02/12/2004 2:41:08 pm
French Socialist "Yes" to EU Constitution Proposal. French politics in general has a statist bias that is one of the strongest in Europe. And of course French Socialists don?t constitute the more market-oriented wing of it. Now the French Socialist Party has voted "oui" (at least 59 % when 85 % of the votes are counted) to the proposed EU Constitution. What does that say about the proposal? From a freedom point of view it might seem that the EU would turn more socialist. On the other hand, the "non"-fraction with its leader Laurent Fabius is more traditionally Socialist than the "oui"-fraction of the party. They wanted a no-vote because they considered the proposal dominated by free market ideas. The truth is of course that the propsed Constitution is a great compromise and that liberals find it too socialist and vice versa. It is also true that it improved after the EP elections when the British got their way in important respects. Now it seems possible that the French will eventually vote yes in their referendum. But that is far from certain, and it is highly likely that some of the countries with referendums will vote no. Then there will be the option of creating a two-speed EU or re-negotiating the proposal - and the former is more likely.


Read more - >