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The dreams of the irrational? - The Spanish vote
The dream of reason sees monsters
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Not very convincing
Strategic analysts meeting at SEEL this weekend observed that the outcome of the Spanish referendum on the EU Constitution was that less than 33% of the electorate voted in favour. Those who voted in favour were probably the most motivated and enthusiastic. But in terms of the legitimate participatory support, the EU Constitution failed to gain a majority with over 66% of the electorate either voting against or having abstained. This result is highly significant because Spain is a country which is considered to be enthusiastic about the European Constitution.
Policy as selling dreams to the irrational?
This failure is put down to a combination of inappropriate selling and, above all, the extreme difficulty of explaining such a massive and complicated document to the electorate. This remains the predicament facing the pro-Constitutionalists. Some of the Spanish political elite let reality break through when they stated that it was not necessary to understand the Constitution to vote in its favour. Such arrogance and disrespect for the electorate seems to mirror the thought processes of the Brussels elite. It is as if the electorate does not matter. Selling policies is the business of selling dreams to the irrational. That son of Spain, Francisco Goya, might have made much of this in line with his observation that the dream of reason sees monsters; it is only for the ignorant that everything is OK.
A poorly conceived and prepared project
Those trying to sell the Constitution cannot hope to fool all of the people all of the time. But this uphill struggle was of the EU Constitutionalists' own making. To sell a Constitution in a referendum it is necessaty for people to be able to understand what they are voting for. Therefore the constitution should be about basic rational principles upon which everyone can agree. This the Convention, which drafted the Constitution, failed to deliver, largely because of the mind sets of those controlling the process. They also failed to respond to their brief to produce something which brought Europe closer to the people.
Probability of failure high
Irrespective of all the Hooplah which will follow this vote, strategists and constitutionalists feel that this result was not good enough to place any confidence in the Constitution surviving in other referenda where the populations are both better informed and more inclined to be against accepting such an obscure tome.
20th February,2005
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