Something astounding occurred last week at France, is the way it was put in a wire to us by one of our correspondents in Gaul, Michel Gurfinkiel. It seems that President Chirac went on television to defend the European Constitution. He was on for two hours and discussed the matter with what Mr. Gurfinkiel characterizes as all kinds of young people. Yet a day later, opposition to the constitution in France soared to 56% from 53%. This has sent the various elites into a continental lather in advance of France’s referendum on the constitution, which is set for May 29. It seems the European Constitution won’t go into effect unless all 25 nations of the European Union approve the document.

According to the Associated Press, despite the gain in the “no” camp, the latest poll results, which were published in the daily Le Parisien, showed that 59% of those questioned were generally in favor of a European Constitution. But the AP said the results suggested that Monsieur Chirac had failed to provide solid arguments for the document now on the table. It said that 55% of those questioned remained unconvinced that the proposed constitution would bring social advances. During the debate, the AP said, Monsieur Chirac had warned that if France failed to approve the constitution it would, “at least for a while … stop existing politically inside this Europe.”

Normally Americans would be tempted to treat all this with indifference, if we were to treat it at all, but it seems that the approaching referendum is not unrelated to America. According to the Economist magazine, the Socialist Party in France selected the following billboard slogan: “Yes to a strong Europe facing the USA,” and the magazine quotes a deputy from Monsieur Chirac’s own party as quipping that a good yes line might be, “A no vote to Europe is a yes to Bush.” It has more than a little element of truth, owing to overlap between the factions pushing for the European Constitution and the factions opposing Mr. Bush’s strategy in the war on terror, including the liberation of Iraq.

We have the sense that, while the proposed European Constitution allows for some independence among nations in foreign affairs, the constitution up for ratification would have made it, were it already in effect, much more difficult for America to have gotten the kind of support in the current war that it has received from, say, Poland or Italy or even pre-3/11 Spain – or, for that matter, Britain. It strikes us as being in America’s interest to see the French vote “non” and for America and Britain to focus their energies on building the kind of American-Anglo condominium that was being talked of by Mrs. Thatcher after her famous speech at Bruges.

We say that well aware of the history of barbarism among the Europeans, whose lands are dotted with graveyards to those who died for the monarchies and bigotries that have gone on the march every few decades. We understand that the idea of a European union was animated partly by the hope of, finally, conquering the savage strain among the Europeans from which so many here in America barely escaped. But plowing through the nearly 200 pages of the European Constitution, one can’t help but sense that the whole enterprise has become a contraption much like the United Nations, one that is, in the end, going to be a disappointment and a cover for a new round of mischief. If the French vote “non” the bet here is that it won’t be only the French people who will sigh with relief.