Massive "no"’ to the European Constitution: Wake-up call for Brussels and The Hague

/ non / je ne regrette rien /
The Dutch Socialist Party is celebrating, after a well fought and victorious campaign. There's very little to add about these two referenda, except to point to a few choice commentaries

- An excellent post on Apostate Windbag: "Nee! to the 'capitalist locusts'",
- A comprehensive piece on the French result by Diane Johnstone.
- "A Time of Great Hope" by Pierre Laurent in L'Humanite' - if for no other reason than to note the online English version of the PCF daily.

... Meanwhile here in Greece, a new poll suggests that, were a referendum on the Constitutional treaty to be held today, ~40% would be leaning towards "No", ~30% towards "Yes" and ~30 either don't know or wouldn't answer. This should be compared to another poll, taken three months ago, when the Constitution was ratified in Parliament with the votes of the Conservative and the Socialist party, which gave ~45% "Yes", ~18% "no" and ~37% undecided. This recent poll (the link here - in Greek, I'm afraid) shows that the No vote would prevail among a very pro-European electorate:

- ~68% acknowledge that EU membership has benefited Greece
- ~61% state the "Strengthening the social character of its policies with the aim of reducing inequalities" should be the EU's top priority, while 34,6% prioritize "turning Europe into a world financial and political power"
- ~36% of those that would vote against the EuroConstitution say that the aftermath of the Euro's introduction is an important factor for their negative vote, 35,2% say they would vote No for a change of EU policy, 16,3% to curtail freedom of movement for immigrants, while 9% are generally against the EU.
- ~64% of those polled state that a referendum would be more of an opportunity to express their opinions on the EU, while ~29% would see it as an opportunity to protest the Greek government's policies.

Unfortunately all this is moot, since the Greek government, in its enlightened terror of any form of direct popular mandate, decided not to consult the electorate.