PRESIDENT Chirac last night urged the French to approve the European Constitution as a rampart against the “Anglo-Saxon” system because in his view rejection would paralyse Europe and relegate France to the sidelines.

“I don’t want to be dramatic, but the first consequence of voting ‘no’ will be that Europe stops in its tracks,” M Chirac told television viewers as he entered the campaign for France’s referendum on May 29 on the constitution.

Answering questions on live television from 83 young voters, mediated by three television chat show hosts, M Chirac sought to defuse the prevailing belief in France that rejecting the constitution would defend the French way of life.

A stream of opinion polls over the past month have shown that about 54 per cent of French voters want to vote “no”, largely because they see the constitution as a threat to France and the consecration of British supremacy in Europe.

A French “no” would effectively kill the constitution because the treaty requires unanimous ratification and because of France’s role as a founder and leading state in the Union.

M Chirac said that, contrary to French belief, the constitution was a guarantee “that France will continue to exist”. The treaty, he said, would ensure that Europe did not succumb to ultra-liberalism — French jargon for the Anglo-American free market system.

His repeated stress on “les Anglo-saxons” as the adversary of France reflected the fact that the swing to the “no” camp has been driven by left-wing voters who believe that the constitution is a British-inspired plot to destroy the protective French state and its welfare system.

“This constitution is precisely the logical answer to liberal logic,” he said. “Of course we are not contesting the market economy. But we are trying to answer an economic Europe with a political Europe.”

The two-hour programme on prime-time television was carefully stage-managed by Claude Chirac, the President’s daughter and media manager.

Questions from the young voters hand-picked by a polling organisation, were channelled through three popular talk-show hosts: Marc-Olivier Fogiel, Jean-Luc de la Rue and Emmanuel Chain.

The tone of the questions reflected the widespread feeling that the French people were being duped into backing a foreign-inspired treaty, albeit drafted under the chairmanship of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a former French President.

M Chirac tried to convey the message that France would be wounding itself and setting back the European cause if it voted no. He could not understand why the young sounded so fearful, he said.

“The French are frightened of losing their social advantages. I really don’t understand why the French are so afraid. I have faith in the future of France,” he said.

Sitting in the middle of the Salle des Fêtes of the Elysée Palace, M Chirac said it was too easy to vent anger against the Establishment.

“Of course one can say ‘Let’s reject everything’. But be aware that in doing that you will solve nothing. You will considerably weaken the voice of France and therefore its capacity to defend its interests. That’s what I call operation boomerang,” he said.

M Chirac made clear that there was no question that he would resign if the referendum ended with rejection, as did the late President de Gaulle, who left office a day after the country voted “no” in a referendum on institutional reform in 1969.

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