French Reject EU Constitution

French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution Sunday, dealing a staggering blow to efforts to further unify the 25-nation bloc by giving it a common charter and more power on the global stage.

With 92 percent of votes counted, the "no" had 56.14 percent, with only 43.86 percent for "yes," the Interior Ministry said.

"It is your sovereign decision, and I take note," President Jacques Chirac said in a brief televised address, adding: "Make no mistake, France's decision inevitably creates a difficult context for the defense of our interests in Europe."

The treaty's rejection in a bitterly contested referendum in France — the cradle of continental unity and an architect of the European project — could set the continent's plans back by years and amounts to a personal humiliation for the veteran French leader.

Chirac said the process of ratifying the treaty would nevertheless continue in other EU countries.

Treaty opponents chanting "We won!" gathered at Paris' Place de la Bastille, a symbol of rebellion where angry crowds in 1789 stormed the prison and sparked the French Revolution. Cars blared their horns and "no" campaigners thrust their arms into the air.

"This is a great victory," said Fabrice Savel, 38, from the working-class suburb of Aubervilliers. He was distributing posters that read: "Non to a free-market Europe."

To go into effect as planned by Nov. 1, 2006, the charter needs ratification in all 25 member nations, either by referendum or parliamentary vote. Nine countries had previously voted in favor of the charter.

Leading "no" campaigner Philippe de Villiers pronounced the treaty dead Sunday night, declaring: "There is no more constitution."

"The people have massively said 'no,'" he said. "It is necessary to reconstruct Europe on other foundations that don't currently exist."

De Villiers called on Chirac to submit his resignation — something the French leader had said he would not do — and called for parliament to be dissolved. "Tonight we face a major political crisis," he said.

Extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who campaigned vigorously for the constitution's defeat, also called for Chirac's resignation.

Chirac "wanted to gamble ... and he has lost," Le Pen said. "We are living an historic moment."

The French vote came three days before the charter faces another hostile reception in the Netherlands.

EU officials said that even if France rejects the treaty, efforts to ratify it in other countries would proceed. Chirac and European leaders have said that the treaty cannot be renegotiated. But many French voters did not believe that.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement and a leading campaigner for the "yes" camp, called Sunday's defeat "a major political event."

Chirac had waged an all-out campaign to persuade nearly 42 million sharply divided voters to approve the charter. But the electorate was in rebellious mood, with unemployment running at 10 percent and wide unease about the direction Europe is taking.

Chirac's popularity ratings have plummeted in recent weeks, and there was widespread speculation that he would fire unpopular Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. In his television address, Chirac said he would announce "my decisions concerning the government and its priorities" in coming days.

France's rejection of the treaty made the conservative president only the second leader, after Gen. Charles de Gaulle, to lose a referendum since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.

Although Chirac argued that the constitution would streamline EU decision-making and make the bloc more accessible to its 450 million citizens, opponents feared it would strip France of its sovereignty and generous social system and trigger an influx of cheap labor.

Nine nations — Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain — already have ratified it.

It appeared that Sunday's participation would surpass that in the last French referendum on Europe, 1992's Maastricht Treaty on European unity. Then, 69.69 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. That referendum narrowly passed.

A "yes," coupled with another by the Dutch, could have given the constitution potentially unstoppable momentum.

In the end, though, the French — torn between wanting to remain one of the engines of an increasingly competitive Europe yet fiercely protective of the generous social welfare benefits they enjoy — stuck with their perceptions that the charter posed another threat to their cherished way of life.

"If you look at every sentence, every turn of phrase, practically every article has a mention of (financial) markets," Anne-Marie Latremoliere, a 57-year-old graphic designer, said after casting a "no" ballot at a polling station near the Bastille.

"We want Europe to be a beautiful place, and this is certainly not it," she said.