*Insert French Socialist Stereotype joke here*
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/14/in...nd-france.html
March 14, 2006
French Students by the Thousands Protest New Labor Law
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
PARIS, March 14 — Tens of thousands of students marched through Paris and other French cities today, stepping up their opposition to a new law that makes it easier to hire — and fire — young workers.
In Paris, university and high school students, joined by teachers, workers, union members and Communist Party members, marched across town stopping traffic as they chanted slogans like "We're not cannon fodder" and "We're not young flesh for the boss." At one location near the Sorbonne, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, police clashed with small groups of protesters, dispersing them with tear gas.
More than half of France's 84 public universities remained either completely or partially closed today because of student blockades, according to the Ministry of National Education.
The Sorbonne remained closed three days after riot police used tear-gas to evacuate about 300 students. University authorities said the occupation had caused damages of between $600,000 and $1.2 million.
The protests are driven by two factors: domestic politics and the fear of change among France's middle and working class. This is not about promoting grand revolutionary ideals.
Designed by the government to help ease the crisis of high unemployment, particularly among disadvantaged young people in the suburbs, the law is seen by its opponents as a step towards eroding employment rights and benefits.
Opposition to the "first job contract" law, whose goal is to encourage firms to hire young people with little or no job experience, has confronted Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin with one of the most serious crises in his 10 months in office.
Under France's political system, Mr. de Villepin is the head of government and answerable to Parliament. President Jacques Chirac, the head of state, is responsible for the country's defense and foreign policy and, whenever possible, tries to distance himself from domestic troubles. But he is expected to intervene when things get out of hand.
During a visit to Berlintoday, Mr. Chirac made his first public comments on the protests, telling reporters, "It goes without saying that I totally and unreservedly support the activities conducted by the prime minister and the French government."
Mr. de Villepin, whose approval rating has fallen to a record low of 36 percent in recent weeks, has become the target of opponents of the law. Even some members of his own U.M.P. party have called on him to drop the hiring project.
He is widely expected to seek the presidency next year, but his candidacy could be crippled if the protests spin out of control and force the government to back down.
The students have the full support of both the parties of the left and the country's powerful unions, which charge that the law is unjust because it allows companies to fire workers under the age of 26 within the first two years of employment with little notice or severance.
Twenty-three percent of French citizens under the age of 26 are jobless; in some of the major city suburbs, which were wracked by riots late last year, the figure is close to double that.
But Mr. de Villepin, who called himself a man "of action" in a television interview Monday night, is holding firm. Today, he and France's labor minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, were criticized in the National Assembly by leftist deputies who claimed they had not been given enough time to consider the law before they passed it last month.
"To create discrimination based on age transgresses fundamental rights," declared a leftist deputy, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg.
Mr. Schwartzenberg was part of a move by leftist deputies today to challenge the constitutionality of the new law before the Constitutional Council, which can be called upon to review laws after they have been voted by Parliament and before they are promulgated by the president.
They are arguing that the law violates the constitutional principle of equality among workers. A growing number of university presidents, meanwhile, concerned about their ability to run their institutions in a calm and secure atmosphere, called on the center-right French government to revoke the law.
Tensions have mounted since police stormed the historic Sorbonne building at the University of Paris in the predawn hours last Saturday to evict 200 students who had occupied the premises.
On Monday night, police clashed with several hundred students after they occupied the College de France here, one of the country's most prestigious research institutions. The police dispersed the crowd during the night.
The government is becoming increasingly frustrated, although there is no clear strategy to stop the protesters. More protests, in which students are scheduled to be joined by France's main unions, are planned for Thursday and Saturday.
"A huge majority of students want to study," the minister of national education, Gilles de Robien, told Parliament today, adding, "The right to blockade doesn't exist."
Underscoring the fluid nature of the crisis, Laurence Parisot, head of the French employers' federation known as Medef, reversed herself and threw her support behind Mr. de Villepin today.
Telling reporters that she hopes that the new law can "be used by companies as an additional type of labor contract," Ms. Parisot encouraged the government to go even further. "We hope that finally we will have a debate on reforming the labor market, which functions badly and is getting worse," she said.
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