For sixteen years ACDN (Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire) has been calling for a referendum on France’s participation in a process to abolish nuclear weapons.

Now in 2012, once again, the two run-off candidates for the Presidency of France are treating the issue with contempt. This amounts to:

- contempt for human life, for an atom-bomb explosion means "hundreds of thousands of deaths, women, children, old people incinerated in a split-second, plus hundreds of thousands dying in the following years in atrocious suffering" : it is a "crime against humanity" (as Alain Peyrefitte said to Charles de Gaulle on 4 May 1962) ;

- contempt for international law, which obliges the nuclear states that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty "to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control."

- contempt for the Constitution, which places above everything else respect for human rights, and imposes it as a duty, along with respect for treaties ;

- contempt for good sense, since it is absurd to defend France’s republican values, which include fraternity, by threatening to commit crimes against humanity; it is absurd to link France’s "vital interests" with the use of suicidal weapons against another nation that may also possess them; it is absurd to claim to guarantee our nation’s security with these arms while forbidding others to obtain them; it is absurd to want to economize while still wasting billions of euros on unusable devices of death;

- and contempt for democracy and the people, since both candidates are imposing their viewpoints without having debated them in the campaign. They are refusing to ask the French people: « Are you in favour of France participating with the other states concerned in the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, under a system of mutual and international monitoring that is strict and effective ? » And all despite the known fact that today, according to convergent polls, at least 80% of French citizens would reply Yes.

In answer to this question and request, which was submitted to candidates since November 2011 by ACDN and several other NGOs, and submitted this week by over 4000 people by internet...

- François Hollande has never replied;

- and Nicolas Sarkozy has given out the reply that "there is no question of rethinking our deterrence policy" (12 April 2012)... "or of organizing a referendum on this matter" because... "it is too important" (sic) (4 May 2012).

Both candidates are mocking humanity, law and democracy, wittingly. For these reasons, ACDN urged voters in 2007 "not under any circumstances to vote for Nicolas Sarkozy", and then before the 2012 first round to vote only for one of the three candidates who had said Yes to the question and the request for a referendum.

For this weekend’s 2nd round, ACDN calls on voters to protest by "indignation voting":
  either (a) by depositing a voting slip marked "Non à la Bombe" or (if they also oppose nuclear power generation, as ACDN does) so "No to nuclear weapons and nuclear power-plants" - or (b) After voting for their preferred candidate, by writing the following day to the Presidency Office to express their indignation and to demand on a referendum on the above question.

ACDN asks to be received as soon as possible by whichever candidate becomes President, and gives formal advance warning of a hunger strike to begin on 15 May 2012.