A new opinion poll has shown a majority of French voters are opposed to the EU constitution for the first time.
According to the survey in the Le Parisien daily, 51 percent of French voters who have decided how they will vote in the May 29 referendum on the treaty are planning to reject it, with 49 percent saying yes.
Fifty-three percent, however, say they are tempted either to abstain or to spoil their ballot paper.
Most EU-watchers agree that rejection in France would spell the end of the treaty, plunging Europe into institutional paralysis and setting the European project back by 15 years.
The poll has confirmed a steady and apparently accelerating decline in French support for the constitution, which last September was at 69 percent. The polling agency, CSA, said the "yes" camp had lost more than 14 percent since its last survey less than a month ago.
Plainly shaken, leading figures from Chirac's ruling center-right UMP party and the opposition Socialists tried to put a brave face on the poll.
"It is a real electric shock," the labor relations minister, Gerard Larcher, admitted on French radio. "But I don't know of any difficulty that a man of spirit cannot eventually transform into a victory."
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin insisted he was "preoccupied" but "not saddened" by the poll result.
"This referendum needs uncertainty, so that every French voter realizes he has a historic role to play," Raffarin said. "It will help create debate, and the `yes' needs debate. The `yes' needs the `no' in order to win."
UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy, Chirac's would-be successor on the right, said a "no" vote would mean "either the paralysis of Europe, or the isolation of France."
While the far-right National Front and a handful of small sovereignty parties oppose the constitution, Friday's poll showed that support for the treaty had dropped most dramatically among left-wing voters.
Compared with last month's CSA survey, Socialist backing for a "yes" vote had slumped 27 points to just 41 percent.
In part, analysts say, this reflects growing dissatisfaction with the Socialist party's vain attempt to argue that a "yes" vote for the EU constitution does not automatically imply approval of the conservative government's policies.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat