Paris – Europe’s landmark new constitution faces a make- or-break referendum in France today, when a polarized nation decides whether to boost or block the next giant leap forward in a half-century of efforts to unite the continent.
After months of impassioned debate over the merits and drawbacks of the European Union’s historic first charter, the complex business of getting 25 countries to agree on an ambitious road map for their future hangs on two simple words: “oui” and “non.”
The latest poll gave the “no” camp 52 percent support and the “yes” camp 48 percent, meaning the treaty could face a humiliating defeat in a nation that played a lead role in drafting it.
All 25 EU member states must ratify the constitution before it can take effect in 2006, and a rejection by the French would be the first in Europe.
A French “yes” – coupled with improbable approval in another referendum Wednesday in the Netherlands, where opposition is running at about 60 percent – could give the charter unstoppable momentum as a dozen other nations decide its fate in coming months.
But a defeat here would resonate even more powerfully.
“If we vote ‘no,’ we may be left out of everything,” said Lucien Steinamm, a 23-year-old gardener who is among the more than 20 percent of voters who are undecided.
The possibility that the EU’s latest attempt to knit together its ragtag club of nations could wind up stillborn had many wondering what lies ahead.
“If there was to be a French ‘no’ vote … then I think that this treaty is in effect dead,” said John Palmer, an analyst with the European Policy Center in Brussels, Belgium.
Backers say the constitution, which EU leaders signed in October, will streamline EU operations and decision-making, and make the bloc more accessible to its 450 million citizens.
Opponents fear it will strip nations of national identity and sovereignty and trigger an influx of cheap labor.
Nine nations – Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain – already have ratified the constitution by referendum or parliamentary vote.
