E.U. Constitution Faces Key Test in France

Chirac pressed for a referendum, analysts say, because he believed it would split the opposition Socialists and produce a lasting personal triumph for the twilight of his political career. But opponents mobilized quickly.

Etienne Chouard, a high school teacher in Marseilles, became something of a folk hero to the No campaign when he started a Web site attacking the document. Soon, he says, he was attracting 25,000 hits per day, most of them passionately supportive of his critique.

"I never expected such a response," he said in a telephone interview. "I feel like I threw a bottle out into the sea and someone found it."

Chirac's own conservative political party splintered, with neo-Gaullists -- the ideological heirs of the late president Charles de Gaulle -- arguing that the document would subordinate France and threaten its sovereignty.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a conservative legislator who is one of the leaders of the No campaign, says voters are concerned about high unemployment -- officially at 10 percent, but double that rate for young people -- stagnant growth, a bloated public sector and an out-of-touch political elite. "Why are our leaders surprised?" he asked. "Because they have not listened for years and years."

He also says the European Union's foreign policy -- influenced by pro-American governments in countries such as Britain and Poland -- would be too accommodating to Washington and less independent under the new constitutional setup. "We like the American people, but we don't want the United States dictating to us," Dupont-Aignan said.

The Socialist Party endorsed the E.U. constitution last year, but many members have remained opposed. "For years when French politicians have to cut the budget or close post offices, they go on television and blame Brussels," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist leader and Yes campaigner. "It's only natural that after 50 years people feel alienated."

Part of the alienation is a fear of outsiders -- what political scientist Jacques Rupnick called "the myth of the Polish plumber." The French government has imposed restrictions to prevent people from formerly communist E.U. nations from moving to France. The nightmare scenario: that low-priced providers -- not just plumbers and carpenters, but also financial services firms and employment agencies -- will undercut their high-priced French competitors.

Lang contends the anti-constitution forces in his own party have conducted a campaign based upon fear and distortion. "It is chauvinistic and arrogant -- the worst of ourselves," he said. "In a sense I am a little ashamed. It's a terrible image."

Still, French fears resonate in places such as the Loire Valley, part of France's rural heartland. "Most people are living well here, but there is a lot of pessimism -- they don't feel comfortable in their own skin," said Michel Letellier, the left-leaning mayor of Saint-Calais, a town of 4,000 near Rahay, who says many residents -- himself included -- have yet to make up their minds.

One of the biggest fears is known here as "de-localization" -- that French businesses will flee east to cheaper environments. Letellier says something similar happened in the 1980s when clothing and electronic equipment factories left for North Africa. People worry the same thing could happen some day to the paper factory that employs 800 people on the edge of town.

Opinion polls suggest two-thirds of French farmers oppose the new constitution, in part because they oppose changes in the E.U. system of farm subsidies, known as the Common Agriculture Policy, which helps prop up prices and provides a wall of protectionism around French crops.

De Beaurouvre complains that the E.U. has turned him and his neighbors into farmer-bureaucrats who have a lawyer on retainer in Brussels to keep track of all of the new farming regulations. Still, he estimates he receives 20 to 30 percent of his income from E.U. subsidies. The union also supplies trees and grasses to fight erosion and pesticide damage in his fields. "I'm for Europe, but not the Europe of the bureaucrats," he said.

After a slow start, the Yes campaign has begun to rally its forces. Chirac brought in the leaders of Germany and Poland recently to lend their support. The French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, warned that the economy would plummet if France voted no. Under the French system, the four large parties that officially support the referendum are receiving 90 minutes of free air time on every French television and radio station, while those opposed will get only 50.

Dominique Berrehar, a country doctor based in the small village of Prunay, is conducting his own personal campaign, speaking to hundreds of patients about the new document and seeking to ease their fears. "When a person is depressed they close in on themselves and nothing interests them and they say no to everything," says Berrehar. "So France is in a state of depression."

Berrehar echoes other critics who say the government never should have put the matter to a popular vote because the treaty is too complicated for people to understand.

"It's not our work -- it's their work," said Guy de Vanssay, owner of a local chateau, referring to the political elite. "The consequences should be on them, not on us. They're asking us to vote for fog."

Nonetheless, says de Vanssay, he plans to vote yes. "By itself, France is nothing, Germany is nothing, England is nothing," he said. "It's Europe that is something, so we have no choice but to support it."

Special correspondent Erika Lorentzsen contributed to this report.