After a campaign that mesmerized and polarized the country, final opinion polls suggested that opponents of the landmark EU charter would prevail, a decision that would effectively stop the treaty dead in its tracks.
Yet the EUzis view votes as a mere obstacle that may be overcome:
There are already signs of tension. Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, who is current president of the EU, provoked guffaws when he suggested that the ratification process should continue regardless of how the French vote. "The Juncker line was ridiculous," one commission official said.
José Manuel Barroso, the commission president who is due to appear with Mr Juncker in Brussels on Sunday night to respond to the French vote, is said to be getting cold feet about the press conference.
"Barroso is far too sensible to take such a simple view," the official said.
All leaders will wait for Jacques Chirac to pronounce. If he abides by a French no vote, the measure will be effectively dead.
The EUzis are frantic to get their precious union. They fear that the idiot voters who reject the European Union are just as likely to drag the continent into war:
More than any other region, Europe experienced the horrors of the 20th century. It was no surprise that after 1945, an exhausted continent was ready to try a radical new idea - building a zone of peace through institutional integration and the voluntary pooling of sovereignty. What was a surprise was how successful this project turned out to be.
We should remain vigilant. But in Europe at least, the demons are gone for good. We should use this accomplishment as inspiration to take the next step.
Ah yes, remain vigilant against the people. Never blame the rulers for a history of war. Nope. The people are at fault. The EUzis can save Europe from more war.
Yet what is the problem as seen in France?
It should compel attention throughout the EU that France sees this constitution as a momentous step – whether, as the “yes” campaign would have it, forging a “united Europe” capable of acting as a mighty counterpoint to the US in global affairs, or whether, as the treaty’s numerous opponents proclaim, reinforcing centralising trends in ways that threatened France’s sovereignty, identity and way of life.
The rulers of Europe want the glory of a united and centralized Europe to counter America? Why? Are we threatening invasion? Will we build another EuroDisney? Is McDonalds expanding? Perhaps Britney Spears has a new album out. Whatever the threat, the Euros want a larger unified state to oppose us. And if the centralization needed to stop the terrible threat of Rockford Files reruns must come at the expense of democracy and national sovereignty, it is a small price for the people of Europe to pay. The leaders know best.
Though the rulers of Europe blame the people for the history of European bloodshed, the people were merely led to war and died in the wars started by the European elites. The same elites now seek the glory of superpower status at the expense of democracy that might allow the people to express disagreement with the desires of the elites. But since the foreign power the elites seek to balance, the United States, is no threat to them, the elites will use their power against the only real threat to their EU power--the people of Europe.
A yes vote in France will open the way for the EUzis to weld Europe into a single state and to hell with the will of the people. One vote, one time. And as the EUzis make clear, even a no vote is not final. The EUzis will find a way around this mere inconvenience. Juncker made that clear enough and the very idea that Chirac has to abide by a no vote for it to mean anything is pretty damning for the chance of democracy to endure in a Brussels-dominated EUzi state.
If the no side wins, their fight is just beginning.
But for there to be any fight at all against the EUzi state that is desperately trying to be born, there must be a Battle of the Marne where the enemy is stopped before it can win and plunge Europe into despair.
