Ireland-French President
French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced accusation of interfering in the internal affairs of Ireland during a controversial visit to Dublin Monday.

Outside government buildings, the Campaign Against the
European Constitution (CAEC) was protesting against Sarkozy's call for a second referendum to overturn Ireland's vote last month to reject the new reform treaty signed by EU leaders in Lisbon last December.

Ministers should tell the French president that "no means no," said CAEC, set up in 2005 to oppose original plans for an EU constitution before it was rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands.

Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU presidency, provoked controversy when calling for other member countries to proceed with the Lisbon Treaty, even though it need to be ratified by all 27 EU states before it can be implemented.

According to the Irish Independent newspaper, Prime Minister Brian Cowen was due to "bluntly tell Nicolas Sarkozy to stop interfering in Irish politics by pressing the Government to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty."
"Cowen will warn the French president he is 'swelling the ranks' of the 'No' campaign every time he intervenes," the daily quoted officials saying.

Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the only major party to have opposed the treaty, also called on the Irish premier to make it clear that there will be "no re-run of the Lisbon Treaty." "Cowen needs to set out in clear and unambiguous terms the need for a new treaty," Adams said. Other parties were said to be in disarray over Sarkozy's visit.

When announcing his visit, Sarkozy said that he would to visit Dublin to hear the Irish government's perspective on the Lisbon vote and to meet others involved in the debate.

CAEC has argued that it wants a foreign policy that "seeks to resolve conflicts without military action or support for despotic regimes."
"We do not want more decisions affecting our lives to be made in a way over which we have little or no control, by people who are unaccountable, and enshrined in laws we cannot revise," it said.

Ireland's Foreign Minister Michael Martin has so far refused to rule out holding a second referendum, but it is believed that the issue remains too sensitive, sending echoes of a re-run of events back in 2001.

Last time, the EU rescued the previous Nice Treaty, by giving Ireland guarantees about its traditional neutrality that led to a successful second referendum a year after it was rejected by the Irish people.