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Irish EU 'no' camp already bracing for second poll
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Irish EU 'no' camp already bracing for second poll
AFP - Thursday, December 11
DUBLIN (AFP) - - Irish opponents of the EU's Lisbon Treaty who scored a stunning No vote in a June referendum are already girding their loins for a second poll, which could be announced at an EU summit this week.
Prime Minister Brian Cowen has pledged to tell his EU counterparts what he plans to do at an EU summit starting in Brussels Thursday, with growing reports that he could call a new ballot late next year.
"It's almost Mugabe-esque," said Declan Ganley, who led opposition to the European Union's reform plans, comparing holding a new referendum to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's attitude to democratic elections.
Organising a second vote in Ireland would show "absolute contempt" for the 53 percent of Irish voters who rejected the treaty on June 12, he said.
And the millionaire businessman is taking his fight to the heart of the EU: on Thursday he plans to launch his new European party in Brussels, even as EU leaders gather to discuss the Irish poll dilemma.
The new political force will take its name from Libertas, the group which spearheaded the No vote in Ireland six months ago, plunging the 27-nation bloc into a new period of institutional limbo.
Libertas is a "new European political movement dedicated to campaigning for greater democracy, accountability and transparency within the EU," says the launch manifesto of his new party.
Ganley says he has already established political bases in at least seven EU countries, which would allow him to claim subsidies from Brussels as a "European" party.
The party will present candidates in European Parliament elections next June in the Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Poland and Ireland, he says.
The European polls would allow Libertas to sharpen its political profile ahead of a second Irish referendum which they believe will be called by the Irish government next autumn.
Cowen is believed to be trying to secure a series of guarantees from his EU counterparts, to allay Irish concerns notably on abortion, tax, its military neutrality and its right to nominate an EU commissioner in Brussels.
Ganley believes Irish voters would not be swayed by such commitments.
"I am absolutely confident that Lisbon would not win the support of a majority of the Irish people," he said, calling a treaty with added guarantees a "Frankenstein's version of Lisbon."
The evidence is less clear-cut: according to a poll in mid-November, 43 percent of Irish voters would back the Lisbon Treaty complemented with guarantees on its key areas of concern, and 39 percent would vote No.
But Ganley even sees that survey as a victory. "Even with significant tinkering, it would not win anything close to majority support from the Irish electorate," he said.
"Previous experience has shown that these polls often underestimate the No vote, and I would remind people that the last published poll before the referendum in June showed the Yes campaign with a slightly larger lead than this."
The nationalist Sinn Fein, the only major party against the EU treaty, also argues that calling a new poll would be a disaster for Cowen -- whose ratings have plummeted as the former Celtic Tiger country heads deeper into recession.
Only a new treaty altogether would allay the concern of those who voted No in June, said the party's European campaign leader Mary Lou McDonald, herself an EU lawmaker.
She dismissed the suggestion that a series of declarations signed by Cowen with his EU partners would be enough to meet Irish demands.
"The electorate's concerns over neutrality, workers' rights, public services, democracy and Ireland's loss of influence in the EU, these issues must be addressed in any new Treaty.
"Obtaining declarations is not an adequate measure and will not secure the necessary protections," she said.
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Activists display a banner in the colours of the Irish flag to urge EU leaders too stop the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008 in Brussels. Irish opponents of the EU's Lisbon Treaty who scored a stunning No vote in a June referendum are already girding their loins for a second poll, which could be announced at an EU summit this week.
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