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June 3, 2005/Iyar 25 5765, Volume 57, No. 40
France rejects E.U. Constitution; Jews wary
LAUREN ELKIN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - The Jewish community in France received news of the vote against the proposed European Union constitution with uncertainty about what it means for them.
Contrasting reactions in the Jewish community after the results of May 29's referendum were announced parallel the variety of Jewish perspectives leading up to the crucial vote.
In a decision that rocked the French establishment - and led to a reshuffling of the French government - the final count was 56 percent against the proposed constitution, 44 percent in favor.
Many interpreted the French vote as a rejection of their president, rather than the constitution.
"They didn't answer the question that was asked of them," said Stephane Friedfeld, director of the French Jewish Business Union.
Nevertheless, it was not President Jacques Chirac but Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin who took thefall. Raffarin handed in his resignation May 31. Within half an hour, Chirac had named Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin as his successor.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been the popular favorite for prime minister and who is close to the Jewish community, took over the Interior Ministry.
The constitution, a copy of which was mailed to every registered voter in France, would protect fundamental human rights as well as the rights to social security, employment, freedom from discrimination and freedom of religion; it would also ensure gender equality and protect animals. It also would establish certain economic policies to ensure that the European Union would be "a domestic market with free and unadulterated competition."
In the Jewish community, responses to the vote were mixed.
The results were "not surprising, but disappointing," said Friedfeld, who characterized the vote as a "reaction of fear" that was "not good for France, not good for the economy, not good for business."
Sammy Ghozlan, president of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism and a backer of the constitution, was disappointed.
To move on from this defeat, he said, "France has to find an efficient way to get involved in Europe, and Europe has to find a way to work hand in hand with the United States."
On the other hand, some members of the Jewish community found the constitution and the current political climate in the European Union too problematic to ratify.
"The E.U. wants to set itself up as a block against American superpower," said M. Kalfon of The Book Fair, a Parisian Jewish bookstore. "They're creating a false unity, a unity not built on positive reasons, but built out of anti-Americanism."
Some commentators in the Jewish media speculated that there was a "dusting" of anti-Semitism in the "no" vote, because the xenophobic extreme right urged voters to reject the constitution.
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