NO CAMPAIGNERS

THE VISIT by French president Nicolas Sarkozy was a "sham" because of his failure to debate the Lisbon Treaty in an open forum and the exclusion of several No campaigners from the French embassy meeting, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins said.

Mr Higgins was speaking at a meeting of the anti-Lisbon alliance, the Campaign Against the EU Constitution, held in the offices of trade union Unite in Dublin yesterday before Mr Sarkozy arrived in Ireland.

Unite and other high-profile No campaigners such as the Socialist Party had been excluded from the meeting because the Government did not want to reveal that workers had been against the treaty, Mr Higgins said.

"It is quite clear that the Office of the Taoiseach is dictating what happens this afternoon. The fact that trade unions who opposed the treaty, the Socialist Party and myself have been deliberately excluded doesn't give me any cause for confidence in the meaningfulness of this meeting."

If Mr Sarkozy's visit was to have had any credibility an open debate should have been held, such as in the Forum on Europe during the visit of German chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Higgins said.

Mr Higgins said that he would have attended the French embassy had he been invited. Former Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna, who was invited to the embassy, said she had been in two minds whether to attend. "It's a poisoned chalice because in going there you're giving it the credibility it doesn't deserve."

However, she said she decided to go as a mark of respect to the French people who voted no to the EU constitution.

"The second reason is because people like myself have to go there and do the job of Brian Cowen, which he should have done in the beginning."

Brendan Ogle of Unite said he would have "loved" an invitation to the embassy to tell Mr Sarkozy why the Irish people voted no, but he said there was no need for Mr Sarkozy to come to Ireland.

"He should reflect upon the history of his own county, reflect on what happened when the French elites became divorced from their own people . . . We don't need a modern-day Marie Antoinette coming here to lecture us."

The Campaign Against the EU Constitution, which represents 15 anti-treaty groups, held a small protest outside Government Buildings in Merrion Square.