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French president
Nicolas Sarkozy is campaigning on a pledge to consult people directly on
"significant issues". However, despite trailing in polls, Sarkozy refuses to agree to referendum on EU fiscal
treaty.
Mr Sarkozy, who is trailing the socialist
François Hollande in opinion polls seven
weeks before the presidential election, came under pressure to promise a
referendum on the pact after he pledged to consult the people directly on
significant issues if re-elected.
“No,” he replied when asked on French radio yesterday if he would
put the treaty to a public ballot. “If you’re dealing with a
treaty with 200 articles, 250 articles, I can’t see how you’d
formulate a clear question.”
The French electoral calendar means the treaty cannot be passed by parliament
until after the election. Mr Hollande
has said he will seek to renegotiate parts of the deal if he wins, a move
that has been criticised by Mr
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Arnaud Montebourg, a prominent party figure who
came third in the presidential primary last autumn and has been campaigning
for Mr Hollande, went
further than the candidate by predicting the treaty “will never be
ratified”.
Mr Montebourg said a
left-wing majority in France would never vote for the pact, while there was
“not a majority” in favour of it in
Ireland, the UK or other European countries. “The ‘Merkozy’ treaty would inflict austerity on all of
Europe and plunge us dangerously into recession,” he said.
Too Complicated To
Form a Clear Question?
Sarkozy says "I can’t see how you’d formulate a clear
question.”
Mish Attempt to Formulate Clear Question For Voters
1.
Punch
Yes to Approve Treaty
2.
Punch
No to Disapprove Treaty
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