FRANCE: Lionel Jospin, the socialist leader who withdrew from public life after losing the 2002 presidential election, made his first appearance on French television in three years last night to appeal for a Yes vote in the referendum on the European constitutional treaty.
In a 20-minute interview with the journalist Alain Duhamel, Mr Jospin said he believed the Yes vote could win, "but it will be difficult, because French domestic politics are interfering". The French electorate were more angry than fearful, Mr Jospin said.
"They're discontented and they are right, faced with high unemployment, unfair taxes, blocked wages and the roll-back of the 35-hour working week."
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is struggling to assert his authority to turn Whit Monday, which falls on May 16th, into a normal working day. All money earned on the 16th is to be contributed to a special fund for the elderly. But private companies and local left-wing governments have refused to comply.
Mr Jospin said the disorder surrounding Whit Monday was typical of Mr Raffarin's government, whom he accused of ignoring the protest vote expressed in left-wing victories in departmental, regional and European elections last year.
Despite valid grievances, Mr Jospin said, "voting against the constitutional treaty would punish France and punish Europe; not the present government. On May 29th, we are responding to our European partners, not Jacques Chirac."
France must dissociate domestic politics from the European referendum, Mr Jospin insisted. If the No wins, Mr Chirac has said he will not resign, and even if the prime minister changed, the policies would remain the same. "Let us resolve our domestic problems in France, and not take Europe as a witness or a hostage," Mr Jospin said.
It was important to put things in historical context, Mr Jospin said in his old, professor-like way. After "two terrifying world wars, fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, the holocaust . . . the ability of nations and people who fought each other to build a future together is doubtless the greatest event of the 20th century. We must be worthy of it."
Many of Mr Jospin's arguments have already been used by Mr Chirac. European integration "enables France to realise a certain number of her objectives: universalism and multilateralism, which is in opposition to the unilateralism of the United States," he said.
Like Mr Chirac, Mr Jospin claimed the first flight of the Airbus 380, the world's largest aircraft, would not have been possible without Europe. Mr Chirac travelled to Toulouse yesterday to congratulate the aircraft's builders. The industrial co-operation which resulted in the A380 took place entirely outside EU institutions, critics noted.
The most common criticism of the treaty among No voters on the left is that it constitutes a "liberal yoke" that makes it easier to exploit employees. The very term "liberal yoke" was meaningless, Mr Jospin said.
Mr Jospin ridiculed opponents who say the treaty's guarantee of the right to life could challenge legal abortion. Twenty-one of 25 EU countries authorise abortion, he said. "Is it imaginable that 25 countries would draw up a treaty together to put that into question?" If the No vote wins, Mr Jospin warned, "politically and psychologically, Europe will break down, bog down. France will isolate herself."