year high of 10 percent and widespread resistance to the government's economic reforms, the momentum appears to be with the nationalists, communists and anti-globalisation activists opposed to the treaty. And the scandal over the finance minister's luxury state-paid apartment in a chic Paris district -- an uproar that cost Herve Gaymard his job on Friday -- has only fuelled the sense of unease in the 'Yes' campaign. A poll in Sunday's Le Journal du Dimanche showed 66 percent of voters were shocked by revelations the government was paying 14,000 euros a month to keep Gaymard, his wife and their eight children in a split-level apartment in a chic Paris district. Even though Gaymard was replaced by France Telecom chief Thierry Breton, analysts expect the scandal to take its toll, the EU referendum giving voters the perfect opportunity to punish an already deeply unpopular government. "Even if the affair doesn't have immediate repercussions, it has deeply affected public opinion and has been written into the hard disk of the collective memory," editorialist Jean-Claude Maurice wrote in the Journal du Dimanche. --More 1818 Local Time 1518 GMT
