THE result is a foregone conclusion, but the leaders of France and Germany will nonetheless fly to Barcelona today to try to ensure that Spain secures the biggest possible victory in next week’s referendum on the European constitution.

President Chirac and Gerhard Schröder will be joining a rally with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero not from fear that the Europhile Spanish will reject the EU’s new rulebook, but in the hope that a resounding Sí in the first national referendum will set the tone for much trickier votes beyond the Pyrenees.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, would also have been present had he not been struck by flu.

Both the ruling Socialists and opposition People’s Party support the constitution, but Señor Zapatero is leaving nothing to chance. His Government has spent about €7.5 million (£5.16 million) on a campaign entitled The First with Europe, and has distributed millions of copies of an abridged version of the constitution at football matches, in Sunday newspapers and at motorway toll booths.

The football legends Emilio Butragueño and Johann Cruyff appear in TV advertisements reading extracts from the treaty. The Socialists are even distributing free cans of an energy drink called Referendum Plus to entice younger voters.

The latest polls show about 40 per cent of Spaniards intend to vote “yes” and 7 per cent “no”, with 38 per cent yet to decide. But even a handsome “yes” vote would be undermined if the turnout falls below 50 per cent, with serious consequences for governments in more Eurosceptic countries struggling to give their own campaigns some momentum.

The latest poll also found that 90 per cent of Spaniards know nothing or very little about the constitution, despite the Government’s month-long information campaign.

That, say critics, is because the Government has opted for a highly populist campaign focused less on the constitution than on the benefits Spain has enjoyed since it joined the EU 19 years ago.

Since 1986 Spain has received €86 billion (£59.24 billion) in EU aid, creating 300,000 jobs a year. “The EU has permitted our consolidation as a democracy, our development, progress and welfare,” Señor Zapatero told one rally.

“It’s about Europe. It’s about Spain. It’s about your rights,” is the Socialists’ campaign slogan. Opposition to the constitution is limited, though the Catholic Church, angered by the Government’s liberal social reforms, has stated that it is fine for voters to abstain. The Catalan party, with the support of other nationalist groupings around the country, says that the constitution does not answer their needs to be recognised as sovereign entities.

Señor Zapatero, who promised to return Spain “to the heart of old Europe” after its transatlantic tryst with President Bush under José María Aznar, the conservative former Prime Minister, raced to ensure that his country was first to endorse the constitution in a referendum. If the vote goes wrong, he may be yet remembered for having inadvertently struck the first blow to its heart.

VOTING AHEAD

February 2005:

Spain

Summer 2005:

France
Luxembourg
The Netherlands

Autumn 2005:

Poland

Late 2005/2006:

Denmark
Ireland
Portugal

2006:

Czech Republic
UK

WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY

Isidoro Duran, 50, taxi driver from Madrid:

“Yes. I haven’t read it, but it doesn’t matter. If Zapatero says it’s good enough to vote for, that’s good enough for me.”

David Álvarez de la Morena, 27, from Cuenca, lawyer:

“Abstain. I’d like to vote Yes, but I don’t feel that I’ve been told about the defects of a treaty which is almost an invention of M Giscard d’Estaing.”

Marta Gonzalez Garcia, 24, from Alicante, law student:

“No. This referendum is unnecessary . . . the result isn’t binding. Also there has been no effort to explain its advantages and disadvantages.”

Raquel Alcolea Díaz , 28, website designer:

“Yes. Because I don’t agree with the United States as the world’s spokesman. Europe has to make itself heard.”

David Alonso Viñoles, 32, from Barcelona, IT technician:

“No. I don’t believe the constitution deals sufficiently with certain subjects, such as intellectual copyright.”

Carlos Blanco de Cordova, 33, publicist:

“Yes. It’s another necessary step, towards the unity of Europe and the peoples that form it.”

Juan Carlos Fernández, 26, from Asturias, systems manager:

“I’m not going to vote. The exercise isn’t about the constitution but about party politics.”

Marina Uceda Núñez, 27, from Madrid, financial analyst:

“Yes. The constitution will create the framework for the development of the freedoms and rights of citizens.”

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