Referendum on EU Constitution divides French socialists

French Socialist leaders have long been asking for a referendum on the Constitution. But now that French President Chirac has announced it, they are struggling to come up with a united front.

François Hollande, the Socialist party Secretary General said that "our response to a referendum held at the end of 2005 cannot be known today" and warned that Chirac should not take the party's support for granted. Stating that he would "argue within the party in favour of a ratification of the treaty," he stressed that the socialist position will depend on "the precise question, on the personal involvement of Jacques Chirac, on the social situation and on the uses to which the result will be put".

Former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, one of the strongest contenders to become the presidential socialist candidate in 2007, initially came out against the Constitution and is now nuancing his final position, which he will present at the end of the year. The most leftist Socialists, such as Arnaud Montebourg, Henri Emmanuelli and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are opposing a Constitution, which according to them, would set a liberal Europe in stone.

The party will organise an internal referendum at the end of 2004 to determine the way it will call voters to vote. Without the Socialist support, Chirac's decision to seek ratification through a referendum rather than in the French Parliament could backfire. In 1992, the referendum on the Maastricht Treaty only passed by a margin of less than 1 per cent. To come into force, the constitution needs to be adopted by all 25 European Union Member States.

Other countries that will ask their people's opinion on the new Treaty are Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Ratification of the new Treaty will begin following its signing in Rome on 29 October 2004.