page_title: 2005 French European Constitution referendum
section_title: Opinion polls and course of the campaign
hierarchical_section_title: 2005 French European Constitution referendum / Campaign / Opinion polls and course of the campaign
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Paris (Île-de-France, France)&#160;: Olivier Besancenot, José Bové et Jean-Luc Mélenchon devant la gare Saint-Lazare lors d’un meeting pour le non au référendum sur la Constitution européenne.
context_page_description: The French referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was held on 29 May 2005 to decide whether France should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. The result was a victory for the "No" campaign, with 55% of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69%.
  The question put to voters was:
  Approuvez-vous le projet de loi qui autorise la ratification du traité établissant une Constitution pour l'Europe?
  "Do you approve the bill authorising the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?"
  France was the first country to reject the treaty, and the second country to go to the polls in a referendum on ratification, after a Spanish referendum approved the treaty by a wide margin in February 2005. France's rejection of the Constitution left the treaty with an uncertain future, with other EU member states pledging to continue with their own arrangements for ratification.
  The result was surprising to political commentators, with those in favour of the "yes" vote having received 71% of mentions on television between 1 January and 31 March.
context_section_description: Initial opinion polls showed a clear majority in favour of the Constitution, but public opposition grew over time. By May, the "Yes" campaign's lead was smaller than the opinion pollsters' margin of error.
  The three major political forces in France (UMP, PS and UDF) supported the proposed Constitution, as did president Chirac. Supporters of the Constitution from the left sought to emphasise that the treaty incorporates a Charter of Fundamental Rights and thus helped to secure the future of the European social model. Somewhat surprisingly considering his usual political orientation, Jacques Chirac defended it as a possible barrier against neoliberal economic policies.
  Objections to the Constitution in France can be broadly divided into two camps. On the left, many expressed the view that the Constitution would enforce a neoliberal economic model. Among those were some members of the Socialist Party who dissented from the party's stance as decided by its internal referendum, some members of the Green Party (though the party's official policy was also to support ratification), the Communist Party and the Citizen and Republican Movement - a small party allied to the Socialist Party. The Radical Party of the Left, another ally of the Socialist Party, was divided on the question: its main representatives were for the Constitution, while Christiane Taubira, who was candidate for the PRG in 2002, was against it.
  Other parties of the hard left, such as the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League and Workers' Struggle, as well as associations like ATTAC and trade unions such as the CGT or SUD opposed ratification. These critics sought to link the Constitution to the proposed directive on services in the internal market, which is widely opposed in France.
  There were also prominent opponents of the Constitution from the right, notably Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (a Gaullist) and Philippe de Villiers (of the Movement for France), and from the extreme right, Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front, who opposed the Constitution on the grounds that France should not be part of any institution whose decisions can take precedence over what is decided in France at a national level. Another factor in the defeat of the Constitution may have been the linking of the Constitution in the minds of voters with the possibility of the accession of Turkey to the European Union, with which most of the French population disagrees.
caption: Olivier Besancenot, José Bové and Jean-Luc Mélenchon at a meeting supporting the "No" vote.
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