo-Saxon."

The No campaign in France never complains about bendy cucumbers, the banning of vitamin pills or the amount of bureaucrats wasting money in Brussels.They like bureaucrats, as long as they speak French and are not Polish.

But they are angry about the rules and regulations with which even the French are being forced to comply. They do not like being made to sell British beef or to put their battery-farm chickens into larger boxes.

The fact that the newspapers and television stations are solidly behind the Yes campaign has only angered the No voters.

Claude Dessolas, a radio reporter, cannot understand. "France was doing so well. We had won the argument over Iraq. We could hold our heads up high.This turns us into an embarrassment."

Dimitry Panitza, the European editor of Reader's Digest, says: "A No vote will put the domineering Franco-German axis in the deep freeze. Europe will be messy, disorganised, dysfunctional and bitter."

The business community is amazed. "If it is a No vote, it is an earthquake,"says Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, a solicitor and author. "The Government won't stand the tremors."

Francois Bujon de l'Estaing, a former ambassador and chairman of Citigroup, Europe, says: "If we say No there will be no winners, only losers.

"France will be weakened in the eyes of the world. The average person in Oklahoma or China will think the European project is over. The psychological impact will last for years."

Business leaders admit that they were slow off the mark. Dominique Mine, a retailer, says: "It never occurred to us that there would be so much fuss about the treaty. But a No vote will be catastrophic for our markets."

At a breakfast for the Atlantic Partnership, the bipartisan think tank that promotes good relations between Europe and America, the French elite meet with Joseph Nye, the American foreign policy guru. As they sit in the gilded dining-room of the British Embassy, they discuss why the "paysans" have revolted.

Nicholas de la Mornière, the chairman of a luxury goods company, explains:"They are frightened of competition. The idea of wealth creation doesn't exist in this country."

They agree that a No vote is not a Eurosceptic vote. "This is not a rejection of the project," says one. "The 10 reasons the British would vote No to Brussels are the 10 reasons we would vote Yes."

Lord Powell of Bayswater, the chairman of the Atlantic Partnership, says:"Somehow or other, the French will find a way to say Yes."

The British ambassador to France is keeping his distance. But every other European ally has been wheeled in to help support the Yes vote. Mr Chirac has called on Poland's president, Germany's chancellor and Spain's primeminister.

In Britain, the French referendum has divided camps in bizarre ways. Many pro-Europeans want the French to vote No because then the talk will all be about France's gripes: employment law and social policy. If the French vote Yes, and the British vote No, the arguments will be about far more serious issues, such as sovereignty and democracy, according to Denis MacShane, the former Europe minister.

But the ardent pro-European still wants a Yes vote, and a referendum in Britain. "If we don't agree to this constitution, Europe will go back to increasing bureaucracy, no role for national parliaments and no role for individual citizens."

Liam Fox, the shadow foreign secretary, says: "The French have an opportunity to speak for a lot of people across the continent. They have taken to Euro-scepticism with a particularly Gallic passion."

But Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a leading No campaigner in Westminster, wants a"petit oui" in France.

"It is in the French interests to vote Yes. But it is in our interests they vote No."

He is determined that the British should be allowed their own referendum to show Tony Blair that they have had enough of Brussels.

Asterix the Gaul and Obelix hold the key to Britain's future, as well as that of France. If they decide to repel the marauding hordes from Brussels, it will be up to Mr Blair, who takes over the presidency of the EU in July, to sort out the mess.