Jitters in Paris as Polls Nod Towards a No

[chlamor]

Jitters in Paris as polls nod towards a No

With just 12 days to the EU treaty vote, the French have changed their minds again

Jon Henley in Paris
Wednesday May 18, 2005
The Guardian

Confounding pollsters, pundits and politicians alike, public opinion in France has swung back behind a no vote to the new European constitution, say three surveys published yesterday.

Less than two weeks before France's May 29 referendum on the treaty, the polls by the TNS-Sofres, Ipsos and CSA agencies for Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien newspapers showed support for the no camp, trailing since the end of April, had bounced back to between 51% and 53%.

"The battle is very far from won," the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, said, adding that the yes camp - led by the centre-right government of the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and a majority of the opposition Socialists - would need to find new arguments to convince a truculent and deeply sceptical electorate.

"I am worried," one leading Socialist, Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, told the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1486253,00.html

[AP]

1. A weak EU is a victory for the US.

[Wright Patman]

2. The lack of UK participation

in the euro is way more significant than this sort of vote, it would seem to me.

And I see no sign that Bliar will ever be able to force the Brits into Euroland.

[w4rma]

3. I wouldn't say the "US". Maybe certain factions associated with the US. nt

[AP]

4. Yes. It's a victory for the US RW. But not a victory for American workers

who would like there to be larger, wealthier middle classes around the world so that their employers have more people with whom they can engage in fair, productive, wealth-producing, and wealth-distributing commerce.