The French Interior Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Chevenement, yesterday backed a Communist Party call for a referendum on EU reforms, exposing differences within the ruling Socialist-led coalition.
The Communist Party, meanwhile, has called for a nationwide demonstration on January 18th to seek a referendum.
The demonstration's goal is "to bring together tens of thousands of demonstrators . . . underlining the will of our people to determine their future through sovereign power," a party statement said yesterday.
Mr Cheenement, who heads the left-wing Citizens' Movement party, said he preferred a referendum to a parliamentary vote on constitutional changes required for France to conform with the Amsterdam Treaty, signed last June by its EU partners.
"I believe a referendum is necessary. Europe must . . . come from the bottom and be made with the citizens," Mr Chevenement said on radio.
The Communist Party general secretary, Mr Robert Hue, on Monday formally asked President Jacques Chirac to call a referendum on the single European currency, the Amsterdam Treaty and other EU changes.
But the Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, and the Gaullist President, Mr Chirac, want this approved by parliament rather than by an unpredictable plebiscite.
The Socialist Party general secretary, Mr Francois Hollande, said yesterday a referendum was the normal way to alter the constitution, but the decision was up to the President.
The European Affairs Minister, Mr Pierre Moscovici, has said publicly he prefers a parliamentary vote, as has a former defence minister, Mr Francois Leotard, of the UDF conservative opposition party.
The Constitutional Council, France's leading legal body, ruled last week the constitution would have to be revised over Amsterdam.
It said the text, drawn up at an EU summit last June to update the Maastricht Treaty, clashed with the constitution.
Thousands of long-term unemployed, many of them jobless for 10 years, took to the streets in 50 cities across France yesterday to protest against perceived national indifference to their plight.
Among those who gathered outside unemployment fund management offices in Paris, Mr Jean-Charles Michel, an out-of-work mechanic, said the Socialist-led government, elected in June, could soon be submerged in a "deluge" of frustration.
Recently founded left-wing "trade unions" for the jobless, and the Communist CGT-led union, have become active on jobs.