Red State/Blue State France

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A little more on French voters’ decisive rejection of the EU constitution. The New York Times has a pretty good story on the referendum, which includes these paragraphs:

At the polling place at the Karl Marx primary school in downtown Bobigny, a working-class suburb of Paris, by contrast, there was no sense that Europe’s future hinged on the constitution.
With 18 percent unemployment and a large ethnic Arab and African population, 72 percent of the voters there said no.
Bernard Birsinger, the suburb’s Communist mayor, accused Mr. Chirac of fear-mongering and dissembling when he predicted political and economic doom for France if the country rejected the constitution.
“We are already in a Europe of unemployment and regression,” said Mr. Birsinger, adding, “We know that the destiny of France is not threatened.”

I agree. The destiny of any country that names elementary schools after Karl Marx was sealed long ago.
The Sun is unabashedly jubilant:

Tony Blair, who is on holiday in Italy, will face the task of dealing with the fallout from the French vote when Britain takes over the EU presidency on July 1.
Before that, EU leaders will hold emergency talks on the treaty during a summit in Brussels.
Government insiders predict that a decision on the Constitution

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