A referendum on the Maastricht Treaty

Maastricht Treaty

The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty...

was held in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 on 20 September 1992. It was approved by just over 51% of the voters. The result of the referendum, known as the "petit oui", along with the Danish "No" vote

Danish Maastricht Treaty referendum, 1992

A referendum on the Maastricht Treaty was held in Denmark on 2 June 1992. It was rejected by 50.7% of voters with a turnout of 83.1%. The rejection was considered somewhat of a blow to the process of European integration, although the process continued...

 are considered to be signals of the end of the "permissive consensus" on European integration which had existed in most of continental Europe until then. From this point forward issues relating to European integration were subject to much greater scrutiny across much of Europe, and overt euroscepticism

Euroscepticism

Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...

 gained prominence. Only France, Ireland and Denmark held referendums on Maastricht ratification.

Opponents included the French Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

 (PCF) and far-left parties such as the Revolutionary Communist League

Revolutionary Communist League (France)

See Revolutionary Communist League for the other Ligue communiste révolutionnaire.The Revolutionary Communist League was a French democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the Fourth International...

 (LCR) or Workers' Struggle

Workers' Struggle

Lutte Ouvrière is the usual name under which the Union Communiste , a French Trotskyist political party, is known, after the name of its weekly paper. Arlette Laguiller has been its spokeswoman since 1973 and has run in each presidential election, but Robert Barcia was its founder and central...

 (LO), whom opposed what they considered as an advance of neo-liberalism, as well as Euro-sceptics such as the far-right National Front or Philippe de Villiers

Philippe de Villiers

Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers, born on 25 March 1949, is a French politician. He was the Mouvement pour la France nominee for the French presidential election of 2007. He received 2.23% of the vote, putting him in sixth place. As only the top...

. Personalities who opposed the ratification included the demographer Emmanuel Todd

Emmanuel Todd

Emmanuel Todd is a French historian, anthropologist, demographer, sociologist and political scientist at the National Institute of Demographic Studies , in Paris...

.

Results

Choice	Metropolitan France Metropolitan France Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%
For	12,957,324	50.8	13,162,992	51.0
Against	12,542,635	49.2	12,623,582	49.0
Invalid/blank votes	880,783	–	909,377	–
Total	26,380,742	100	26,695,951	100
Registered voters/turnout	37,087,104	71.1	38,305,534	69.7
Source: Nohlen & Stöver