Stardate 20030511.1458

(On Screen): The EU Observer carries the following report:

Voters not mature for EU-wide referenda

An interesting experiment from a French opinion research agency, published by Le Figaro, has shown that EU voters would be likely to vote for a candidate from their own country in any future vote for an EU President.

This makes it difficult to envisage a fair or meaningful pan-European vote on the Constitution.

The Paris-based Ifop research agency ran an imaginary poll amongst the French people. Voters were asked whom they would like to see as President of the EU, but only one French name was on the list - that of former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who is now the President of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The French voted overwhelmingly in favour of Giscard, with 58 per cent, reported Le Figaro.

According to Bernard Dolez, Director of public opinion at Ifop, "the result shows that the political debate in Europe is not yet very well structured … opinion does not seem to be mature enough for such an election: everyone tends to vote for the candidate from his or her own country".

What I can't figure out is why this experiment in France is extrapolated to the EU as a whole? What it suggests is that the French would tend to vote for their own candidate (though, as the article itself points out, the report doesn't say who the other candidates were). Whether other voters in other nations would do so wasn't established by this.

What I think this actually betrays is a deep assumption that France is the EU, and what the French do is all that matters.

Of course, there's a different question: why, exactly, is it "immature" to vote for candidates from your own nation? I guess it's because it means they haven't outgrown nationalism and become post-nationalist like all the adults, eh?