Giscard d’Estaing: “rejection of the Constitution was a mistake which will have to be corrected” – “if the Irish and the Danes can vote yes in the end, so the French can do it too.”
01 March 2006
At a lecture at the LSE last night former French President and chief drafter of the EU Constitution Valéry Giscard d’Estaing argued unequivocally that “The rejection of the Constitution was a mistake which will have to be corrected.” He said, “The Constitution will have to be given its second chance”, and joked, “Everyone makes mistakes.” He said people voted no out of an “error of judgement” and “ignorance.”
He said, “In the end, the text will be adopted.” He mentioned the second referendums that took place in
He said, “It was a mistake to use the referendum process, but when you make a mistake you can correct it.” He also predicted that the Constitution would be a stepping stone to further integration later, arguing that “adoption of the Constitution will not be enough to complete Europe’s political union,” and that the Constitution is for this generation, but for the next generation “there will be something else.”
Giscard d’Estaing also spoke on the Today Programme this morning, taking a more cautious line.
LSE transcript Today programme
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