Posted on 03/28/2006 7:54:52 AM PST by quantim
PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of French transport workers, teachers and other employees staged a one-day national strike or marched through the streets on Tuesday to try to force the government to abandon a new youth job law.
The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors until the evening, commuters faced delays on trains and Paris underground rail services and airports were hit by stoppages in protest against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's CPE First Job Contract.
Villepin, 52, stood firm over the plan but the strong turnout increased pressure on him to amend or withdraw the measure and calls for his resignation are growing.
"We're demanding the complete withdrawal of the CPE. You can't treat people like slaves. Giving all the power to the bosses is going too far," said Gregoire de Oliviera, a 21-year-old student in Paris.
Villepin hopes the CPE will reduce youth unemployment from almost 23 percent, but union and student leaders say it will create a generation of "throwaway workers" because it makes it easier to dismiss employees under 26 in a trial two-year period.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Paris and organisers said 250,000 people took to the streets in Marseille, where banners read "We will not give up" and protesters daubed "Anti-CPE" on their faces.
In Grenoble, in the east, up to 60,000 people protested and 40,000 people protested in Pau in the southwest, unions said.
There were reports of isolated skirmishes but not on the same scale as violence that marred protests last week.
Villepin, a potential candidate in next year's presidential election, faces his biggest challenge since becoming prime minister last May.
Business leaders fear France's image will be damaged if protests continue and that investment and tourism could suffer, particularly because the crisis has erupted so soon after rioting by angry youths in French city suburbs late last year.
VILLEPIN APPEALS TO UNIONS
Unions refused to meet Villepin for talks on Wednesday but he renewed the invitation, telling parliament he was ready to compromise on two points -- the length of the trial period and the terms for giving notice.
"Useful time remains, let's use it for dialogue. But there is one thing that I will not accept ... that is to remain with my arms folded given youth unemployment about which you have never spoken before," he told jeering opposition deputies.
Villepin, a former foreign minister, also faces pressure from inside the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) headed by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a likely rival for the 2007 presidential race.
The UMP parliamentary group on Tuesday backed Sarkozy's proposal that the government not rush to enforce the law and so leave the door open for further negotiations.
President Jacques Chirac, who has backed Villepin during the crisis, cancelled a trip to northern France planned for Thursday because of the situation, sources close to the president said.
Opinion polls show almost two-thirds of French people oppose the CPE. Even so, commuters were frustrated by the strike which caused delays on many rail lines.
"Why do you have to make all French suffer," French traveller Patricia said at Charles de Gaulle airport, where several flights were cancelled. "Fine that you're against the CPE. But why block the whole country, rather than talk?"
Mass street demonstrations are closely watched in France after protests over pensions reforms in 1995 which were widely credited with losing the conservatives the snap election called two years later -- in part on Villepin's advice.
Fears of a broader revolt have been fuelled by the incidents in Paris last week including looting, clashes with riot police and the mugging of student demonstrators by hardcore elements.
I hear ya... justice is sweet.
This is what happens when you let protestors determine policy. This is what is happening all over our country today. Students (lead by some teachers, I might add)are walking out of classes and disrupting traffic with no consequences. It's "mob rule" now. Even McCain admitted that the protestors helped Senators to make up their mind about the immigration bill.
Off topic:
Freeper jveritas, who was interviewed by the NYT and The Boston Globe for his work translating the Saddam documents, has a web site now with the help of someone.
http://iraqdocs.blogspot.com/
Thanks for posting the pics!
Remember the Marple Rule:
The irrelevance of the demonstration is inversely proportional to the number of giant puppets involved.
LOL. Somebody had to say it.
I just noticed that Reuter's put de Villepin's age in the article. I have no sympathy for anyone who is 52 years old, a liberal, with tendencies toward Communism, and above all, stupid.
Marseille, I mean.
That definitely qualifies for a wine ping!
Click to be +/- on this low volume wine ping list.
French rioters wine news ping.
Aha, thank you for cluing me into the code! (I knew it was code, but I was afraid to assume....) ;)
susie
Home, safe and sound I hope.
Absolument!
I am very scornful of most French politicians (Sarkozy, the obvious exception) but, truth be told, they are in a completely impossible position. Villepin is going to lose this fight and severely damage, if not end, his political career by trying to do the right thing. (Couldn't happen to a nicer chap /sarcasm)
And given the propensity of the French to take their politics to the streets, the country will never change without passing through a period of severe upheaval. They are not on version five for no reason at all.
(This may be a preview of what is to come in the U.S. when, finally, the promises of big government can not be kept.)
It could be the new progressive tactic..
Cause one thing is certain it IS(they are) the progressives..
Muzzies, Mexicans, Progressives are they different?..
Maybe not.. It could take YEARS for republicans to connect the dots..
If EVER...
Fantastic! Thank you very much for the link!
He needs to toss that over here and not waste it. I've only got a couple of bottles left.
OK!
susie
I am probably one of the few who know just how DELIGHTED you are to see burning puppets!
I am just dying laughing here!
How many of these French protestors are illegal immigrants?
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