France

Abstract

France was among the six founding states which signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957 setting up the European Economic Community (EEC). It was also one of the first member states to join the eurozone in 1999. The French people have been electing MEPs since the first elections in 1979. The 2009 election took place in the wake of two major Europe-related issues. First, President Jacques Chirac organised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty in May 2005. The Treaty was emphatically rejected by voters (55 per cent to 45) after a long and passionate campaign. In the autumn of 2004, the Parti Socialiste (PS), the main opposition party, voted internally to decide on its position regarding the Treaty. This was a true moment of party democracy, totally unique in Europe, which distinguished the PS from any other party of the Party of European Socialists (PES). Over a four-month period, the PS debated the issue. The ‘yes’ camp was victorious (58 per cent to 42). However, the simple fact that an internal vote had been organised and that an important minority of socialists had rejected the Constitutional Treaty altogether bore witness to the deeply rooted opposition to what many socialists describe as ‘neoliberal Europe’ (Marlière, 2010). As a result, European integration finally became a politicised question, in the sense that socialists did not any more simply look at the pace of the process of integration or its desirability, but also pondered on the direction taken by integration (its political nature). One can describe ‘Euroscepticism’ in the PS as being ‘soft’, policy focused rather than based on national interest, and ideologically socialist, that is, the socialists debated classic socialist topics (e.g., regulation of market forces within France and Europe, control of social and fiscal dumping, harmonisation of social rights, political control of the ECB) (Wagner 2008, 258).