Chirac Begins Shake-Up After Charter Blow [View All]

[Rose Siding]

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An aide said Raffarin was expected to offer his resignation later Monday in a meeting with Chirac. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has not been made.
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Chirac chose to hold a referendum rather than take the EU constitution to parliament, where it would have passed with a wide majority.

Other key figures he called to the presidential palace included Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious head of the governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, with his eye on the 2007 presidency. A chief rival of Chirac, he is among a handful of possible choices to replace Raffarin.
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Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, along with Sarkozy and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, is considered a top choice to replace Raffarin. He left the prime minister's office with Philippe Douste-Blazy, minister of health, another potential choice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5041088,00.html



A POLITICAL REVOLT IN FRANCE --What Rejection of the European Constitution Means (Updated)

The massive defeat of the new European Constitution by the French in today's referendum means a virtual political revolution in France -- a rebellion by the people against the political elites of both left and right. The No vote won by a wide margin of nearly ten points -- the latest figures show 54.87% for the No, 45.13% for the Yes. Despite an overwhelming campaign for a Yes vote by the mainstream French media (including a major pro-Yes bias in TV coverage), and tireless stumping for a Yes vote by nearly all the major political leaders of left, right, and center -- a scare campaign that tried to (falsely) tell the overwhelmingly pro-European French that they would be responsible for destroying construction of a united Europe if they voted against this anti-democratic Constitution -- the French electorate's working and middle classes, by their No vote, rejected the unregulated free-market policies, aimed at destroying the welfare state and the social safety net, embodied in the Constitution. (see my earlier analysis, "The New European Constitution: Should Americans Care?")

Today's vote confirms the enormous gap between what the French call "La France d'en haut et la France d'en bas" -- the France of above and the France of below. And this rejection of France's political and media elites will bring extraordinary changes to the country's political landscape:.........

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/05/the_massive_def.html