French's rejection of the European Constitution

Résumé du document

What is the research question in this article? Several months after the French referendum, Gilles Ivaldi is trying to answer to the question “How can we characterize the disapproval of the French referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty held on 29 May 2005?”

The main hypothesis just after the ballot was close was for commentators a rejection of the Government because there was a high mobilization unlike European elections which mobilize in 2004 not even half of French voters. This hypothesis might be validated for those commentators by the eviction of the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin by Dominique de Villepin and the discrete participation of the “unofficial” right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. The economic and social situation during the last term of Jacques Chirac was indeed stagnant, with a high employment rate. If we are following this idea, the 2005 rejection relies on the logic of intermediate votes between French presidential elections (like 2004 regional and European elections). The article stresses out a broader phenomenon which is a mistrust of European and national elites.

This hypothesis backs up the ‘syndrome' of the 2002 presidential election with the eviction of the former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin April 21th.
Another explanation might consider the 2005 as a milestone for French politics towards the European Union integration process. The European Constitutional Treaty in a way was the first ‘retrospective' (p. 49) for French voters to question the validity and the accuracy of the EU construction. Beyond discontent of the governing leaders of 2005, the ECT might be a revenge of Maastricht for advocates of the ‘sovereignty principle' as especially for most left-wing voters, a way to stress their disappointment because they believed too strongly of promises of an economic and social Europe made by François Mitterrand and Jacques Delors during the 1992 campaign.

Extraits

[...] Those elements permitted to underline the lack of a clear message from several parties for its voters. of the ballot polls” are here interesting to test voters attitudes by their affiliation of a political party, their jobs or other, if there are affiliated to a trade-union etc. Those tests permit to understand main arguments of refusal so what political messages sent by leaders and media during the campaign were the most effective (even if, some of them like the Turkey membership to the European Union was not in the European Constitutional Treaty). [...]

[...] 49) for French voters to question the validity and the accuracy of the EU construction. Beyond discontent of the governing leaders of 2005, the ECT might be a revenge of Maastricht for advocates of the ‘sovereignty principle' as especially for most left-wing voters, a way to stress their disappointment because they believed too strongly of promises of an economic and social Europe made by François Mitterrand and Jacques Delors during the 1992 campaign. Critics of the existing literature Gilles Ivaldi for this article is using the first attempt to build a theoretical framework, the ‘Second-Order' model (Reif and Schmitt, 1980). [...]

[...] Excluding the New Anticapitalist Party of Olivier Besancenot, the National Front, the Communist Party, the left- wing Wing of the Socialist Party, the majority ‘No' of the Green Party did not succeed in 2007 to capitalise with their 2005 victory. On the other hand, the 2012 presidential election fitted more into the political configuration of the ECT referendum. Main causes? The economic and social crisis since 2008, the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 where the Parliament was preferred to the referendum option for ratification, the new governance of the Economic and Monetary Union with the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance. Findings of this article at least show the broad heterogeneity of voters. [...]

[...] If we are following this idea, the 2005 rejection relies on the logic of intermediate votes between French presidential elections (like 2004 regional and European elections). The article stresses out a broader phenomenon which is a mistrust of European and national elites. This hypothesis backs up the ‘syndrome' of the 2002 presidential election with the eviction of the former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin April 21th. Another explanation might consider the 2005 as a milestone for French politics towards the European Union integration process. [...]

[...] To sum up, since the article aims to provide an ‘overview and a characterisation of the rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty' (quoted from the abstract p.47), I think it can be perceived maybe the first English article that explore and highlights the novelty of the 2005 French referendum for EU studies and political sociology. Test and methods How Gilles Ivaldi is testing his hypothesis? First of all, he investigates on the ‘Second-Order model' with the economic, social and political context of the last term of Jacques Chirac. French citizens were concerned mostly by national agendas and a fragile socioeconomic context. [...]