The repercussions of France's rejection of Europe's constitutional treaty are still reverberating around the country, and the rest of the continent. This rib-crunching political jolt, stalling France's 50-year drive towards greater European integration, has come as a severe setback to the country's political, business and media leadership, who supported the treaty. The electoral insurrection also came as a shock to most of France's European partners, who had long viewed France as the European Union's "indispensable nation". In the view of Dominique Moisi, one of France's leading political commentators, future historians are likely to look back on May 29 as the day on which Europe abandoned its ambitions to be a global power, marking a decisive shift in gravity towards Asia, which will dominate the 21st century.

But why did more than 15 million French voters reject a constitutional treaty, the hard-won fruit of painful consensus, that they had themselves been clamouring for, that enshrined so many of their social and political values and reflected their desires to give Europe a stronger political and foreign policy dimension? Was it out of principle, pique or simple bloody- mindedness?