EU call to re-run treaty referendums

FT reported France and the Netherlands should re-run their referendums to obtain the "right answer" if their voters reject Europe's constitutional treaty in imminent national ballots, Jean-Claude Juncker, the holder of the EU presidency, said on Wednesday.

If countries in the EU reject joining the EU, then where is the need for an EU president?

The Luxembourg prime minister said all 25 EU member countries should continue their attempts to ratify the treaty whatever the outcome of the French and Dutch votes. His comments reflect a mood of deepening pessimism among Europe's leaders about the outcome of the referendums. "The countries which have said No will have to ask themselves the question again.

Why, so they can say NO again?

And if we don't manage to find the right answer, the treaty will not enter into force," he said in an interview with the Belgian Le Soir newspaper.

Precisely, and you may be out of a job.

The French and the Dutch governments have for the moment ruled out the prospect of a second referendum and hope they can win their votes on Sunday and Tuesday respectively. Jacques Chirac, France's president, will tonight launch a last-ditch televised appeal to voters to back the treaty, which lays out new rules for the expanded EU and deepens integration. François Bayrou, a leading Yes campaigner and president of the UDF party, said Mr Chirac should explain the high stakes involved. "The role of the president of the republic is to show the gravity of things," he said. "All modern campaigns are played out in the last hours." Pro-constitution politicians across Europe have been sounding increasingly alarmist about the consequences of a No vote. "If the No side wins on Sunday, it will be a catastrophe for France, for Chirac, for everyone," Mr Juncker said in his interview. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, France's prime minister, warned on Wednesday that a No vote could deter foreign investment and damage the French economy.

Maybe the French think their economy is better than that of other parts of Europe, and would rather have a French economy than a European economy.

"Do you think that a France that cuts itself off, that says No to Europe will be attractive for new investments and new jobs?" he said in a television interview. "The No to Europe would be a No to investment."

Vox Day blogged Vote until you get it right. Why not? This vote-until-you-get-it-right strategy worked in forcing Ireland to "accept" the Nice Treaty. As I've stated before, the EU is about as democratic as the National Socialists, and about as liberty-loving too. To loosely quote Tom Wolfe, the spectre of fascism hangs over America, and yet it somehow always manages to land in Europe. Not that our own National and Social Democrats won't learn from this debacle and imitate Germany's national suicide by legislative vote when the time comes for us to merge with Mexico and Canada.

Orrin Judd blogged Let Saddam run the next one.