Chirac Calls Snap Vote on Eu Constitution

Jacques Chirac yesterday called a snap referendum on the European Union constitution amid increasing concern that France's voters will turn against the proposal and effectively kill the treaty.

Setting May 29 as polling day - the earliest feasible date - the president's Elysée palace denied claims that his hand had been forced. But opinion polls have shown support for the treaty dwindling.

A rejection in France, traditionally in the forefront of European integration, could deal a terminal blow to the constitution. As the only large founding member state to be holding a referendum, whose former president Valerie Giscard d'Estaing drew up the constitution, France wields an effective veto.

The leaders of the ruling centre-right UMP party and opposition Socialists, whom Mr Chirac consulted this week, urged him to allow plenty of time for the Yes camp to convince France's voters.

But the president wants to avoid a repeat of France's referendum on the Maastricht treaty in 1992, when his predecessor Francois Mitterrand saw a handsome lead in the polls gradually dwindle to almost nothing. France approved the treaty by just a couple of hundred thousand votes.

A series of bank holidays, including Easter, meant that May 29 was the earliest Sunday that Mr Chirac could stage the poll.

Late last year, some 65% of the French said they were in favour of the constitution. That figure has dwindled to less than 60%, with a corresponding rise in support for a No vote from 30% to more than 40%. A poll last month showed half of France's voters are now undecided on whether to vote Yes, and only 25% say they are certain to back the treaty.

The No camp - made up of the far right, the far left, Eurosceptic sovereignists, Republicans, and a large minority of the Socialist party - has been airing its objections for months . Support has been fuelled by a growing belief that the consti tution embodies a Thatcherite view of the union, theatening France's emphasis on worker protection, public services and welfare guarantees.

Aurore Wanlin, of the Centre for European Reform, said: "A French No vote would be a very big symbol of how much the EU has split away from its people. At this point European leaders would have to write another treaty or rethink the EU."