Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin

I thought of writing a short article on the French "Non" vote for the European Constitution, but I'm only bound to repeat what everyone else has said, or at best present an assortment of my understanding of news articles.

Those in the Opposition in France claim that the vote was against Jacques Chirac. In any case, someone has to bear the brunt of every defeat. This time it had to be the unpopular Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. That brings to the fore, Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin,or Dominique de Villepin for short (yeah, that was short).

M. de Villepin was in the news in 2003 (and got lots of bad publicity in the US) because he was seen as one of the major opponents of the war on Iraq. France didn't budge till the end, and this Morocco-born then Foreign Minister proved a nut no one could crack. It remains to be seen how M. de Villepin can do differently, or how he can bring about a change in the attitudes of "les Français."

Netherlands goes to the referendum today. That the Dutch are going to say "No!" is quite a possibility. If that happens, Europe is in for tough times ahead. Did someone say saade saathi?