They might win this battle

Eventually they will win this battle and the Constitutional Reform Lisbon Treaty will be ratified in some way. It will be a pyrrhic victory at best. Not only does the whole saga leave a nasty feeling of resentment across the European Union, one that even the fragrant Margot will not be able to waft away through her dialogues, but a number of other people are waking up to what is going on.

The Wall Street Journal has a very angry article on the subject, lambasting President Sarkozy and his self-satisfied pronouncements. France is taking over the rotating presidency in just a few days, the article points out, and it is high time its president stopped making meaningless pronouncements about "building Europe".

"Building"? Mr. Sarkozy, whose country takes over the EU's rotating presidency next month, would have sounded more credible had he called for a new way of bullying Europe. For that's what seems to be happening. In the wake of the Irish rejection, other nations on the fence about Lisbon - the UK, the Czech Republic, perhaps Sweden - are being pushed to proceed with ratification. Ireland has been threatened with near-expulsion from the Union unless Dublin finds a way to sneak the treaty past its voters.

Near-expulsion or expulsion may not be the worst thing, especially if the Irish take various goodies such as fish with them but that is not what the "no" campaign wanted.

Even the International Herald Tribune is humming and ha-ing, unhappy at the sight of Ireland being bullied and taking some comfort from the lessening of the bullying.

Many of the American blogs are unhappy as well and over there they have far more influence than the blogosphere does here.

COMMENT THREAD