FRANCE: EU leaders appealed to voters to back the new constitution yesterday in a sign of growing concern over rising opposition in France.
A new poll by MarketTools research group showed 62 per cent of French people who have decided how to vote plan to reject the constitution in a referendum on May 29th, four percentage points more than the previous peak in a survey released on Thursday.
MarketTools surveys have generally put support for the No camp higher than other polls, but all opinion polls in the past month have pointed to defeat for the constitution. EU leaders fear a French rejection would cause a crisis of confidence that would unsettle European financial markets because the treaty requires the approval of all 25 member- states.
"Europe will not fall apart, but it will be a setback if the constitutional treaty is rejected," European trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said in the Netherlands, which votes on the treaty three days after France.
"At best it would stagnate. At worst we would see some form of chaos. It could have damaging economic consequences."
The charter is intended to make decision-making easier in the EU following its enlargement to 25 member states last May. Opponents say it reduces the influence of smaller member states and is consistent with turning the EU into a superstate.
Other EU leaders were more cautious. But Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the EU presidency until July, urged French people to think about the consequences of their vote.
He told La Croix newspaper it was unrealistic to think - as some opponents of the treaty suggest - that the constitution would be renegotiated if France rejected it. Other EU leaders said they simply could not believe France would reject the charter.
"France has played a very important role in the writing of the constitution," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Estonia. "I don't want to contemplate at this point in time the possibility of France saying No."
About 53-56 per cent of people who have decided how to vote oppose the charter, according to most recent French polls.
Rejection would be a political blow to President Jacques Chirac.