How The luxembourgish voted and "not voted" for the EU constitution.

international | eu | news report Sunday July 10, 2005 15:34 by iosaf - "our way of life"

Today 218,000 approx, citizens of Luxembourg will vote to accept or reject the draft European Constitution.

They will be the 4th EU state to vote.

Spain ratified it with little over 50% participation.

France and the Netherlands rejected it.

Luxembourg is a founder member of the Union, and one of its smallest and wealthiest (in true terms) nations.

It has typified the hope of a generation of continental europeans to live in peace and harmony since after the war, when its famous radio station helped bring a sense of "normality" to countless.

Luxembourg held the eu presidency during the first half of 2005, and as such its president Mr Juncker attempted to see the draft constitution of Valerie Giscard d'Estaing ratified, and quite ambitiously at the same time the current round of finance reforms sorted before their deadline next year / 2007.

Mr Juncker (nickname Junkie) has said he will resign if his citizens reject the constitution, he wants them to say "JO!".

His political obituary thus seems likely, with exit polls already suggesting a No or "NEE!" vote.

The 553 polling booths closed at 14h00, Luxembourg like Switzerland is a sunday morning voting place, where citizens are obliged to exercise their franchise under law (this holds in Belgium as well it is a criminal offence not to vote).

Quite odd, eh? imagine that, once in a while it is a criminal offence in the low lands of Europe to not get out of bed on a sunday morning. But the police have other things to do, than chase down the average abstention of 20-30% of the population, many whom would have a good alibi-

"I couldn't vote I was on holidays".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4668527.stm
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1525241,00.html


The question asked this morning is: "Are you in favour of the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe, signed in Rome on 29 October 2004?"

Opinion polls taken last month indicate that the poll could go either way.

Opinion polls are banned during the month prior to the plebiscite.

Police will arrest you if you attempt to poll.

Which is interesting because the cliché "exit polls suggest" has appeared on many Europe's newswires. The Police must be rounding up non-voters.

Luxembourg's parliament ratified the treaty in its first reading on June 28th, but a second reading will be axed if the voters say no.

Supporters of the "JO!" vote argue that this would symbolically keep the draft constitution on the table.

Supports of the "NEE!" vote argue that in their particular case, the constitution would strip Luxembourgers of their enviable working and social security conditions, conditions which have indeed help the EU to expand.

The largest migrant workforce in the tiny state is Portuguese.


the last in the series "how they voted"

Italian eggies-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70263
Croats
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69836
Irish for their seats at Westminster
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69724

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I'll update the results and some vacous comment as part of my ongoing "keep it real, keep it normal"
volunteer activity ;-) sure it's my way of life.