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Sarkozy Gets the Message – No Means No!

22/07/08

Having voted No to the Lisbon Treaty less then two months ago Irish citizens gathered on Merrion Square in Dublin yesterday to oppose Nicolas Sarkozy’s attempts to force a second referendum on that treaty. Before he got to the main protests in the city centre, however, Sarkozy may well have gotten the message that ‘NO MEANS NO’ - courtesy of éirígí. All along the route from Dublin airport to the city centre éirígí activists hung large banners calling on him to respect the decision of the Twenty-Six county electorate.

Sarkozy, the French Premier and current president of the EU, was allegedly in Dublin to try and find a route out of the ‘crisis’ created by the recent rejection of the Lisbon treaty by the electorate of the Twenty-Six counties. In reality, Sarkozy’s trip to Dublin had more to do with photo-opportunities and sound bites then any real desire to address the very real concerns of those who rejected the Lisbon Treaty.

The itinerary of his trip to Dublin exposed its true purpose. Sarkozy entire trip to Dublin lasted less than seven hours with much of that short time being used to transport the French premier between Dublin airport, Leinster House and the French embassy. Of the time that was not spent driving around Dublin a large portion was given over to meeting with those who advocated a Yes vote, including Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore. A case of ‘preaching to the converted’ if ever there was one. Finally at the tail end of his trip Sarkozy met briefly with representatives of some of those groups that advocated a NO vote. Such was his pressing desire to ‘listen and learn’.

If further proof was needed of the true intent of Sarkozy’s trip to Dublin one must only look to his comments of last week when he told a meeting of his political party that the Irish would have to vote again on Lisbon. If Sarkozy knew last week that a second Lisbon vote will be required to solve the ‘Irish problem’ why then bother to visit Dublin at all?

The true intent of the Sarkozy charade was clear to the thousands of people who gathered outside of Leinster House yesterday to demonstrate their opposition to a second Lisbon Treaty. Among those assembled on Merrion Square were up to twenty eirigi activists whose banner said it all.

Speaking at the protest éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mhaistír said, “Everyone knows that Sarkozy’s trip to Dublin is a sham, designed to give the impression of a listening EU president who is trying to address the concerns of the people of Ireland. In reality Sarkozy, Cowen and their ilk are frantically trying to find a mechanism to subvert the democratic will of the people of this state.

“Over the coming months there will, no doubt, be many similar sham visits and sham meetings and hopefully there will be many more protest like today’s - to expose these shams for what they are.

“Today is great example of what can be achieved when working people combine their strengths, stand together and in one voice assert their views upon those who would ignore them. People from all over the country are here today, including comrades from the Six Counties who face the prospect of having Lisbon forced upon them without even the opportunity to vote in a referendum.

“Nicolas Sarkozy has come to our country to preach to us about democracy while the people of his own country were denied a vote on Lisbon. We are here today to let him, his Irish counterparts and the proponents of the Lisbon treaty know that the people will not accept a re-run of Lisbon in its current form or indeed a Lisbon treaty with a few cosmetic alterations.

“The feeling in Ireland, and across Europe, in relation to the plans of the EU bureaucrats is one of deep unease and last month’s result in the Twenty-Six Counties was just the latest manifestation of that.”

Daithí continued: “Those who drafted this Treaty, planned its implementation and argued for its acceptance clearly remain ideologically committed to it, regardless of its rejection by the people of this state. As a result, citizens across Europe must propose their own alternatives.

“This should begin with a grass-roots, Europe-wide discussion on what the people of Europe see as an acceptable alternative to the neo-liberal plans of right-wing politicians like Nicolas Sarkozy and Brian Cowen.

“Such a discussion would contain more promise and potential than all the sham summits and meetings that Cowen and Sarkozy could ever organise.”

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