EUROVISION SONG CONTEST - DUTCH TO VOTE 'NO' AFTER EUROVISION SNUB

The people of the Netherlands are so incensed by their entrant's ejection from the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, they will reject the proposed new European constitution in protest.

GLENNIS GRACE failed to make it to the final of the prestigious competition on Saturday (21MAY05) after being knocked out at the semi final stage in the Ukraine last week (ends20MAY05).

A coalition of Eastern European states voted for each other, squeezing Grace out of the contest and infuriating the Dutch public.

They go to the polls on 1 June (05) for a referendum on the constitution. France and the UK were the two nations deemed most likely to oppose it.

But the Netherlands will now also vote "no", according to national press reports, by a public angered by the Eurovision snub - and fearful of what say their people would have in a united Europe.

National newspaper DE TELEGRAF reported, "The elimination of the Netherlands shows again who will have the largest say in Europe in the future."

MAURICE DE HOND, a leading Dutch pollster, discovered 71 per cent of the public "think that the face that substantially more Eastern European than Western European countries have reached the final of Eurovision is an example of how the power within the EU has shifted to the East."