GÉRARD DEPARDIEU and Françoise Hardy say “yes”; gay and feminist groups say “yes”; President Chirac and almost all the Establishment want nothing else. So how can half the French electorate still be planning to say “no” to the European constitution? The answer has become clear as leaders of the motley resistance to the treaty have united this week to condemn what they see as brainwashing by state-backed media before the referendum on May 29.

“Rarely have we seen such a movement of powerful intellectual intimidation as we are witnessing now,” Laurent Fabius, the former Socialist Prime Minister who has broken with his party’s “yes” line, said.

The dissident Socialists have joined a rejection front that spans the fringes: communists, Trotskyites, Roman Catholic nationalists, anti-capitalists and followers of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front leader. All denounce what they see as pro-constitution propaganda in the media.

The message of the “no” campaign, although split between hard Right and Marxist Left, is getting through, by word, at rallies and on the internet. The left-wing “no”, which regards the constitution as a British-backed plot, is now hip on the Paris Left Bank.

Danielle Mitterrand, widow of the President and Rive Gauche denizen, broke with the rest of the family and sided on television with those who claim that the staunchly pro-European François Mitterrand would have rejected the treaty as too capitalist.

Henri Emmanuelli, a leading Socialist dissident campaigning against the party’s “oui”, said: “The French don’t like being told what to do, especially by people they do not trust.”

Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the former Socialist Interior Minister and leader of the small left-wing nationalist camp, said yesterday: “Many people are realising that voting ‘non’ is the only message that they can send to a deaf and mute elite. On one side you have virtually 100 per cent of the Establishment and on the other you have half the people, and perhaps more.”

Alain Juppé, M Chirac’s former Prime Minister, complained on his weblog that the “no” vote “amounts to a rag-bag of rejection — everything is thrown into it”. He probably helped the “no” campaign by adding that “elites are necessary to lead France upwards”.

The media are firmly in the “yes” camp. Opponents are given space to air views, but the editorial slant is nearly always in line with M Chirac’s assertion that “you cannot be a European and vote ‘no’ ”.

The television networks and Radio France were reprimanded last week by the broadcasting authority for failing to give equal time to the “no” camp. Jean-Paul Cluzel, the chief of the state broadcaster, replied that “explaining the constitution is not propaganda”.

Last week Bernard Guetta, the network’s main morning commentator, told listeners that “France is on the verge of committing a terrible mistake” if it were to vote “non”.

The “no” campaigners are furious about the Government’s tax-funded advertising and the gushing brochure that accompanies the copies of the turgidly worded constitution that are being sent to all households. Equally irksome is the sudden willingness by Brussels to yield to long-held French demands, such as a move last week to cut VAT on restaurant bills.

The Government, aware of the danger of preaching from on high, has begun to haul in interest groups and celebrities such as Johnny Hallyday, the rock idol, and Depardieu, who recited pro-European lines from Victor Hugo before the public at the Foreign Ministry on Monday. Business leaders, as unpopular as they are pro-European, have stayed out for fear of fuelling the mutiny.

According to pollsters, the “no” camp would be much bigger were it not for the survival of France’s traditional belief that “Europe” is a good thing.

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