SUPPORTERS of the European constitution won a significant victory in France last night when the country’s Socialist Party voted to approve the document in an internal ballot.

The chances of France rejecting the constitution in a national referendum next year appeared to recede after the socialist decision.

With President Chirac’s centre-right allies already backing the constitution, the result of last night’s ballot means that there will be a mainstream consensus in favour of a “yes” vote in the French referendum.

The European constitution must be ratified by each of the 25 EU member states. Britain and France are among a minority of member states where the decision will be submitted to a referendum. After a campaign that had split the French Left, the Socialist Party’s 120,000 members voted decisively in favour of the document. Initial figures suggested that at least 55 per cent had approved it. François Mitterrand’s former Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius, who had led the campaign for a “no” vote, conceded defeat last night.

He had called on Socialists to reject the treaty, which he described as an unacceptable sop to Anglo-Saxon liberalism.

M Fabius believes that a French “non” would force the EU to rethink its direction and introduce a greater dose of social democratic or socialist thinking into its policies. However, François Hollande, the party’s general secretary, gave warning that a “no” vote would signal a break with the Socialists’ pro-European tradition.

He said that it would leave the party isolated within the European Left, just as rejection by the French electorate in the referendum next year would leave France isolated in the EU. M Hollande said that the constitution contains clauses that represent progress for workers’ and union rights.

Elisabeth Guigou, the former Socialist Justice Minister, said last night: “The party’s members have turned their backs on populism. They haven’t been tricked by illusions and false arguments.

Jack Lang, the former Culture Minister, said: “They have expressed their old, profoundly European identity. This is a great happiness. This is a victory for Europe, for the Socialist Party and for France.”

The result of the ballot will give the French political class a customary appearance as it shapes up for the referendum campaign next year.

The leadership of the two main French parties, the Socialists and the centre-right Union for a Popular Majority, will urge a “yes” vote. Standing against them will be dissidents from among their ranks, and a wide range of smaller parties, including eurosceptics, the extreme-right National Front and the Communists. Current opinion polls put the “yes” vote ahead. Twelve years ago, in a referendum on the Maastricht treaty, supporters had a comfortable lead when the campaign started, but only a small margin of victory at the end of it.

• A French appeal court has reduced to one year the ban on Alain Juppé, the former Prime Minister, from holding elected office for corruption. The ruling means that M Juppé, 59, can stand for presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007.

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