A Time of Great Hope

“The way is now open to rebuild, along with the other peoples of Europe, a new European Constitution” – French voters in the May 29th French Referendum rejected unequivocally the neoliberal European Constitution, by a margin of 55% to 45%.
It has been done. They French have said NO. They had the guts to say N0. Despite non-stop official propaganda, shameless manipulation by the media, the line-up of the whole pro-European elite, the blatant use of intimidation, false associations with the reactionary right-wing extremists, despite all the blackmail. The French voters avoided the trap, they refused to endorse the scenario of “the obvious truth”, that made out as if the referendum was a consultation of the population, but only allowed for a single possible answer. For them, YES was “obviously” the correct vote.
But the electors took the debate seriously, passionately studying a text that its defenders wanted to hide from them, taking control, mustering all their political and social strength, in the battle for the NO. This was the citizens’ debate that they wanted to avoid. The result is unambiguous: a clear and massive mobilisation of electors; an unequivocal victory for the No; there was nothing vague about this, no smudges or blurs in the results. Democracy has emerged the victor. Neoliberalism has been defeated.

A Time of Great Hope – The NO victory in the French Referendum
by Pierre Laurent
Translated by Patrick Bolland
L'Humanité in English