By Bruno Waterfield - 30th March 2005
France is “indispensable” to further European integration, José Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday.
The president of the European Commission “sincerely” hopes the French will keep the European faith in a looming May 29 vote on the EU constitution.
“I sincerely hope that the result will be positive,” he said in Lisbon. “France is the indispensable country in Europe."
"France is a founding member of the European Community, for us it is impossible to conceive of a EU without France in a leadership role in the advance of European integration.”
But Barroso himself has been regarded as dispensable to the French debate after he was dropped from the TV programme “100 Minutes to Convince”.
“Campaign developments and speaking time rules could feed a controversy by your intervention,” said a letter from France 2 to the European Commission.
“This is why my editorial colleagues considered a postponement was inevitable.”
Against a background of plummeting support for the constitution, Barroso has been branded by some French “non” campaigners as the architect of neo-liberal reforms to dismantle ‘social Europe’.
Le Monde reports that board members Yves Loiseau and Marcel Trillat at the state-owned France 2 TV channel are indignant at the “unprecedented event”.
"It is an event that is without precedent... the managers of a public service channel calmly changing their choice of political interviewees during an electoral period to please those who are in power," wrote the pair.
France Télévisions chief Marc Tessier denied political pressure to postpone the programme.
“Nobody telephoned to pull this broadcast,” he insisted.
But press reports indicate that French President Jacques Chirac is not keen on the idea of Barroso’s presence on the nation’s TV screens.
“Barroso waves a red rag in front of the referendum ‘non’ militants,” he said to have told his Elysèe colleagues.
The latest opinion poll for Paris Match puts opposition to the EU constitution at 53 per cent.
Socialist leader François Hollande launches his "yes" to the EU constitution campaign on Thursday, Liberation reports.
The Socialists have found a new slogan to attract voters, Le Figaro reports. New posters will read “Social Europe comes through a 'yes'”.
Le Figaro also reports that French Education Minister François Fillon and 17 deputies who all voted against the EU’s Maastricht Treaty in 1992 are today pleading for a “oui” to the EU constitution.
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