Chirac Seeks to Salvage Eu Constitution

President Jacques Chirac begins his attempt to reverse the rising tide of French opinion against Europe's constitution tomorrow as he launches a campaign which may well determine the future shape of the union.

The constitution treaty, aimed at streamlining the 25-member EU's institutions and improving its democratic functioning, must be approved by all member states and would not survive rejection in France's May 29 referendum.

A fresh poll, the 11th in a row to put the no camp in the lead, predicted yesterday that if France's plebiscite were held now, 53% of voters would say no. For the first time, a majority said their "personal hope" was that the constitution would be rejected.

Mr Chirac has so far stayed aloof from the fray, considering - according to the Elysée palace - that it is not the president's place to engage in nuts-and-bolts political debate with opponents of the constitution.

The president is also wary of intervening too soon, apparently believing his influence would be strongest if he waits as long as possible. But a steady stream of poor poll results, as well as appeals for his help from his UMP party, have prompted him to wade in.

The platform he has chosen, a two-hour debate on France's main commercial TV channel with 80 carefully selected young people, has been criticised by the no camp, who accuse him of running scared. In advance of France's referendum on the 1992 Maastricht treaty, they point out, François Mitterrand braved a vicious head-to-head confrontation with the leader of the no campaign.

The Elysée has defended the format as more in keeping with the "informative, non-partisan" role the president should be playing, adding that Mr Chirac preferred, on such an important issue, to take questions directly from an audience of real people.

That has done little to appease France's journalists, who complained yesterday to the broadcasting standards authority, CSA, that the primetime show marked "a victory for political marketing".

Mr Chirac's message, in any event, will be simple: he will try to convince his audience that France's 50-year leadership of Europe demands a yes vote to a constitution that, in the words of the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, last week, guaranteed "une Europe á la française".

The president will argue that rejecting the treaty would weaken France's influence in Europe and undermine Europe's role in the world, making it less capable of resisting US-led globalisation and the rising economic clout of countries such as China and India.

The French electorate does not share his convictions. Yesterday's poll showed support for a no vote on the broad left had climbed to 60% (including 52% of Socialist voters). But the no camp had also made inroads on the right, jumping six points to 34% despite active campaigning by the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and other senior figures from his centre-right government.

Across the political spectrum, voters see the referendum as an ideal way to punish a government they blame for rising unemployment, economic stagnation and a string of harsh social and economic reforms.

On the left, voters forced to back Mr Chirac in the upset presidential election of 2002 so as to defeat the far-right's Jean-Marie Le Pen are deeply reluctant to do so again.

The opposition Socialist party is on the brink of a permanent split over the issue: many senior members are openly advocating a no vote to what they see as a blueprint for a neo-liberal, market-driven, Anglo-Saxon Europe.

For many French voters, the constitution seems to have crystallised long-held fears about the future of their country, its exceptions, its social, political and labour models, its principles and ideals.

So unhappy have they become that a poll last week showed even France's farmers - who benefit hugely from the EU's common agricultural policy and will continue to do so for some time to come - are all but unanimously opposed to the constitution.