Holy Europe2005

Another short B piece in NLR. This one is about the 2005 French European Constitution referendum. The question was: Do you approve the bill authorising the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe? Results were as follows: Yes (12,808,270 votes = 45.33%), No (15,449,508 votes = 54.67%), and Invalid/Blank (730,522 votes = 2.52%), with a turnout of 41,789,202 voters representing 69.37% of the registered population.

It is argued this referendum was a trompe-l'œil, as there is a No beyond the No and beyond political reason, a No of resistance. It is not a No to Europe, but a No to the Yes. The Yes refers to itself as a sign of legitimacy, a simulacrum of consent, we are to ratify what has already been decided. There is an arrogance of victory presupposed ex-ante. We are saying Yes to Yes.

Voters are not saying No to the neoliberal order, but to the order of consent. Europositivity is tested, and rejection emerges as a form of self-defense. No is pure challenge of hegemony and does not come from a place of critical thinking or political theory. The principle of representation is broken down, the causality is reversed, from the top to the bottom.

I would say I agree with B in the diagnosis of the victories decided ex-ante (rigged games), but I do not know if I think the conception for the No is generalizable. For one, many other simulated games with predetermined outcomes are not as heavily rejected in the simulacral economy. And even in this occasion there is a 50/50 split in the vote, and it cannot be that all the rejection comes from the instinct of resistance.