Those of us of a certain age and school background in England will recall being taught French in part by "Mam'selle" - the young French lady imported to teach us all French with a proper accent etc. etc. Now I cannot of course speak for other people's experiences but the Mam'selle who taught me at the tender age of 8 or so was just a tad on the bossy side. Just a trifle dogmatic too and never ever admitting to an error about her knowledge of France, its inhabitants or its language. In his TV appearance last night l'Escroc reminded me strongly of Mam'selle. The same dogmatic self assurance and bossiness and the same treatment of the audience - especially the socialists who want to vote NON - as a bunch of naughty children who are selfishly ruining things that everyone has worked on really hard for a long time.
Unfortunately the content was not quite as bad as the presentation. I regret to say that his dire warnings (as the Wapping Liar reports) are likely to resonate strongly with the left-wing "non" camp.
He repeatedly insisted that the constitution would protect the “French social model” and act as a barrier against Anglo-Saxon liberalism. “This is a decisive step towards a better social situation,” he said. “We fought for recognition of public services — and at one time we were alone — and we have won.”
M Chirac said a victory for the “no” camp would “interrupt 50 years of European construction, and mean returning to existing treaties, which everyone says are insufficient”.
Turning his opponents’ arguments on their head, he added that a French rejection of the constitution would “leave the road clear for those who want Europe to be a free-trade zone and not a social organisation”.
In a clear message to wavering Socialists, he said: “I respect people who are against Europe for personal beliefs, but you can’t vote ‘no’ and say you are in favour of Europe.”A “no” vote would be a failure for France, would leave the country isolated and weaken its voice, not only in Europe but internationally, he said.
It seems to me that this is precisely the correct approach for him to take. I also have absolutely no doubt that the "Castro"-style propaganda campagin for "oui" will succeed by obfuscating the constitution as a document and playing on the fears of French voters that they will lose far more if they vote "non". Arguably the cynical French voter will also reckon that the threat of a "non" vote has extorted all the bribesconcessions that could reasonably be expected from the government so there is no point in actually continuing the charade any more. The most likely result will be I suspect a resounding victory for the "apathy" choice - rather as in Spain - but that the "oui" vote will win by a comfortable margin. The problem is that, just as in the presidential election where the choice was between l'Escroc and le Facho, the established left will decide that supporting l'Escroc and his constitution is better than not and sufficient of them will, as a result vote "oui" while metephocially holding their noses.
However all this presupposes that nothing truly horrible about Chirac or the EU shows up in the next three weeks. It is fairly clear to me that the EU has gone into vacation mode a bit early this year to avoid making any pronouncement about anything that could possibly upset anyone so a "non" vote needs something really egregious by l'Escroc and his cronies. A connection with some paedophiles would be about right or documentary proof of Chirac hiding some bombshell about some hotbed of socialist endeavour such as SNCF or EDF being for the chop until after the election.