Masquerade Politics in Paris

...Despite external and internal opposition from conservative Muslims, the country has made genuine efforts to maintain its alliance with the West and its secular Constitution, while improving its human rights record...

...The European Parliament, on the other hand, long shrugged off as insignificant, suddenly appears to have acquired real power...

...Along with like-minded members of the UMP and the Socialist Party (notably Fabius), he favors proposing a special partnership to Turkey and to other countries around the Mediterranean, including Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria...

...Similarly, the addition of 10 new countries to the EU this past spring, bringing the total to 25, scarcely raised a ripple of concern...

...In many respects, too, the latter are closer to France than Turkey is...

...Certainly rejecting the treaty would cause a crisis within the EU at a time when enlargement is not yet consolidated and wide gaps persist in standards of living and economic power...

...The UDF regrets the sidestepping of Parliament, because that further weakens the party's role...

...Many deputies saw this condition as a slap in the face and stayed away in protest...

...Janice Valls-Russell writes regularly for the NL on French and Spanish affairs...

...the need to bolster it against dictatorships and Muslim fundamentalism...

...Better, they say, if simply a close economic, social and cultural partnership were discussed now...

...So it has been surprising, and rather stimulating, to see new rifts open up here over the ratification of the treaty for a European Constitution, formally signed on October 29, and the prospective EU membership of Turkey...

...He contends that the constitutional treaty should be scrapped and a new one drafted and remains confident a No vote in the referendum will not block the "construction of Europe to which I am, and have always been, favorable...

...Fabius insists he has "always been a fervent European" and is concerned about what he sees as "major obstacles to the construction of a 'social' Europe and a European power...

...Ankara has conceded women more rights than they have ever had, and more than they have in many countries with a Muslim majority...

...Thus many make the case that allowing Turkey to think it can join Europe, and then holding référendums where a majority of Europeans vote No, could have serious destabilizing repercussions for Turkish democracy...

...Saying Yes to Europe does not mean saying Yes to Chirac...

...He objects to the new Constitution, calling it "ambiguous, mixing institutional considerations and others relating to economic and social policies...

...The unexpected controversy flared up this summer when President Jacques Chirac announced that ratification would proceed here by referendum (a decision also taken by other countries, including Britain, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, and Spain...

...Strife surrounds the issue in Turkey as well...

...In the face of pressure from deputies across the floor, Chirac relented somewhat...

...As a result, a debate supposedly vital for the future of Europe (and therefore France) took place in a half-empty Parliament...

...Some in Chirac's UMP fear an anti-EU backlash while others worry that a referendum will be used as a vote against the government, whose popularity has been declining for several months...

...Several pro-Constitution Socialists who are possible presidential standard bearers, such as former Social Affairs Minister Martine Aubry, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, former Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and ex-Education Minister Jack Lang, see the treaty as an acceptable attempt to reconcile national and European parliamentary representation, and reinforce the Union's institutional cohesion...

...Beyond the Turkish issue, this mascarade, as some observers called it, belied the weakness of the French Constitution, which concentrates too many powers (especially in foreign policy) in the hands of the president and reduces Parliament's watchdog role...

...Eurodeputies opposed the choice of Rocco Butiglione, a nominee for commissioner for home affairs and civil liberties, after he called homosexuality a "sin" and disparaged single mothers...

...In October it threatened to veto the new team of 24 commissionerdesignates if it was presented unchanged by the European Commission's incoming president, José Manuel Barroso...

...He is supported by Henri Emmanuelli and Jean-Luc Mélanchon, who belong to the party's Left, and members of the younger generation like Manuel Vails, who was close to Jospin when he was prime minister...

...The tightening of rules for "enhanced cooperation," he says, could prove too rigid and prevent individual member states from progressing at the pace that best suits them (allowing some to integrate more closely than others...

...On several occasions he has publicly voiced support for negotiations with Turkey aiming toward its membership in the next decade or so...

...Coming out of self-imposed retirement and emphatically approving the treaty for a European Constitution, Jospin himself has given the impression that only he could be a match for Fabius, thereby undermining Hollande's position as party leader in the eyes of some Socialists...

...Under the proposed Constitution, a minimum of two-thirds of the EU states would have to participate in any enhanced cooperation, and the agreement of all member states would be needed...

...But the referendum has been turned into a divisive tool...

...Chirac's refusal to consult Parliament on an issue many believe is more crucial to the economic, political and social balance of Europe than the treaty for a Constitution has been a source of anger across the political spectrum...

...The EU's common currency, the euro— for many a source of anxiety before it was introduced—is now taken for granted, though price tickets still carry conversions in French francs...

...In spite of common monetary and trading rules, they note, it does not impose a single economic or political pattern throughout Europe...

...With a vigorous Parliament in Strasbourg, the European Union suddenly looks less technocratic and dull to many in France...

...the existence of close ties through culture, history and immigration—also apply to the countries of the Maghreb...

...In principle the Center-Right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and the Centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) favor the Constitution drafted at a convention chaired by former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing...

...it would represent a step in the right direction, without requiring a radical move by the EU...

...By the end of the month he caved in and decided to reshuffle his team...

...She emerged as one of the big winners of the local balloting, having prevailed in the home region of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin...

...The Socialists have at least half a dozen potential presidential candidates, virtually all of them former government officeholders...

...He questions Fabius' conviction that rejecting the current treaty will lead to a better text and stresses the inevitability of compromise...

...A debate was finally held in the National Assembly on September 14, with the provision that there would be no vote...

...Moreover, many from the UMP, UDF and Socialist Party believe this would only benefit America...

...Hollande seemed to be strengthening his control over the party and gaining both popularity and credibility...

...Others point out that the draft incorporates existing articles from previous agreements and makes new proposals on the organization of EU institutions, including the election of a president by the European Parliament...

...Another issue troubling Fabius is the unanimity required from both the European Council and member states (via Parliament or referendum) for any constitutional change, and for implementing the flexibility clause that allows the EU to act in areas not made explicit in the Constitution...

...Their outcry eventually caused him to step aside...

...Reasons advanced to justify Turkish membership—the democratization of its institutions...

...The leader of the UDF, François Bayrou, is not alone in bridling at the very idea that Turkey could ever be a part of Europe...

...On this point he is supported by Robert Badinter, a former justice minister and eminent jurist, who argues that "almost insurmountable obstacles to change" have been written into the treaty...

...Rivalries among the possible contenders had taken a backseat to the larger concern of placing the party in a winning position, until former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius astounded many by urging Socialists to vote "No" in the referendum...

...France's EU Jitters Masquerade Politics in Paris By Janice Valls-Russell Paris The pro-European Union (EU) consensus of France's mainstream politicians tends to make for predictable debates on the subject, with the most overtly contrary voices naturally coming from the far fringes of the Right and Left, plus special interest groups like farmers, truckdrivers and shopkeepers...

...Hollande is considered anotherpossibility, although there is speculation that he might let his partner, Ségolène Royal, former education and family affairs minister, try her luck...

...Even though the EU's exclusive competences would be unchanged from previous treaties—covering customs regulations, competition rules that govern the internal market, eurozone monetary policy, and common agricultural and fisheries policies— Fabius questions their inclusion in this "Euroconstitution...

...He fears the European economy would continue to lose industries and jobs to the Far East and elsewhere, with "disastrous effects for the Union's people and regions...

...Meanwhile, the debate over Turkey's application to join the EU has proved troublesome for Chirac...

...it will re-orient it...

...They applaud the document for emphasizing that EU membership means endorsing such fundamental matters as civic rights, welfare, education, and public services...

...But his position has been a source of wide irritation...

...Saying No to the treaty," Jospin warns, "is not necessarily the best way of saying No to Jacques Chirac...

...He maintains that these conditions could paralyze Europe or prevent it from adapting to further enlargement...

...In the spring local elections, the Socialists (albeit with Communist and Green support) won control of most of the country's regional councils...

...The referendum route has caused the greatest problem, though, for Socialist Party leader François Hollande, who assumed his post in the wake of the 2002 electoral debacle that saw former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, then the Socialist presidential candidate, place third behind the far Right's Jean-Marie Le Pen...

...Encouraged members started to think a victory in the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections was possible...