Sarkozy faces Irish anger

2008-07-21 18:08

Dublin - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to face anger on the streets, and diplomatic annoyance across the table, when he travels on Monday to Ireland to sound out ways of reversing the Irish voters' rejection of the European Union reform treat.

Sarkozy emphasised beforehand he would "come to Dublin to listen and understand" why the Irish voted to reject the Lisbon Treaty and its painstakingly negotiated provisions for reshaping EU institutions and powers.

But Irish nationalists to the left and right have accused the reigning president of the European Council of having his mind made up - by declaring last week, to a meeting of his own party's lawmakers, that Ireland must vote again.

"Sarkozy, respect the Lisbon vote! No means no," read posters plastering the lampposts of Dublin calling for anti-treaty activists to protest as Sarkozy meets Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.

Cowen and his deputies publicly say Sarkozy has a right to say that Ireland must vote again - but privately fume that French comments helped fuel the 53% "no" vote June 12 and are making it tougher to stage a second referendum in 2009.

Ireland is the only EU member constitutionally required to subject treaties to a national vote, and an EU treaty cannot become law unless every member ratifies it.

Irish government officials point with particular irritation to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's highly publicised declaration, three days before the vote, that Ireland would be "the first to suffer" if it voted no. Kouchner is accompanying Sarkozy for the planned five-hour visit.

Officials in both Dublin and Paris have viewed Sarkozy's visit with nervousness ever since he declared his intention to search for a quick solution to the treaty uncertainty by travelling to the Irish capital.

Organisers backed off plans for Sarkozy to speak in public with leaders of myriad anti-treaty groups at an Irish government-organised venue for discussing EU matters, the National Forum on Europe, which is the usual venue for visiting European dignitaries and open to the media.

Several other European leaders, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, addressed the forum before the June 12 referendum.

Instead, France plans to host a miniature version of the Forum on Europe behind the closed doors of its own embassy in Dublin. Leaders of about 15 political parties and pressure groups have been invited, but many others with prominent roles in the referendum campaign are being left out.

Opposition leaders who, like the government, campaigned in vain for an Irish "yes" complained of being treated dismissively by the French.

- AP