FT.com | Europe rallies to save French referendum

The Financial Times usually talks about a "rally" in the market, but this "rally" has to do with a nebulous, opaque entity that it calls "Europe". Just who is "Europe" and where did it "rally"? I didn't happen to see any European ministers in France recently. Barroso passed through a week again and was given the cold shoulder: he was supposed to have 100 minutes prime time to "convince" but this was somewhere vetoed because, as well all know, he isn't really very convincining.

The second part of this title is "to save French referendum", presumably meaning to favor a "yes" vote. I don't myself consider this a "save" because I don't like the European Constitution and think that it is an anti-democratic, neocon piece of trash that will do in the best of French public services with nothing but hollow promises in return.

Most French understand this: that is why the "yes" camp has been attempting to promote the idea that the "no" camp is essentially using the referendum as an opportunity to deliver a no-confidence vote to Chirac on domestic policy. I don't think that French voters are so naive and I am comforted by the notion that the "yes" camp will continue to push on the wrong buttons in this respect.

Finally, the FT is just as bad as any other paper in its misleading articles: it promotes the "yes" vote as simply a way of avoiding "the worst": vote "yes" becase you are afraid and Big Brother Europe will help you. "Europe", if it is going to try to get a "rally", is going to have to understand that Europeans are not Americans.

"Michel Barnier, French foreign minister, said many of his European counterparts were worried about a No vote, "but I am confident in the capacity of French politicians to explain this constitution and finally convince people".

Barnier reminds me of Alain Juppé: just keep saying "I'll explain some more" and hope that folks will cave in. Barnier needs to do less "explaining" and more "listening", but I'm confident that he will not.