Free Republic

PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators joined rallies across France on Tuesday in a fresh assault by students and striking public sector workers on a youth hire-and-fire contract. Two months of sometimes violent demonstrations took their toll on the popularity of the contract's main champion, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, whose ratings in a new poll slid 14 points in a month to 28 percent in March. Unions said the turnout should reach the three million figure seen in last week's protests, among the biggest in France's 48-year-old Fifth Republic. Police estimates were not immediately available but were...

{Snip} Over the past few years, as other western democracies have shuffled quietly along, France has by turns stunned, exasperated and bemused. This week's massive one-day protest, drawing 1m-3m people on to the streets, was no exception (see article). {Snip} But the underlying difficulty will remain: the apparent incapacity of the French to adapt to a changing world. {Snip} Yet the striking feature of the latest protest movement is that this time the rebellious forces are on the side of conservatism. Unlike the rioting youths in the banlieues, the objective of the students and public-sector trade unions is to prevent...

PARIS (AP) France's Constitutional Council upholds new law making it easier to fire young workers

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...

PARIS - Tens of thousands of protesters poured onto France's streets and striking workers hobbled transport services Tuesday, increasing pressure on embattled Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to withdraw a contested new jobs contract for youths. Cracks opened in his conservative government as public pressure mounted, with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggesting that the contract be suspended to allow talks with unions, in a clear break with Villepin. Paris and other cities deployed thousands of police to prevent a possible resurgence of violence that marred previous demonstrations against the contract, which would make it easier for companies to fire young...

FRANCE is bracing for a "black Tuesday" of strikes and demonstrations against the government's contested youth jobs contract, amid warnings of a growing risk of violence. An alliance of trade unions and student organisations has called for a fifth day of nationwide protests in its campaign against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's First Employment Contract (CPE), which makes it easier for employers to hire and fire under 26 year-olds. Public transport is expected to be badly hit across the country, with only one metro train in two operating in the capital. Airport authorities have warned passengers to expect delays and...

Cars were torched and shops burnt in central Paris last night after the seventh big protest in eight days against the government's controversial employment law ended in clashes between hooded youths and riot police. The youths, some of whom had come in from the suburbs, grouped on the pavements on the Esplanade des Invalides, one of Paris's main boulevards, and armed themselves with baseball bats, wooden sticks and metal bars. As students and sixth formers moved towards the city centre chanting protests against the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, the armed youths began to...