Posted on 06/22/2005 11:01:05 AM PDT by quidnunc
Should we cry or should we laugh? French voters recently rejected the proposed European constitution. The rejection left President Jacques Chirac in political limbo and the bureaucrats in Brussels in shock.
French voters were concerned the EU had grown too fast in recent years and they opposed giving more power to the bureaucrats in Brussels to regulate their everyday life. They were also voting against the French government for failing to strengthen the economy and reduce unemployment. But that does not mean that a free market and a free society will now reign in France. Quite the opposite.
But sometimes people do the right thing for the wrong reason. As a French citizen, I am delighted that my countrymen voted no. The 70,000-word Constitution is nothing short of a manifesto for centralization with the bureaucrats in Brussels sitting atop a huge powerful federation. For instance, the Constitution enumerates many areas where Brussels will have exclusive competence over nation states but also suggests that it will decide on a case by case basis when to exercise its powers outside its exclusive authority.
Moreover, the document is a long list of "rights" to services provided by the state rather than a simple list of rights to protect individuals from the coercive power of the state. According to the Constitution, EU citizens would have a right to education, preventive healthcare, a family, housing assistance, and even the right to husband reindeers.
Equally delightful is that this vote is a slap in the face of the French political elite and the arrogant European Commission. For years, the unelected EU bureaucracy has succeeded in expanding its powers without ever seeking voters' approval. For one thing, EU voters are rarely asked for their opinion. In the last 15 years and before the vote on the Constitution, only 2 referenda were held in Europe. And even in the case of the adoption of this Constitution, EU bureaucrats bragged that nine countries had ratified the document even though only Spain had done it through referendum. The eight other countries did not bother asking voters for approval and turned to the parliament for ratification.
-snip-
A Frenchman gets it...
Kudos to the ordinary French people. They finally took off their rose-colored glasses and see Jacky Chiracy for what a traitorous wuss he really is.
I'm taking bets as to when power abuse in the EU will turn it into a Soviet-like police state.
He's still named "Veronique"...
Ahhhh...Dr, I think the patient still has some brain activity.
I'm hoping that a freer-market approach will be embraced by the French. I'm an eternal optimist
(They were also voting against the French government for failing to strengthen the economy and reduce unemployment.)
And yet most of the French rejected the Constitution because it wasn't socialistic enough. The lack of education of how economics work is astounding throughout the world.
I'll drink a glass of Chilean wine to celebrate France's wise decision.
Une femme francaise, I think.
Strange as it seems, millions of Americans are working overtime trying to make the U.S.A. follow the example of the E.U. and even adopt the eternally doomed policies of Karl Marx and the suicidal decadence of the European Left.
Fortunately, they are outnumbered by the wise citizens of Middle America, who have seized the political and cultural power once commanded by the American Left.
Europeans must follow the example of Middle America if Europe is to survive. Good luck! We are praying for you.
Well...whatever. The men there are womanly and the women manly...so it all blends together...
LOL!
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