EU On Wry With Malaise

The American Spectator ^ | May 31, 2005 | Jed Babbin

[quidnunc]

French voters struck a mighty blow for liberte, egalite, and the 35-hour work week by defeating the proposed European constitution decisively on Sunday. After fifty years of arguing fervently to convince the rest of Europe to unite around them, the French did the perfectly French thing and made a mess of it for others to try to clean up. For the nine nations that previously succumbed to French blandishments and ratified the charter — though they comprise about half the population of the EU — the French have no apology. And there's a bright silver lining in the cloud that envelops EUnuchdom. We must see it clearly and act on it, because opportunities such as this don't come along very often.

The national religion of France, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently, is the vacation. Panicked at the thought of cheap labor from Eastern Europe flooding their moribund economy with people who'd actually work for a living — to the French it's the "Polish plumber" problem — French voters have accomplished what French soldiers never have: they have defended successfully the French way of life. They will fight to the death (just rhetorically, of course) to protect their legally mandated short work week, six-week vacations, and the many weaknesses of their economy propped up by EU subsidies. The French vote doesn't kill the EU: the EUnuchs will remain EUnuchs, but their anger will be more for each other and less for us in the next few years. In Old Europe there is consternation, even panic. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, "There is a risk of contagion." Just so.

The EU draft will be voted on by the Dutch tomorrow, and they are likely to reject it by an even larger margin than the French. Petulanty-Reidish (Reidishly-petulant?) Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende said on Saturday that a mere "no" vote by a Dutch majority wouldn't stop his government from ratifying the EU document. Seeking, perhaps, to filibuster the vote, Balkenende said only a 60 percent majority would be sufficient to deter ratification by the Netherlands. But regardless of Balky's intentions, Dutch rejection at any level would be of little significance unless Britain were to go ahead with its planned referendum despite the French rejection. Tony Blair may be liberal, but he ain't crazy.

-snip-

[Betaille]

"French voters have accomplished what French soldiers never have: they have defended successfully the French way of life."

LOL!

[TFine80]

Thanks for posting these. I can't get enough of these articles!

[Chgogal]

Ping!

LOL

"EUnuchdom"

[Chgogal]

"THE FRENCH VOTE GIVES US an opening to improve trade and defense relations with New Europe and those parts of Old Europe that can be weaned away from the Brussels losers. Around these nations we can even hope to rebuild NATO, excluding those, such as France and Germany, that have broken the bargain on which it is based. We can wean some away with carrots, while applying a stick vigorously to French backsides."

It was a good day for Poland and the USA. :)

[D-fendr]

Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende said on Saturday that a mere "no" vote by a Dutch majority wouldn't stop his government from ratifying the EU document.

They ARE the ruling class after all. Gotta love the Euro-way of referrendum.

[Penner]

Panicked at the thought of cheap labor from Eastern Europe flooding their moribund economy with people who'd actually work for a living — to the French it's the "Polish plumber" problem — French voters have accomplished what French soldiers never have: they have defended successfully the French way of life.

Hooray for the French for having the sense to protect their standard of living.

I wish we were more like the French.

[lodi90]

Hooray for the French for having the sense to protect their standard of living. I wish we were more like the French.

Have you been to France lately? Their standard of living is falling dramatically in the large cities and it has nothing to do with Polish Plumbers.

[anonymoussierra]

Thank you"Chgogal"please do read thank you

for Anonymoussierra

"Chirac has lost battle for his incompetence and arrogance. To hit this in right way, you need to look deeper into European institution. Either fore - henceforth - Chirac had decided to push on, something that would be his undoing. They should know this, or rather they would neglect it, neither way situation has changed, and this is his fault. France would never get a grip a tu Europe don't belong to them and they should realize that. To put it straight just ask them, what happened in 1940 and Chirac would just close his mouth. Chirac is following in footsteps of De Gaulle, and none of them want to admit it, De Gaulle waited till Paris was liberated and refused to acknowledge allies victories. France can dance as much as they want to, they need to face reality; they are not important no more as much as they want to. Baton of power has been passed and Chirac realizes this, either fore he won't admit it. As far as US and her allies, they have chosen to counterattack threat looming upon us, doing so they stood up to gravest danger we have seen since second war"

Thank you good friend be good be strong!!!!!!!!!!!

[anonymoussierra]

be strong good friend:}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[anonymoussierra]

time is time life is life