French voters on Sunday massively rejected the first-ever EU constitution in a historic referendum that deals a devastating blow to Europe's grand integration project, according to exit polls giving the "no" camp about 55 percent. The vote was also a political slap in the face to President Jacques Chirac, who had staked his prestige on the campaign for the treaty.
The CSA polling institute said the "no" camp had won an estimated 55.6 percent of the vote, the Ipsos institute put the figure at 55 percent, while Sofres said 54.5 percent had voted "no".
The "no" win had been predicted in pre-ballot surveys, but the huge margin of the victory deepened a sense of crisis across the 25-member EU. All EU member states must ratify the constitution for it to become effective.
Ignoring pleas from Chirac that rejection would make France the "black sheep" of the EU, the public was swayed by fears that the treaty would destroy the country's welfare system, leach new powers to Brussels, and shift jobs to low-cost economies of eastern Europe. The disparate "no" camp included the far-right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the Communist and Trotskyist parties, nationalist Euroskeptics and Socialist dissidents.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said: "This is an ordeal, a real disappointment."
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