Rejection of the treaty would be greeted with "great relief" in France, a member of the French Socialist Party national executive has said.

Addressing a press conference against the treaty in Dublin yesterday, François Delapierre said the French people had been "robbed of the right to vote" on the treaty.

"It is you, the Irish people, who will be giving all the people of Europe a chance to get a better treaty if the result is No.

"For the Social Republic" (PRS – Pour la République Sociale) brings together women and men of the Left actively involved in various associations, unions, and political movements. Collectively, they use the association as a tool for education, preparation of programs, and militant activity to propose the project of a Social Republic in France, Europe, and the world. They thus contribute to creating a common left culture and to building an indispensable new unity of the Left as well as to renovating the functioning and programs of the parties that constitute the Left.