Germany's Bundesrat upper house of parliament overwhelmingly approved the new European Union constitution today in a vote timed to encourage wavering French voters to do the same in a referendum on Sunday.
Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the charter, was in the chamber to witness the vote and made a last minute appeal to French voters to back the constitution.
"Germany is preparing to ratify the new European Constitution. That is an historic event," he said in a speech to the Bundesrat that underlined the importance that the political classes of both France and Germany attach to the charter.
"The day after tomorrow, I hope with all my heart, the French will in their turn ratify the constitution in a referendum."
The Bundesrat vote, which made Germany the ninth country to back the charter, was a formality given the support for the constitution from the main political parties.
But today, conservative member of parliament Peter Gauweiler, one of a small group of German opponents of the charter, said he had filed a legal challenge which could hold up formal ratification by the German president.
The timing of the Bundesrat vote was deliberately chosen to encourage the supporters of the charter in France.
But recent polls suggest it will not be enough to win over French sceptics who fear the charter will entrench an "ultra liberal" economic model which puts market interests ahead of social concerns.
President Jacques Chirac made a dramatic last-ditch appeal yesterday for French voters to ratify the European Union's first constitution, saying their choice is "about your future and that of your children."
Mr Chirac warned of dire consequences if Sunday's referendum produces a French "no" to the treaty - planned as the next big step in a 50-year process of European integration.
"It would open a period of divisions, of doubts, of uncertainties," he warned in a televised address from the presidential Elysee Palace, his last of a tumultuous campaign.
"What a responsibility if France, a founder nation of Europe, took the risk of breaking the union of our continent."
Mr Chirac did not address mounting speculation that he will fire his unpopular prime minister if France rejects the landmark treaty.
But he urged the French not to turn the plebiscite into a vote of sanction against his administration. "We must not mistake the question," said Mr Chirac.
AP