24/05/2005 3:47:57 pm
FT: How the French Turned Against Europe. In today′s Financial Times, Rafael Hadas-Lebel analyses the French referendum on Sunday, before which the no-side is still in the lead. Why have the French turned against the EU they have been so stringly in favour of building, he asks, and dismisses as the explanation that they don′t like the proposed Constitution or that they don′t like the political elite:

"For many, a No vote will be an expression of concern about the recent enlargement. The expansion of the European Union from 15 to 25 member states was a decision taken by political leaders alone, without public consultation, and the influx of labour from eastern and central Europe is seen, often irrationally, as a threat. The prospect of an eventual accession by Turkey, with its population of nearly 100m Muslims, has fuelled controversy and fear.

More generally, the French have been consistently taught by their politicians to see the Union as the source of all their country′s ills, whether these are the restrictions imposed by the stability pact, Commission rulings on company mergers, the changes imposed on the agricultural sector, outsourcing as a result of globalisation, the privatisation of public services or the overvaluation of the euro and its negative effect on business.

Europe, therefore, is no longer the mobilising concept that animated an entire generation a few decades ago. Peace, freedom, the euro and the free circulation of people are regarded by all, and particularly the younger generation, as an established and irreversible fact and nothing to wonder at. Instead, the Union has become associated with competition and austerity."