Gaullists favour a 'no' vote

TWO-THIRDS of grass-roots Gaullists favour rejection of the Maastricht treaty in the French referendum next month, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.

The poll, in the weekly Paris Match, gave overall figures of 56 per cent in favour of Maastricht and 44 per cent against. The figures were similar to those of another poll in the daily Liberation two days before, and showed a progression of the 'no' vote of 1 per cent over a month ago.

The most interesting element of the new poll was the 66 per cent of supporters of the Gaullist RPR party who said they would reject ratification. Just over one-third of Gaullist MPs are in the 'no' camp but the leaders of the rejection campaign, Charles Pasqua and Philippe Seguin, claim greater support.

The pollsters said their figures were based on the 64 per cent of their sample who said they were sure to vote on 20 September. There was no figure for undecided voters.

Also surprising was the high 37 per cent of supporters of the centre-right Union for French Democracy of Valery Giscard d'Estaing who said they would vote 'no'. This showed that the rejection campaign of Philippe de Villiers, an aristocratic former minister, has significant backing.

In an analysis this week, Le Monde pointed out that the last referendum on a European issue - in 1972 on the admission to the EC of Britain, Denmark and Ireland - was approved by 68 per cent compared with a poll figure of 85 per cent a month before.