Press laments Chirac's EU plea

Most French newspapers give President Jacques Chirac poor marks for his performance in Thursday's live TV debate aimed at producing a Yes vote in the EU constitution referendum.

"Faced with an audience in which the No camp seemed to be in the majority, the head of state often struggled to get his pro-European case across, throughout a programme which was often confused," says the leading conservative daily Le Figaro.

Le Parisien is even less impressed, calling it a "complicated, chaotic and - all things considered - a very disappointing broadcast."

The president and others still have a lot of work to do, La Voix du Nord

The mass-circulation regional daily Ouest-France acknowledges that the president had a difficult task.

"It was not easy for Jacques Chirac to appear as the man of providence, capable of rescuing a Yes vote which is in distress. It was very difficult to get the tone right, to avoid both demagoguery and preaching... one cannot be certain that he succeeded," it says.

Northern France's regional daily La Voix du Nord notes that the young people who made up the bulk of the audience "were very vocal in expressing their doubts and fears, going as far as to contradict the president and, in some cases, say that he had not convinced them."

"Judging by this 'representative sample' of young French people, the president and others still have a lot of work to do," it concludes.

Blurred politics

The left-wing daily Liberation sees irony in the fact that the centre-right Mr Chirac used the "spectre" of US-style economic ultra-liberalism to try to convince left-wing voters to support the constitution.

He explained again that one can be on the left or against Chirac but still vote in favour of the text Liberation

The French president stressed that the constitution sets a goal of full employment, and he told his audience that he opposed an "Anglo-Saxon, Atlanticist Europe".

The president "strongly promoted a 'humanist and organised' economic model which the Constitution can guarantee, according to him," the paper says.

"Like in the second round of the presidential election in 2002, he actually explained again that one can be on the left or against Chirac but still vote in favour of the text," it says.

"He did all this," it adds, "with the nerve required by a man who realises the strong desire of many French people to tell him 'no' personally through a 'no' vote."

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