26/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen MEP, President of the Party of European Socialists (PES), says he is 'unimpressed by the Mozart jolly', the Austrian Presidency's 'Sound of Europe' in Salzburg (see EUROPE 9116). Rasmussen commented: 'The sound of Europe should be the voices of its citizens. It was ordinary citizens who voted no to the constitution, and it is ordinary citizens that Europe should be listening to, not gala Mozart concerns or intellectuals exploring the identity of Europe. The former Danish prime minister said that on the same day as the Sound of Europe, 27 January 2005, the PES is kicking off a 'people's dialogue on the future policies of Europe' with a public meeting in Dublin, to be attended by Irish Labour leaders Pat Rabitte (leader of the Irish Labour Party) and Ruairi Quinn (Irish Labour Party spokesperson on European affairs). The press release quotes Alfred Gusenbauer, leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPO), on the Sound of Music event, criticising it for being 'elitist' and 'absurd theatre'.