A critical day in France for all Europeans

Forty-four million French voters will today have a major say on the question of future freedoms for their fellow Europeans now trapped within the non-democratic EU. If either Francois Bayrou or Jean-Marie Le Pen make it through to the second round of the Presidential vote the future for the German led and virtually fully agreed back-door implementation of the centralizing provisions of the EU's Constitutional Treaty will be placed in serious doubt. It is true that the socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal has also promised the French a further referendum on constitutional changes, but only after Francois Bayrou made this promise a pillar of his campaign. Can her party be trusted to deliver on that pledge given its history - has she the authority to see it through? Nicolas Sarkozy who in many other respects seems the better candidate on strictly French matters has made his own authoritarian views on EU matters very clear in his book 'Témoignage'. The justice ministers of the EU, by submitting to German pressure to make the potential thought crime of xenophobia a criminal offense, (see my post earlier this week beneath this), have clearly signaled the end of further referendums and popular consent for the EU's future development. Francois Bayrou by winding up his campaign near the battlefields of Verdun, which are painfully commemorated in nearly every village, town and city square of the nation, seems realistically aware of the dangers of present developments. He also seems the best placed realist to actually win in the second round although the French electors seem to have doubts on his ability to effectively govern France. How nice to be French on this lovely April weekend and actually have a vote that still matters. Making the wrong choice today, however, could land the French in the same plight as most of the rest of us in the EU - effectively disenfranchised!