Damné if they do, Damné if they don't...either way, they're still French

The polls are open in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon off the Canadian coast as well as France's other dumpy and pointless imperialist left-overs. The real action begins in a couple of hours when voting on the mainland begins and the French will go to the polls and answer one simple questions, "Do we only want to be screwed by our own government or should every bureaucrat in Brussels get a crack at us?" I don't envy the situation. Most of my French friends plan on voting oui in the hopes that it will force the French state to get off their backs and institute reforms to the top heavy socialist infrastructure that has caused systemic hardship for the French economy for years. Of course, they are aware that the vote could simply shift the redistribution from one inefficient bureaucracy to another. It really is a no win for the French. I have a copy of the June 2003 European Constitution that I picked up at EU headquarters in Brussels. The thing is 161 pages long and manages to assume for itself every conceivable power of a nation-state except the ones that have traditionally defined a nation-state like common security and protection of property rights. What the EU is going to end up looking like as a result of the passage of this constitution is impossible to tell and the French have made huge sacrifices of sovereignty in order to bring the process to this vote. That may ultimately be the thing that dooms the treaty, the French people seem to know that they are ceding their sovereignty to a utopian dream with very real questions about its quality or feasibility. Add the Tukey's pending bid to join the EU and it is quite likely that the non vote will carry the day. Interestingly, it is not fear of an oppressive super-state that seems to be driving the French non vote, but rather the fear of what Harvard economist Diane Coyle has called "turbo-capitalism." The French are deeply concerned that the economic liberalization of their moribund socialist state will greatly lower the quality of life. This is a concern being drummed up mainly by the communists and labor unions, but I repeat myself. As such, it is probably about as correct as communists and labor unions usually are. For more about the economic liberalization of Europe and the French vote, click here. To watch a short slideshow primer on this process, click here.

The Dutch are even more hostile to this Constitution than the French and they go to the polls in just three days. Read more about The Netherlands and the EU Constitution here.