No vote ahead in French referendum

Yet another poll has shown the “no” vote winning in France’s May 29 referendum on the EU constitution, and the government spokesman said today that rejecting the document had become fashionable.

Yet another poll has shown the “no” vote winning in France’s May 29 referendum on the EU constitution, and a spokesman said today that rejecting the document had become fashionable.

“I have the feeling that the ’no’ is a la mode,” said government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

The poll by the Louis Harris firm, published in the daily Liberation, suggests that 53% of the French would vote against the EU constitution compared with 47% who would vote for it. The figures were similar to a handful of earlier polls that put the “no” camp ahead.

However, 66% of the 1,002 people questioned said they felt uninformed about the contents of the document.

And 50% said President Jacques Chirac’s televised debate on the subject last Thursday with 83 young people failed to convince them to vote for the EU constitution, compared with 22% who felt convinced.

“Naturally, whatever the response … this will impact the national political plan,” Villepin said last night on Europe-1 radio. He said that more “solidarity, more movement to better take into account the feelings and the frustrations being expressed” during the referendum campaign were needed.

If “no” wins, “It’s an immense stupor that will take over Europe,” the interior minister said.

The Louis Harris poll, taken on Friday and Saturday, showed 82% of those questioned felt sure of their choice.

No margin of error was provided, but it is usually plus or minus three percentage points in polls of that size.