Cataclysm politique

The anti-constitution forces in France are gaining momentum:

France's political elite was stunned on Friday by an opinion poll that showed for the first time a majority of voters opposed the European Union constitutional treaty.

Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission, warned of a political cataclysm if France voted No to the constitution in a national referendum on May 29.

Over the past few weeks, the unemployment rate has climbed above 10 per cent, the trade unions have staged mass protests against the government's reforms, and the finance minister has been forced to quit over a housing scandal.

President Jacques Chirac has also engaged in a public dispute with José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, over a draft European services directive which the French president has labelled unacceptable in its present form.

The directive, which seeks to free the European services market, has been seized upon by the No camp in France as evidence that Europe is heading in an excessively liberal direction.

While the French are distracted Monaco and Andorra should take the opportunity to kick some French butt, Force de Frappe be damned. (Neither Monaco nor Andorra has a military; I'm confident their police forces - or maybe Boy Scouts - can do the trick.)