The Red and the Blue, once again

Look familiar?

The map is from Le Monde, via Julie Saltman and Power Line. As with the U.S. presidential map, it doesn't tell the whole story, but it's rather impressive nonetheless. Parts of Paris voted "Yes," as did Brittany (a somewhat un-French part of France), but the rest of the country went "No".

My take on the referendum: click here.

Part of the problem, I think, is that no one really understand the proposed European Constitution. That is, no one has taken the time to understand it. (Even to read it, for that matter.) Aside, of course, from the technocrats who run Europe. Much thanks, then, to Julie Saltman, for taking the time to examine it a bit more thoroughly than the rest of us. Check out her posts here and here (with perhaps more to come).

This story won't stay in the North American press for long -- what with Deep Throat and all -- but it's worth following. There's been some talk -- misguided, I might add -- to the effect that the French vote has irreparably harmed the cause of European integration. I'd call it a speed bump at most. The Constitution has already been ratified by nine other countries, and though it may fail in Wednesday's referendum in the Netherlands, there's no reason to think that the rest of Europe, aside from the United Kingdom, won't do so eventually. If anything, the pro-Europeans will be forced to think through both the means to integration and the structure of a socially and politically unified Europe (with or without the U.K.). In France, what matters is that the elite, which runs the country, is ardently pro-European, and they're not about to back down just because the extremes of the left and right managed to build on Chirac's unpopularity to defeat the Constitution.

Lest you have any doubt, pay attention to what Chirac said just two days after the referendum, in a televised speech Tuesday evening: The referendum "opened up a period of difficulty and uncertainty". However, the result was not "a rejection of the European ideal" but rather a "demand" for "action and results" -- and for the government to "listen". Later, he referred to "a grand European ambition" which is clearly connected to France's national interests.

The U.K. notwithstanding (and I place myself among the moderate English Euro-skeptics), the European elites have already bound themselves to the European ideal. That isn't going to change. Europe as some sort of constitutionalized social and political union is going to happen, like it or not, but perhaps the French vote (and the upcoming Dutch vote) will at least provide the needed impetus to correct some of its many flaws before it gets going.