Referendum in France in 2005 on the European Constitution

On May 29, 2005, a non- consultative referendum took place in France to approve the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe . A majority of 55.7% of the voters voted against the acceptance of the contract.

prehistory

→ Main article : Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

Planned ratifications:

by parliamentary resolution

after a referendum

The heads of state and government of the European Union signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe on October 29, 2004 in Rome. The treaty should improve the efficiency of cooperation within the European Union (EU) and strengthen the rights of the European Parliament. It also contained a catalog of basic values ​​in which the EU set certain goals. After the contract was signed, the ratification process began in the individual member states of the EU. In most member states, a parliamentary resolution was sufficient. The constitution of some member states (e.g. Ireland ) made a referendum mandatory for this. In other member states, in which a simple parliamentary resolution would have sufficed according to the constitution, the governments announced a referendum. This was done in order to give the treaty more democratic legitimation, but also partly for domestic political reasons, for example under pressure from a public that demanded a direct say. In some member states, a referendum was not easily possible, as it would first have required a constitutional amendment (for example in Germany).

Germany and Austria belonged to the first group of states (ratification by parliamentary resolution) . The German Bundestag and Bundesrat as well as the Austrian National Council and Bundesrat approved the treaty with large majorities in May 2005. The latter group of countries whose governments have declared their intention to hold a referendum on the treaty included the following 10 countries: Denmark , France, Ireland, Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Spain and the United Kingdom .

The first of these referenda took place on February 20, 2005 in Spain . With a turnout of 42.3%, 76.7% of voters voted in favor of accepting the contract.

Situation in France

Election posters before the referendum

Election posters

Left party leaders before the referendum (from left to right): Olivier Besancenot , José Bové and Jean-Luc Mélenchon

In France, no referendum would have been necessary to ratify the treaty. The approval of the French parliament would have been sufficient for this. However, after consulting with the main political parties, President Jacques Chirac decided to call a referendum on the issue and announced this in a speech on March 4, 2005. At the time, opinion polls predicted a 55-60% majority for those in favor of the treaty. May 29, 2005 was set as the date for the vote.

Most of the major political parties were in favor of accepting the treaty. These included the bourgeois UMP , the UDF and Parti radical de gauche (PRG) , the Socialist Party (PS) , and the Greens ( Les Verts ) . However, there were also many critical voices regarding the EU, especially among the socialists and the Greens. The most prominent dissident within the PS was former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius .

The right-wing extremist Front National and Mouvement national républicain , the EU-skeptical and national-conservative Mouvement pour la France (MPF) under Philippe de Villiers and Rassemblement pour la France et l'indépendance de l'Europe ( RPF) under Charles Pasqua . In the left-wing political spectrum, alongside the left-wing nationalist Mouvement républicain et citoyen (MRC), the LCR , LO and the Communist Party (PCF) were in favor of a “no” vote.

In the political debate, the need to reorganize the European institutions after the EU enlargement in 2004 was cited as an argument in favor of the European Constitution . The extension of the powers of the European Parliament leads to a democratization of the European institutions. The opponents of the project emphasized the loss of French sovereignty. The aim of the EU policy is oriented too much towards liberal economic goals and must integrate more social aspects. On the part of the right-wing conservative parties, Turkey's possible membership of the European Union was also discussed, which was rejected by large parts of the French public.

Vote and result

The vote took place on May 29, 2005. The following question was put to the voters:

«Approvez-vous le projet de loi qui autorise la ratification du traité établissant une constitution pour l'Europe? »

"Do you support the law ratifying the treaty which is supposed to establish a constitution for Europe?"

- Question of the referendum of May 29, 2005

Nationwide result

Nationwide results

answer	be right	in percent
Yes	12,808,270	45.33%
No	15,449,508	54.67%
Valid votes	28.257.778	97.48%
Invalid votes and blank ballot papers	730.522	2.52%
Total votes	28,988,300	100.0%
Eligible voters / turnout	41.789.202	69.37%

Result by region

Results in the departments

Results in the regions

The approval rates in the regions differed in some cases.

region	Yes		No		Invalid votes (in%)	Option participation (in%)
	be right	in %	be right	in %
Alsace	418.268	53.44	364.356	46.56	2.65	68.29
Aquitaine	655.690	42.84	874.793	57.16	2.74	73.38
Auvergne	287.179	42.43	389,707	57.57	3.11	71.88
Burgundy	320,846	41.48	452.703	58.52	2.63	70.16
Brittany	802.273	50.90	773.947	49.10	2.71	73.35
Center	512.279	43.01	678.832	56.99	2.68	71.81
Champagne-Ardenne	258.028	42.90	343.379	57.10	2.20	68.31
Corsica	45,598	42.24	62,364	57.76	1.33	56.13
Franche-Comté	234,699	42.19	321,565	57.81	2.73	72.98
Guadeloupe	33,779	58.60	23,863	41.40	10.34	22.21
French Guiana	6,850	60.14	4,541	39.86	9.99	23.11
Île-de-France	2,278,402	53.99	1,941,984	46.01	1.84	70.43
Languedoc-Roussillon	451.225	37.62	748.153	62.38	2.59	72.24
Limousin	157.357	40.75	228.779	59.25	3.56	73.78
Lorraine	467.072	43.57	605.036	56.43	2.18	67.83
Martinique	48.179	69.03	21,620	30.97	9.65	28.37
Midi-Pyrénées	588.830	42.84	785.771	57.16	3.23	74.27
Nord-Pas-de-Calais	661.394	35.12	1,222,089	64.88	2.26	69.29
Lower Normandy	324.402	44.81	399.501	55.19	2.33	71.88
Upper Normandy	308.993	35.60	559.020	64.40	2.01	72.37
Pays de la Loire	841.866	50.11	838.038	49.89	3.24	72.11
Picardy	315,959	34.96	587.713	65.04	2.02	72.10
Poitou-Charentes	382.090	44.65	473,609	55.35	3.11	71.78
Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur	860.524	41.21	1,227,731	58.79	1.94	69.26
Reunion	95,298	40.01	142,871	59.99	5.73	53.62
Rhône-Alpes	1,241,229	48.38	1,324,332	51.62	2.47	69.96

Analysis of the election result and the consequences

The no vote by French voters was not entirely unexpected, as the polls had indicated a corresponding change in sentiment shortly before the election date. Political commentators speculated that domestic political conditions in France were the decisive factor and that the vote was not a no to Europe, but a rejection of the French and European political establishment. The Chairman of the European Council , the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, stressed that the ratification process in the other countries must continue. By the time of the French referendum, 9 member states had already ratified the treaty. Ultimately, however, referendums were only held in the Netherlands (on June 1, 2005) and Luxembourg (on July 10, 2005) . All other referendums have been canceled.

One month after the referendum, an election analysis commissioned by the European Commission came to the conclusion that voters from the political left in particular had voted “no”. 61% each of the voters of the Socialist Party and the Greens and over 90% of the voters of the Communist Party had voted “No”, while this was only 25% for supporters of the UMP / UDF. Likewise, voters in rural regions were more likely to have voted “no” than voters in urban regions. The reasons for a negative vote were expressed as concerns that the European Constitution could worsen the economic situation in France and increase unemployment. About a fifth of all those who voted No named a negative attitude towards President Chirac and the government as the main reason for their vote. “Yes” voters cited the need to continue building Europe as the main reason for their choice. According to this survey, 90% of those questioned generally supported France's membership in the European Union.

Domestically, the “no” vote meant that Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin , who was unsuccessful on this issue , resigned two days after the referendum on June 1, 2005. He was succeeded by Dominique de Villepin .

Just three days after the referendum in France, on June 1, 2005, an analogous referendum took place in the Netherlands on the European Constitution . Here, at 61.5%, the rejection of the agreement was even more pronounced than in France.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ THE EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION WORK IN THE MIRROR OF ITS TREATIES> A Constitution for Europe. (No longer available online.) EU Commission, archived from the original on November 13, 2015 ; Retrieved July 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Paul Hainsworth: France Says No: The 29 May 2005 Referendum on the European Constitution . In: Parliamentary Affairs . tape 59 , no. 1 , January 2006, p. 98–117 , doi : 10.1093 / pa / gsj015 (English).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Référendum du 29 May 2005. French Ministry of the Interior (Ministère de l'Intérieur), accessed on July 3, 2015 (French). 
4. ↑ Flash Eurobarometer: The European Constitution: Post-referendum survey in France. (PDF) European Commission, June 2005, accessed on July 3, 2015 (English).