As I write, ballots are still being counted. However, exit polling has made it clear that Chirac probably doesn't have a chance of winning. How he's taking the loss tells us a lot about the man.
According to
the CNN story, Chirac has signaled defeat. Le Monde has published the full text of the concession speech.
Why does this guy give up before the votes are counted? Because he was afraid that the real numbers were worse than the exit polls? Perhaps. However, basing your concession on
exit polls is rather wimpy by my book. According to the current version of the CNN article,
With 92 percent of votes counted, the treaty was rejected by 56.14 percent of voters, France's Interior Ministry said, according to The Associated Press. It was supported by 43.86 percent.
So indeed this appears to have been his tactic. Several commenters on
this LGF post seem to agree with me.
In addition, it is interesting to note that apparently they're going to rerun the "no" referendums until they get a "yes". That's the really great thing about the EU - they work off peer pressure. </sarcasm> It's like a kindergarten class. They are about as effective as the UN, which they try to hard to please.
In all fairness, it must be said that US history also records a failed attempt to unify the colonies - well, failed in that it was scrapped in favor of something better - the Articles of Confederation. In a sense, the EU is at that stage right now. The constitution is supposed to better this, but don't believe it. All it does is create a top-heavy beaurocratic beast that answers to no one. You can see evidence of this in the fact that even though the European Parliament has rejected software patents, the European Council and European Commission are trying to ignore the voice of the only democratically elected body. (More details can be found on FFII's
software patents website.) Whether or not you agree with software patents (as an open source developer I violently disagree), the attempt to ignore the voice of the people is typical of dictatorships.
As a parting thought, the French are now on their fifth republic. With such an unstable democracy supposed to lead Europe, can we wonder that things aren't working out? Can the EU ever be a stable democracy? I doubt it. Only time will tell.
UPDATE:
Le Monde is saying that the numbers have gotten slightly better for our friend Chirac: 55,18 % of the votes are opposed, versus 44,82 % for the measure. The turnout was a little less than 70 %. This is a pretty high number, when you consider that many EU elections only have a turnout of about 25%.
