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French reject constitution, leaving Chirac humiliated

In a stunning rejection of the EU's latest ambitious move to unite its 25 nations, French voters shot down the bloc's first constitution, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the charter and humiliating French President Jacques Chirac.

Sunday's referendum in France, a cradle of continental unity for more than half a century and the country where much of the constitution was painstakingly written, threatened to set plans for European integration back by years.

Chirac met yesterday with beleaguered Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, widely expected to be fired after French rejection of the proposal.

Raffarin gathered his ministers at his office before going to the presidential Elysee Palace for a 30-minute meeting with Chirac. He later confirmed that Chirac would act quickly to limit damage and heed the cry for change within France that the EU referendum produced.

"There will be developments today or tomorrow," Raffarin said later, refusing comment on whether he had offered his resignation.

French voters' defeat of plans to bind the 25 EU members more tightly together threatened to set those plans for broader integration back by years. But it also was a humiliating blow to Chirac and a disavowal of the French government's policies.

About 55 percent of voters opposed the constitution -- the first rejection in Europe.

The jolting results left Chirac, who had urged voters to approve the charter, little choice but to make changes, which he said Sunday night would come "within the very next days."

Raffarin has been seen as the most obvious victim of any Cabinet shuffle. However, many "no" supporters called for far more drastic action.

"The president heard all this and he'll take into account what the French have said," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said yesterday on France-2 television.

There was no immediate information on what transpired at the presidential palace. Ministers called in for a gathering with Raffarin refused to comment on the nature of the meeting.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin is considered a top choice to replace Raffarin, in office since May 2002. He walked out of the prime minister's office with Philippe Douste-Blazy, minister of health, who is seen as another possible choice. France was reeling from the referendum results which proved a double blow -- hitting the country on its domestic and European fronts.

France's repudiation came ahead of tomorrow's referendum in the Netherlands, where polls show even more resistance to the constitution, and had EU leaders scrambling to do damage control.

Speaking in Italy, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that it was too early to say if Britain will hold a referendum on the proposed EU constitution, although the French "non" may have spared Blair the politically risky choice of trying to persuade Britons to sign up to the charter. Blair, who was expected to call a popular vote on the constitution next year, may now be spared the hard pressed battle to win a "yes" vote in Britain.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated Britain would wait a week to announce its intentions.

"The result raises profound questions for all of us about the future direction of Europe," Straw said.

But the EU's industry commissioner, Guenther Verheugen, said the vote was not a catastrophe and that the situation should not be over-dramatized. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, while conceding the outcome was a "serious problem," insisted: "We cannot say that the treaty is dead."

All 25 EU members must ratify the text for it to take effect as planned by Nov. 1 next year. Nine already have done so: Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The constitution's main architect, former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, said countries that reject the treaty will be asked to vote again.

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