EU constitution drafter blames Chirac for ratification defeat News
EU constitution drafter blames Chirac for ratification defeat

[JURIST] Valéry Giscard d'Estaing [Wikipedia profile], a former French president and architect of the embattled European Constitution [JURIST news archive], has blamed current French President Jacques Chirac for the rejection of the document by French voters [JURIST report]. In a New York Times interview published Wednesday d'Estaing complained that French voters rejected the charter not because they disagreed with it, but rather because they were unsatisfied with Chirac, who supports ratification. "This was not a vote on the constitution," he said. "That is the key point that has been missed by the political leaders, because political leaders don't normally like to say that the vote could have been against them." D'Estaing also said he has advised Chirac not to send copies of the daunting 448-page constitutional document to all French voters, but that Chirac had insisted on doing so for legal reasons. The New York Times has more.

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