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Dead Or Alive?
Jacques Chirac is calling for the Constitution to be introduced piecemeal to avoid going to the trouble of another vote. Germany's Angela Merkel, as we reported yesterday, is pressuring Austria's government to keep the wretched treaty alive via a France-appeasing social annex.
So full marks, then, to Holland's foreign minister Bernard Bot, who declared yesterday that "for the Netherlands (the Constitution) is dead."
So there's at least one politican out there who respects the wishes of the people.
Unfortunately for the Dutch, though, Eurofanatics are already eyeing the elections planned for the spring of 2007, which the ruling centre-right coalition is expected to lose. Supporters of the treaty hope that whoever replaces Bot's lot will bow to pressure to reintroduce the Constitution.
That said, as the Telegraph points out, a new Dutch government, no matter how Euro-friendly, is unlikely to want to expend crucial political capital on another referendum. The Dutch would probably resent being asked the same question twice, and could refuse once again.
Both the current government and its opposition campaigned strongly for a yes vote, and both were rejected.
