In what has to be a pyrrhic victory for the Irish Government and for Europe, Ireland has voted to accept the Lisbon Treaty. The overall result was a massive yes but one county Donegal voted against it.
Fear seems to have been a major factor in the resounding vote in favour of the treaty, fear generated by the economic crisis of the past year, and fear for the future. Now that the vote has taken place however one must accept the result, and that this is now the choice of the Irish people irrespective of the undemocratic way the first vote was not respected, either by the Irish Government or by Europe.
Sadly our Government were not strong enough to accept the first verdict given by the Irish people in voting NO and gave in to European demands to ‘do it all over again and make sure you get the right answer this time’. European democracy has suffered a significant setback and the will of the Irish electorate has been disgracefully manipulated.
This unacceptable Treaty which, together with its Charter of Fundamental Rights, started life as a new constitution for Europe, instead of being consigned to the pages of History following rejection, first by France and Holland and subsequently by the first Irish rejection, has risen once again like the phoenix from its own ashes and Europe is now one step closer to becoming a superstate.
The ratification of the treaty however is still not assured, the Czech Republic also held out and while the Czech government want it ratified President Klaus refuses to sign it. (Sunday Business Post article) Klaus was initially waiting for the Irish verdict, however a group of Czech senators have recently taken a legal challenge against ratification of the treaty and President Klaus now says that he cannot sign until the constitutional court makes its decision. Meanwhile UK Conservative leader David Cameron has promised UK voters a referendum on the treaty, if his party win the general election next year and if Lisbon has not been ratified by that time. It is expected that the result of a UK referendum would be a massive rejection of the treaty.
