French voters rejected a proposed European Union constitution Sunday, igniting a political crisis in the alliance and dealing a sharp blow to French President Jacques Chirac.With nearly all ballots counted, the Interior Ministry reported that 55.5% of voters had rejected the constitution and 44.5% had approved it.

Why is this funny?

Let’s remember that France is one of the primary architects that created the EU in the first place to offset the economic dominance of the United States (and later China). But now French voters are discontented with the EU, saying it had become an aloof, undemocratic bureaucracy.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

During the campaign on the referendum in France, critics ridiculed the text as quintessentially convoluted EU-speak and depicted Giscard as an out-of-touch elitist.

More of the pot accusing the kettle of being black!

According to pollsters, many “no” voters were young, working-class people worried about protecting France’s generous employment benefits, healthcare programs and public services. One young French voter quoted in a Los Angeles Times story said she had voted against the referendum to send a blunt message to her government: Do something about 10% unemployment at home before inviting poorer countries into the club. A different voter said, “It makes me sick to think that people from [other EU countries] work in France for less money,” she added. “This is how companies end up firing massively because it costs less to hire workers.”

So French workers want their leaders (who they consider elitist) to simultaneously do something about their country’s chronic employment all the while protecting their generous benefits, pay packages and social services. Furthermore, they want to make sure that others don’t come into the country who are ready, willing and able to do these same jobs for less. Finally, they want the benefits that a common market brings as long as it doesn’t involve anything non-French (particularly people) coming into their sacred country.

Don’t they teach Economics in France? If not, the least someone could do is translate Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations so these poor folks could have a clue.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2005 at 8:33 am by Insider and is filed under I knew I'd use my Econ major, France, We Taunt You, Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.