By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 23, 2005; A12
RAHAY, France -- The tart red wine on the kitchen table in Pierre Mercier de Beaurouvre's farmhouse was made in France. So were the garlicky sausages, the duck pāte, the eggs, bacon, cream and herbs in his omelet, the potato chips, the gherkins -- even the table salt. And so is the way of life on the 500-acre family farm where this ex-paratrooper grows wheat, corn and herbs on land his wife's ancestors have tilled for more than two centuries. But as far as he is concerned it is a way of life that is under siege -- from bureaucrats in Paris and Brussels with their regulations and high taxes, and from foreign countries whose cheap products and low-waged workers threaten French industries and jobs. And because he wants to protect his quality of life, de Beaurouvre says he plans to vote against the draft European Union constitution in a national referendum on Sunday. "The biggest problem is I no longer believe I'm governing myself," said de Beaurouvre, as he sat down for a meal and a chat the other day on this Loire Valley farm, some 100 miles southwest of Paris. In the new Europe envisaged in the constitution, he said, "We will no longer be the boss in our own house." For more than five decades, France and its political leaders have been at the heart of the historic project to unify Europe. But to the great surprise of the political elite here, the constitution -- a document written largely by a former French president and championed by the current one -- has run into serious problems, with poll after poll suggesting it could go down to defeat. Defeat in France on May 29 could mean defeat for the document in all of Europe; the rules say that adoption requires approval by all 25 member countries. So far six countries have said yes. French voters on both the left and right have found reasons to reject the 380-page document, defying pleas from the country's two major parties, both of which officially support it. Critics on the left contend that the constitution enshrines free-market principles that would undermine French values and damage the country's elaborate social welfare network. Conservatives such as de Beaurouvre believe it would vest too much power in a faceless and unaccountable bureaucracy, transfer more French funds to former communist countries in Eastern Europe that joined last year, and open the door for membership to Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country. Many voters also appear eager to punish Jacques Chirac, the 72-year-old president, whom critics contend has lost touch with the concerns of the middle and working class and who has staked his reputation on winning the referendum that he insisted upon holding. But underlying the entire debate is a deep sense of unease and disaffection about the French nation -- its economy, its future and its place in the world. "In France, a referendum always becomes a plebiscite -- it opens all the doors and all the windows to many things," said Jacques Lang, the former Socialist minister of culture. Opponents are not saying "no to Europe," said Lang, but rather "no to Chirac and the government and no to the political system. People are very angry and very anxious, and so this is how they vote." Supporters of the constitution offer sometimes contradictory arguments in its favor. Some contend the document is nothing more than a treaty designed to modernize and streamline decision making in the European Union to take into account the union's expansion from 15 to 25 member states a year ago. They insist the document, which was drafted over 18 months by a special convention chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, does not fundamentally alter how the E.U. works or further restrict the sovereignty of its members. At the same time, Chirac has told French voters it will create a stronger, more cohesive Europe that will be able to stand up in the world, preserve social welfare programs and keep out "ultra-liberalism," as American-style free-market economics is known here. It would be in the U.S. interest to defeat the constitution, Chirac said on TV, calling that a reason to approve it. 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.