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Sarkozy Must Respect the Result

24/06/08

éirígí’s Daithí Mac an Mháistír has called on people in the Twenty-Six Counties to use the opportunity of French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Ireland to make a clear statement in defence of democracy.

Sarkozy, who has been rattled by the recent rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, is due to arrive in the Twenty-Six Counties next month, after France assumes presidency of the EU.

The French leader, along with his German counterpart Angela Merkel, has been placing pressure on Fianna Fáil leader Brian Cowen to ignore the result of the Twenty-Six County referendum and run it again next year. Last week, Sarkozy derisively referred to the June 13 election result as the “Irish incident”.

Mac an Mháistír said: “At Friday’s EU summit, Sarkozy tried to place pressure on the Twenty-Six County electorate by claiming that other states cannot enter the EU without the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. This assertion has since been rubbished by other heads of state and is also beside the point.

“The Lisbon Treaty has been democratically rejected and the ratification process must come to a halt. This is what happened when the Treaty’s content, under the heading of the EU Constitution, was rejected by the people of France and Holland and it must happen again.

“Brian Cowen’s performance at Friday’s crisis summit was, quite simply, a disgrace. Instead of reflecting the will of his electorate and standing by their decision to bin the Treaty, he instead decided to reflect the grave displeasure with which the EU elite received our referendum result.

“If Brian Cowen wants to be a mouth piece for these empire-builders he should officially take that title and stop purporting to represent the people of Ireland.”

Referring to the possibility of a referendum rerun, Daithí continued: “Despite dire warnings from the political establishment, voters in the Twenty-Six Counties were not bullied into voting for the Treaty in the first instance. They certainly will not be bullied into voting for a rehashed third-hand treaty with a few protocols attached.

“It is the responsibility of Brian Cowen to defend the rights of Irish citizens. According to him we need a period of reflection to assess why the Twenty-Six Counties rejected the Treaty. Let us take this opportunity to outline exactly what people rejected:

• They rejected an increasingly militarised European Union
• They rejected a cruel and inhuman neo-liberal economic model that places the interests of the market above the rights of working people
• They rejected the increasingly undemocratic nature of the EU, with sovereign powers being ceded by member states to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

“They spoke for the millions of European citizens denied the right to vote on this Treaty. They upheld the vote of the people of France and Holland who voted to reject the EU Constitution.

“We do not need a period of reflection. We need the rights of the people of Europe to be defended and upheld. We are now witnessing attempts by the EU elite to place considerable pressure on the electorate in the Twenty-Six Counties to change their mind. This is contemptuous and should be rejected out of hand. We are currently being offered a glimpse of how smaller European states will be treated in the ‘new’ European Union.

“People are consistently told that the EU values democracy, yet the EU is again attempting to change the rules because it did not get the ‘right’ answer.

“We are told that the EU is not attempting to become an empire. That it has purely positive intentions towards the people it seeks to rule. Yet, like all empires, it is treating the people as subjects.

“Empires believe that people do not know what is good for them. Empires do not accept the will of the people. The Irish people are well used to the tyranny of empire. The British Empire consistently refused to recognise the democratic will of the Irish people. The Irish people did not bend the knee then, and will certainly not allow themselves be bullied by EU bureaucrats.”

Daithi concluded: “The fact of the matter is the Lisbon Treaty is dead. The ratification process should cease and the people of Europe given an opportunity to discuss and outline their vision of a new democracy across the continent.

“The elites have failed to convince the people of the merits of a federalised, militarised neo-liberal EU.

“When he visits Ireland, Nicolas Sarkozy will be left in no doubt as to the thoughts of the Irish people – No means No. It is time now for the people of Europe to come together and construct a society firmly based on the principles of democracy, co-operation and equality.

“For its part, éirígí looks forward to working with its colleagues in the Campaign Against the European Constitution (CAEUC) to help map a way forward.”

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