“
Why did this country, so attached to its national identity, and which was for so long attracted by the open sea, wish so stubbornly to join an organization that it wanted to ignore at first and that he then fought?
asks
Le Figaro
on January 22, 1972 about the United Kingdom. That day, with three other countries, Ireland, Denmark and Norway, the British signed a treaty of accession to the European Economic Community (EEC), ancestor of the European Union, then made up of six countries. But the formation of the Europe of ten must still follow different processes depending on the States, including three referendums. Only the Norwegians will fail. The Europe of the Nine will officially come into being on January 1, 1973.
Read alsoPeriscope N° 67: Macron's Europe
The Lords say yes to Europe
A year earlier, the English motivation questioned the
Figaro
journalist
Roger Massip: "
It was tempting to answer this question by attributing to the British government the intention of torpedoing the Common Market by entering it, after having tried in vain to disorganize it from the outside.
A way of avenging the two vetoes opposed by General de Gaulle in 1963 and 1967 to the entry of the English into the EEC, founded in 1957 during the signing of the Treaty of Rome by Germany, France, Italy , the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. To tell the truth, the opinion is divided between indifference and enthusiasm in the country. The industrialists, the establishment, the City vote for, like the farmers who put all their hopes in the common agricultural policy. Hostility persists in trade union circles:
Traumatized by the government's harsh wage policy, by the deterioration of strikes, by rising unemployment, trade unions fear competition from continental industries and worry about the prospect of a confrontation with a kind of neo-capitalism. aggressive.
The British government led by Conservative Edward Heath does not consult its citizens directly.
The House of Lords approves on September 20 the treaty of accession of the United Kingdom to the EEC.
Plebiscite in Ireland, disappointment in Norway
In Ireland, the treaty is largely adopted by referendum on May 10 by 83% of the votes. The yes is defended by the majority party, Fianna Fail, and the main opposition party, Fine Gael. Part of Labor and trade unions oppose it, worried that Irish workers will become "
the lumpenproletariat of displaced people who will sweep the streets of Paris
" or "
float through the sewers of Bonn, Munich and Hamburg
".
The disappointment will come from Norway which, on September 26, by the vote of 54% of voters, will finally refuse to join the European Community.
A choice led by farmers and fishermen worried about the common fisheries policy but also by a strong nationalist feeling agitated by young students in a country that has been independent since 1905 only.
A repeated refusal in 1994 during a second consultation.
Concern among Danish feminists
A few days later, on October 2, the Danes were in turn called to the polls and approved the treaty.
Prime Minister Otto Krag wants the country to become “
the Nordic bridgehead towards European cooperation
”.
Resistance, however, was heard among the inhabitants of the small progressive kingdom "
protected by the gods
".
“
To be or not to be European
”, laughs
Le Figaro
in a major survey published a few months earlier.
And the reporter for the newspaper Huguette Debaisieux to report the concerns, in "
this society without taboos and without obstacles
", of feminists.
They are afraid to see rubbing off in their country "
the backward spirit of Italian, German or French men vis-à-vis the liberation of the feminine condition
”.
But economically, the Danes believe that they have everything to gain from it, like these farmers met by the journalist in their farmhouse furnished in designer style with carpeting and a well-filled freezer where Madame goes to political meetings while Monsieur watches the children.
To be or not to be European, wonder the Danes in Le Figaro of April 1, 1972. Le Figaro
Birth of the Europe of the Nine
January 1, 1973 saw the birth of the Europe of Nine, but the event remained the great leap made by the United Kingdom and hailed on the airwaves of the BBC as a "
historic moment
" by Prime Minister Edward Heath. “
Europe here we come!
proclaims the
Daily Mail
in this early morning while the day before, Labor Harold Wilson expressed his opposition. The
Sunday Express
, a nationalist newspaper, warns: if the future is not as 'bright
and happy
' as promised by politicians, '
we must not forget that what one parliament has done another can undo.
".
In June 1975, the Labor government will organize a referendum which will see the victory of a massive yes to the maintenance of the kingdom in Europe.