French Vote On Europe Constitution

Voters in France faced a historic choice on Sunday as they cast ballots in a referendum on the European Union's first constitution, a charter designed to pull nations together but now the source of a bitter divide threatening its passage.

Nearly 42 million people were eligible to vote in the pivotal referendum on the charter, which polls suggest the French will reject. The constitution must be ratified by all 25 EU member states before it can take effect in 2006, so a French "no" could kill it.

The "yes" camp hoped for a surprise, plausible if the legions of undecided voters come out in favor of the constitution or simply vote. "Everything is possible," read the headline in the daily Le Parisien.

The participation rate was 25 percent by noon Sunday — 4.6 percent higher than that recorded during the same time frame in the last French referendum on Europe in 1992 — the Maastricht Treaty on European unity, the Interior Ministry said.

The 55,000 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and were to close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), except in Paris and Lyon, huge population centers where voting was to end at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT). The first exit poll results were expected by 10 p.m. (2000 GMT).

About 1.5 million voters in France's overseas territories from the Caribbean to Polynesia cast ballots Saturday, with results to remain under wraps until all voting concludes.

Voters carrying market baskets or dressed for church trickled into polling stations near the site where the Bastille prison — stormed at the start of the French Revolution — once stood in central Paris.

Across the Seine River, a carpet of flyers promoting the "yes" vote covered the street and sidewalks in the Left Bank neighborhood of Montparnasse — a testimony to the intense nature of the debate that gripped France.

"If you look at every sentence, every turn of phrase, practically every article has a mention of (financial) markets," said Anne-Marie Latremoliere, a 57-year-old graphic designer 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."

Her fear that the constitution will promote voracious capitalism on the continent, at the expense of social protections is typical among "no" supporters.

Arnaud Senlis, 27, carrying his two-year-old son on his shoulders, was equally adamant about his "yes" vote.

"I never thought twice about it," he said, complaining that the intense debate "seemed more about national politics and politicians' personal ambitions than a real debate about Europe's future."

A collective French "oui" — coupled with improbable approval in another referendum Wednesday in the Netherlands, where opposition is running at about 60 percent — could give the charter unstoppable momentum as a dozen other nations decide its fate in the coming months.

But a "non" would resonate even more powerfully across the continent: in 1951, two Frenchmen — Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet -- launched the six-nation European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to today's EU.

The key to victory for the "yes" camp could lie in the hands of those who make up their minds at the last minute — more than 20 percent of the electorate, according to polls.

Katia Volman, a 22-year-old student, was among them, but she cast a blank ballot, saying the issues were too complicated to fully digest.

"I had so many reasons to vote 'yes' or 'no' so I left it blank and that way I won't regret my decision two days later," she said.

The possibility that the EU's latest bold attempt to knit together its club of nations could wind up stillborn in polarized France had many wondering what might lie ahead.

"If there was to be a French 'no' vote — a serious big rejection of the treaty — followed by a rejection in the Netherlands, then I think that this treaty is in effect dead," said John Palmer, an analyst with the European Policy Center in Brussels, Belgium.

"The danger then would be that we would enter a period of profound stagnation, maybe for two, three or more years, until we have new elections in France and some of the other key countries," he said.

Backers say the constitution, which EU leaders signed in October, will streamline EU operations and decision-making, make the bloc more accessible to its 450 million citizens, and give it a president and foreign minister so it can speak with one voice in world affairs.

Opponents fear it will strip nations of sovereignty and trigger an influx of cheap labor just as European powers such as France and Germany struggle to contain double-digit unemployment.

Nine nations — Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain — already have ratified it by referendum or parliamentary vote.

While a defeat would shake the EU to its core, it could plunge France into political chaos. Chirac's prestige, at home and abroad, would be damaged; the opposition Socialist Party, divided down the middle, could be crippled and unpopular Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin would, analysts agree, quickly be fired.

A French rejection of the treaty would make Chirac only the second leader, after Gen. Charles de Gaulle, to lose a referendum since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.