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Chirac's resignation, also seems certain to lead to a period of blood-letting in French politics and, conceivably, a period of sustained social unrest Rejection of the constitution first suggested by M. Chirac and largely negotiated by a French ex-president will make M. Chirac, 72, the lamest of ducks in the final two years of his second term. There could even be a period of turbulent "street politics", with increased social demands by a triumphant hard and romantic left.
The unpopular centre-right Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, is likely to be fired by President Chirac today or tomorrow His likely successor could be M. de Villepin a never-elected, classic scion of the French administrative elite. It was difficult to see how this choice would calm the tensions fuelled by a rumbustious, passionate, and often dirty, referendum campaign.As Europe reacted to the size of the "no" vote, M. Chirac's European ally, German Chancellor Gerhard Schr?, stressed that the referendum result did not mean the end of the Franco-German partnership.
Like other EU leaders, he stressed that "the referendum result is a blow for the constitutional process, but not the end of it". In Brussels, the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said: "All 25 member states must express their view. We can't just take those of one or two countries."It has been a strangely British kind of referendum campaign. Traditionally, the French are regarded as a country of idealists and abstract thinkers; the British as a nation of "what's-in-it-for-us" pragmatists.
