2005-05-31

Jack to Nick: I've read my Machiavelli

President Chirac has appointed a new government after Sunday's resounding non to the new (now defunct) EU constitution; he announced that his arch-rival Nicolas Sarkozy had been offered, and accepted, a "senior" position in the new cabinet -- reportedly that of interior minister. Who was it who said, "keep your friends close; your enemies, closer?"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

and the dutch are voting today, but the fun is pretty much out of it for peter jan (balkenende)...

T K Vogel said...

Great cartoon on your blog! Do you really think the vote would have been less clear if the French had voted yes?

Anonymous said...

that's the impression at least. the polls jumped to 60 percent against the charter after the french vote came in. perhaps EU should do this every year or every two years, like a football championship or eurovision song contest; everybody and their brother has a very heated opinion. i'm not saying it's not important, but it just shows how some things really get out of touch with reality... what do you think?

T K Vogel said...

One thing seems certain: in systems where the electorate has little direct say in issues of everyday governance -- in other words, basically everywhere but Switzerland -- such referenda are always an outlet for grievances thaht have rather less to do with the question to be decided. So for the French, Turkey and Raffarin and an assortment of similar things seem to have been quite important even though they're certainly rather extraneous to the EU constitution.

T K Vogel said...

One thing seems certain: in systems where the electorate has little direct say in issues of everyday governance -- in other words, basically everywhere but Switzerland -- such referenda are always an outlet for grievances thaht have rather less to do with the question to be decided. So for the French, Turkey and Raffarin and an assortment of similar things seem to have been quite important even though they're certainly rather extraneous to the EU constitution.

Anonymous said...

yeah, same thing here. one of the issues that came into play here in holland and is extraneous to the EU charter is the manner in which the euro currency was introduced. a few years back, euro was introduced without any previous referendum (to see what people think about it, like it was in some other EU countries). so gulden was switched with euro at the rate of 2 to 1, salaries of, for example, 2000 guldens landed at 1000 euros, while prices in supermarkets just got a new 'euro' tag, a bag of potatos that was 1 gulden now costs not 0.50 euro, but 1 euro. same thing with taxes and bills (telephone, electricity, etc.) somebody made a lot of money, that's for sure. so, a lot of dutch are still steaming about this, and used this referendum to get back at the government. and there are other, far more bizzare extraneous issues...