Coup de force
It is often said that in a referendum, the people do not answer the question posed but the person asking it. The referendum on the ECT on May 29, 2005, is a perfect example of this. The ratification of this European constitution was supposed to be a mere formality. On both the left and the right, the dominant parties favored the text concocted by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Editorialists in the mainstream media were also promoting the "yes" vote. But something unexpected derailed the announced plebiscite: the left-wing "no" movement. A movement built on one approach: to make the full text of this famous constitution known.
Drawing on activist networks, particularly those of the French Communist Party (PCF), but not exclusively, thousands of debates, meetings, and rallies were organized across the country. L'Humanité took part by publishing a special issue analyzing each article of the TCE. And little by little, opinion shifted. The TCE aimed to "engrave in stone" the neoliberal principles of the European Union. Certainly, there was a right-wing, reactionary, and nationalist "no." But it was the momentum of the left-wing "no" that changed the situation. It opened up the prospect of another Europe, democratic and social.
This movement, alas, failed to find a political outlet in the calendar dominated by the 2007 presidential election. But the desire, the hope for something else was there. The supporters of the "yes" side set about destroying them. With one method: to make the people understand, once and for all, that their opinion, their vote, did not count. This was the fundamental ideological objective of the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.
The same scenario has also been repeated in other countries: the Netherlands and Ireland. By denying the popular vote and reducing the "no" vote to its reactionary component, Sarkozy and his ilk have certainly succeeded in crushing hope, but they have also further widened the gap between citizens and politics. Thus, encouraging the fascist drift that now threatens all European Union countries.
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