Not surprisingly the Dutch have rejected the failed EU constitution by large margins and with a good turn out. 63% of the population came out and by a margin of 62-38% voted no. Given the French vote last weekend it is clear Europeans are not behind the EU constitution created by EU political elitists and sold by the EU liberal media. Even the MSM over here in the states is starting to wake up from the fantasy dream and see where the problems are:

European leaders may have to scrap the proposed EU constitution after Dutch voters rejected it by a massive margin, voicing their concern over dwindling national identity in a rapidly expanding union and their distrust of increasingly powerful bureaucrats…

…Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende conceded defeat Wednesday night and said his government would accept the will of the people.

Parliament, which has the final say on ratification because the referendum was nonbinding, meets on Thursday to debate the results.

Balkenende acknowledged the huge gap that has emerged between the politicians and the electorate.

“The idea of Europe has lived for the politicians, but not the Dutch people. That will have to change,” …

Jim Hoagland has an editorial that describes the forces that led to defeat (not all good of course) but reminds European leaders to stop focusing on trying to be a counter weight to America and focus instead on the economic issues. I wish he would have added democratically elected EU government by the people – which I still see as a big problem.

But the European project now has a good chance to go in another, more cooperative direction — if the French and German governments, which set the pace on European integration, take to heart the questions and doubts their voters have raised about Europe’s own social and economic conditions. That would mean concentrating on economic reform and liberalization at home instead of chasing more abstract and distant shadows of American power.

Their initial, instinctively political choices leave the question open. Schroeder has called snap elections for the autumn. Chirac has formed a new government that contains both realist and romantic wings. Europe’s destiny now depends on how well its leaders handle defeat.

Gotta to love this NYTimes statement in an article that is pretty fair in its treatment of the issue:

There is a sense, palpable in the Netherlands, that the whole European enterprise is controlled by unresponsive, unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels who have it in their power to rob countries of their national identities.

You think they ‘sense’ something or ‘see’ reality?