A Constitutional Moment? The Constitution in the French and German Debates

Abstract

To what extent, then, were the academic and EU institutional communities correct in their analyses of, and responses to, the alleged root causes of the citizenry’s increased alienation from the EU and its politics? This chapter juxtaposes the official legitimation discourses and representations analysed earlier with the wider public debates in France and Germany on the constitutional draft treaty’s ratification, as reflected in the press. How did the discursive representation of the EU and its legitimacy change during these key moments of discursive re-construction and contestation?