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FAITH IN YOUTH

Freddie Sayers on France’s young EU refuseniks:

Two years ago it would have been unthinkable that more people in France aged under 26 would vote against a European constitution than for it. But it happened on Sunday, and it is likely to happen tomorrow in Holland. So how can this be?

Because youngsters are smart, is how.

Posted by Tim B. on 05/31/2005 at 03:11 AM

  1. Possibly. More likely they want to preserve their cushy employment conditions and avoid hated British-style capitalism.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2005 05 31 at 04:20 AM • permalink

  2. spot on walterplinge - the no vote is not about important stuff like national sovereignty, but about those subsidies for inefficient farming, the laughably short working week, & funding the raft of kickbaks in the mess of corruption that is the french political system

    on the other hand, you gotta love a nation that produces a squillion kinds of delicious cheese

    Posted by KK on 2005 05 31 at 04:36 AM • permalink

  3. Isn’t French protectionism just an expression of a yearning for national familiarities?
    Tear away the ancient bonds of national identity in favour of a European utopia and the rubber band of kinship will smack you in the face.

    Posted by gubbaboy on 2005 05 31 at 06:25 AM • permalink

  4. Yeah, the ‘No’ vote probably wasn’t a protest against unaccountable socialist government, runaway bureaucracy and corruption, but a protest against those things not going far enough. All the French government have to do is publicise the economy-destroying regulations and anti-americanism that lies at the heart of the EU project, and the people will be voting oui in no time.

    Posted by Jim Geones on 2005 05 31 at 07:23 AM • permalink

  5. Talk about the law of unintended consequences!

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 05 31 at 07:45 AM • permalink

  6. I looked a little further . . . . look who Chirac got to crack down on radical Islam. Saddam’s best Eurobuddy is a poacher-turned-gamekeeper.

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 05 31 at 07:52 AM • permalink

  7. F*ck this . . . . we could use a Villepin in Lakemba!

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 05 31 at 07:53 AM • permalink

  8. Bush should invite the new Fwench PM over to lecture the new boy about how to produce stable government and how to win public support.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2005 05 31 at 08:08 AM • permalink

  9. Well, here in the States the youth confound their betters in Academe all the time, as they tend to be much more conservative than their proffessors (not that that is terribly difficult, mind you).

    Sod off, Chirac!

    Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2005 05 31 at 08:13 AM • permalink

  10. The son of a French politician, he is also a self-published poet and author of several books about contemporary French culture and a biography of Napoleon.

    Well he’s a massive wanker, we know that much. Still, Kennett is a massive wanker as well and he did Victoria a world of good.

    Just wow at any rate.

    Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 05 31 at 08:53 AM • permalink

  11. I was in France for the last two days of campaigning.  Disturbed to discover that the debate seemed to be mostly about whether voting “oui” or “non” was the better way to ward off the savagery of the anglosaxon free market. Happy to say that restaurants and wine still excellent.

    Posted by rexie on 2005 05 31 at 09:22 AM • permalink

  12. interesting the high no vote in departements on the the english channel - a reflection of disgust at thatchernomics, or distaste for the ghastly pommy proles debouched from the ferries?

    Posted by KK on 2005 05 31 at 10:00 AM • permalink

  13. Well maybe the butt whipping some of them took when they protested in Paris a few months back shook up their views a bit.

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 05 31 at 10:15 AM • permalink

  14. ;BBC on SBS;“This morning France woke to the ENORMITY of what it had done.” and
    ” this unease could SPREAD to The Netherlands.”
    The result was also described as an “ill wind” and was said to have caused “shockwaves”.Strange when the loss was predicted everywhere.
    ABC said it will send “shockwaves through Europe” and described “this EARTHQUAKE of a vote.”
    Did the Earth move for the rest of the world?

    Posted by crash on 2005 05 31 at 10:28 AM • permalink

  15. If Villepin could become French PM following the French voting non, could the Germans voting nein possibly reslt in Joschka Fischer becoming the German Riechskanzler?

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 05 31 at 04:38 PM • permalink

  16. You’re under the impression that the German government would actually trust us sheeple with a referendum, steve. They don’t.

    (In any case, it’s Bundeskanzler, not Reichskanzler…I couldn’t tell if you were being sarcastic, so if you were, just ignore this parenthetical.)

    Posted by PW on 2005 05 31 at 07:59 PM • permalink

  17. PW - Reichskanzler was deliberate . . . . they say the Duke of Edinburgh uses the term to refer to Gerhard Schroeder - along with the dear departed Queen Mum, he never forgave the Germans.

    Posted by steve68 on 2005 06 01 at 03:53 AM • permalink

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