Frankfurt: November 6, 2003
Test: Day of action
On November 6 we tested our idea for the Europe-wide day of action in front of the Paulskirche in Frankfurt.
At the same time a big event with Valèry Giscard d'Estaing, Joschka Fischer, Roland Koch (Prime Minister of Hesse) and other famous politicians took place inside the Paulskirche.
The "Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe" was presented and discussed. The event was called "Europe - our Future". In 1848 - after political riots all over Germany - a convention met inside the Paulskirche. The first constitution for Germany was drafted. But an EU Constitution will be established from above. At the moment it is not clear, if the majority of the population is in favour of it.
This time the event inside the church were protected by the police. Two peaceful demonstrations against cost-cutting policy were organized on the place before the church.
In this situation we started our action. Citizens were asked to decide on the question: "Do you think there should be a referendum on the EU-constitution in Germany?" Blue ball - yes; yellow ball - no. After a short time the box was full of balls - blue balls.
We had emptied the ballot box, counted the votes and continued. Our action lasted three hours. At the beginning we hoped to get the box filled once. In fact we made three times. 100 chats per hour!
Finally more than 300 citizens took part in the action. More than 94% used the blue ball to express their will.
