In his new book on globalization, The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman talks about how the growing integration of the world’s economies is overturning our conventional notions of political right and left. “Social conservatives from the right wing of the Republican party, who do not like globalization or closer integration with the world because it brings too many foreigners and foreign cultural mores into America, might align themselves with unions from the left wing of the Democratic Party, who don’t like globalization for the way it facilitates the outsourcing and offshoring of jobs,” he writes.

We can already see some evidence of this political reshuffling across the Atlantic. In France, left wingers and extreme rightists have joined together to say “Non” to the European Constitution (“joined together” is perhaps too strong a phrase given how much the two sides detest one another). The May 29 referendum is being closely watched across the continent. Polls show the No vote in the lead — with support in the low- to mid-50s, percentage-wise — and even a determined effort by French President Jacques Chirac to roll back those numbers has, so far, made little difference.

I won’t attempt a summary of the 60,000-word European Constitution (here is a rundown of the juicier details), but basically it strengthens the various institutions of the European Union, from the parliament to the presidency, and allows its member countries — representing a total of 450 million people — to speak with a more unified, potent voice on the international stage. Before its provisions will take effect, however, all 26 member countries need to ratify it. Most have chosen to do so through parliamentary votes, though ten countries, including France, are putting it to a vote of the people by next year.

France’s vote in May is the focus of so much attention because it is the first binding referendum on the constitution: If it fails here, all 26 countries must go back to the bargaining table. The European Union will still exist, but its long and steady path toward further integration will suddenly be halted, perhaps permanently. What French voters decide is also important because France is home to one of the largest populations of “euroskeptics” on the continent. On the left, opponents of the constitution are using the vote as a way to express their disgust with Chirac’s government and their outrage at certain free market policies supported by EU officials, including recent proposals to open the services market to competition from Eastern European countries with laxer regulations. On the extreme right, nationalists fear the loss of French sovereignty as well as an increase in immigration — already a topic of heated debate in France, where immigrants are blamed for high levels of unemployment and strapped public services. (At the center of this right-wing backlash is Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front, who shocked the nation with his second-place finish in the 2002 presidential elections.)

In a televised debate earlier this week, these strange bedfellows made a rare public appearance together, and soon enough unflattering comparisons were being made. Michel Barnier, Chirac’s foreign minister, remarked that the anti-constitution stance of the French communists had led them to the “same vote as Monsieur Le Pen.” Marie-George Buffet, the national secretary of the French Communist Party, loudly objected to Barnier’s “insult,” declaring that the French left was dedicated to fighting the “right and extreme right.” The only thing that all camps could agree upon was that they distrusted the United States. The communist decried the Chirac government as a “puppet of Bush;” the rightist declared that a No vote would lead to a weakened Europe vulnerable to the “influence of the United States.” And the right-wing extremist, Le Pen, declared that France itself was in danger. “If you believe in the nation and the homeland,” he said, “vote no.”

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen