There’s been quite a bit of commentary in the blogosphere about the rejection of the EU constitution by the French and, now, the Dutch. Much of the commentary has concentrated on schadenfreude—particularly pleasure at the discomfiture of M. Chirac. There’s been little commentary on Latvia’s approval of the EU constitution.
I may be making too much of this but tiny Latvia with a nearly 8% real GDP growth rate is on the make and the Latvians may see closer union with the developed economies of Western Europe as being distinctly to their advantage. Contrariwise, the people in the developed economies like France and the Netherlands (with real GDP growth rates of around 2%) see closer union with the rapidly growing economies of Eastern Europe as being to their disadvantage. Where you sit is where you stand or, as Tip O’Neill put it, all politics is local.
But elites in all countries vote for approval of the EU constitution.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. More than sixty years ago in his fabulous film La Grande illusion, Jean Renoir, told us that the elites of different countries have more in common with each other than they do with their countrymen. Internationalist elites and nationalist ordinary people.
By the way for my commentary on the results of the referenda I rely on my friends Marc Schulman of American Future and Robin Burk of Winds of Change, the English language version of Ulrick Speck’s Kosmoblog, and A Fistful of Euros.
