Les Français contre l'Europe

The French have always had a complex relationship with Europe. This relationship is marked, on the one hand by French ambition for the continent as a whole, and on the other hand, by a certain reticence brought about by the political and social consequences of integration. The history of the European Constitutional Treaty and the failure of the referendum designed to ratify it provides an extremely effective key to decode this turbulent relationship. At the very moment when France has announced its return to the fold within Europe, the time is right to re-visit this complex relationship.

By describing the mechanisms which led to the choice of a referendum, by analysing the referendum campaign and the implications of the vote on the 29 May 2005, and by evaluating the consequences of the French No vote, this book provides a global viewpoint of the specific nature of the European question in the French political arena.