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According to preliminary figures, at least, which have just been broadcast on French television. Dutch PBS says these figures are highly reliable, and not your ordinary exit poll, since they're based on a number of sources, including French government figures.
Can't think of a better reason to open up a good bottle of St. Emilion and put on some music. I wanna be drunk when the Holocaust comes!
I've tuned my satellite receiver to France 2 and will be watching, and report back here if I deem it necessary.
Damn, haven't felt this European in a long time.
Update 22.31: Chirac gives an address. More soon. Chirac acknowledges the French have rejected the constitution, and says he'll respect the wish of the voters. He'll have to. Tomorrow, Sarkozy will be after his job. Chirac will at the very least have to sacrifice prime minister Rafarrin. No mention of that now, although Chirac does make a reference to updates on his government in the forthcoming days.
Update 22.39: 83 percent of all votes counted. It's just gotten better: 57,26 percent NON. These figures are from De Telegraaf though, which is not the most reliable newspaper in the country (though not nearly as bad as it's often made out to be).
Update 22.52: Germans have just hung a sign from the Bastille stating 'Danke France' (Thank you, France). Makes you think about that little propaganda stunt on Friday when the Bundestag, Germany's Parliament, ratified the constitution with a near-North Korean majority. Without a plebiscite of course. Can't trust them voters.
Update 22.55: Prime minister Balkenende has responded on Dutch PBS with his usual eloquence. We should vote 'yes' because we have our own responsibility. I agree with him on the responsibility part.
Update 23.09: 57,26 percent NON figure popping up all over the place, making this an undeniable victory.
Update 23.17: European Council president Jean Claude Juncker says the ratification procedure should go ahead, stating that 9 countries have already ratified the treaty. Well yes, but only one of those countries had a plebiscite: Spain. They get a lot of money from Brussels. On the other hand, one founding member of the European Union has rejected the constitution with a convincing majority of the population. The Netherlands, also one of the six founding members and the largest net contributor per capita, may (and hopefully will) do the same on Wednesday. That's the people speaking, not politicians who have their own vested interests in wanting to adopt a constitution which endows them with more power and/or career prospects. Besides, Juncker's point is moot. The constitution can't legally get into force without the consent of all 25 members.
Update 23.32: Damn, Balkenende was right. World War III just broke out.
Update 23.40: Don't want to vote 'no' because of the bandwagon effect? Then vote 'no' after watching this atrocious attempt of Balkenende to defend the constitution.
Update 30/5/05, 11.31: The official end result says 55 percent voted non. Apparently, there were quite a lot of yes votes amongst the remaining 17 percent which still needed to be counted.
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