French government set to stand firm despite protests

PARIS, Mar 19: The French government looked set today to resist demands, backed by hundreds of thousands of protesters in marches across the country, that it withdraw a law that cuts job security for young workers.

Trade union and student leaders gave Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin a 48-hour ultimatum to scrap the First Job Contract (CPE) or face more unrest like Saturday's mass protests, including a possible general strike this week.

One analyst said the government would be forced to bow to the pressure, which included a fresh poll showing widespread opposition to the CPE.

Under the law aimed at cutting youth unemployment, employers will be able to fire workers under 26 without giving a reason at any time during a two-year trial period. Opponents say that will create a generation of disposable workers with no security.

The turnout at marches nationwide was 1.5 million including up to 400,000 people in Paris, organisers said. Police said 500,000 people marched altogether and 167 were arrested in Paris after rioting that followed the march. Some 17 protesters and seven members of the security forces were injured.

But there was no hint of a government climbdown and Villepin looked set to stand firm, believing the law could significantly reduce unemployment, the top social issue, before presidential elections in 2007.

''To hold on would seem to be Villepin's leitmotiv ... even after a week that has seen the reinforcement of the struggle against the CPE and a day of major protests,'' said a signed front page editorial in the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

POLITICAL COST

One analyst said the protests and the prospect of a general strike spelled irresistible pressure on Villepin.

''It's impossible for the government to hold on now. There were too many people in the streets .... The government will have to get out of this crisis by suspending the CPE,'' said Christophe Barbier, deputy editor of the weekly L'Express. ''The political cost will be enormous for this defeat. But he (Villepin) would reap an even bigger political cost governing a country that's blocked in the event of a general strike,'' Barbier told Reuters.

Some 60 percent of voters want the CPE withdrawn, according to an opinion poll by the BVA organisation for the Depeche du Midi newspaper, in a further sign of pressure on the government.

In answer to a separate question, 69 percent said the marchers were justified.

Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said the government wanted dialogue but gave no sign it was preparing to withdraw or suspend the law.

''Beyond the passions of the moment, don't we all have an interest in a dialogue?'' Cope said, adding ''The door is open.'' That offer was for talks on increasing job protection for young people within the context of the CPE rather than opening a door to the withdrawal of the law, Le Parisien said.

On Sunday, people stopped to read fresh graffiti plastered on walls at the Sorbonne.

''If everyone disobeys, no one will be able to command,'' said one slogan. Another, painted onto a police barricade blocking access to the university, read: ''Police everywhere, justice nowhere.'' In a counter demonstration, around 1,000 students rallied in Paris on Sunday to demand that they be allowed to study, witnesses said. Students against the CPE have blocked many universities.

The CPE protests have provided a useful rallying point for left-wing parties and unions set to meet on Monday to decide on their course of action.

''We've got to continue our mobilisation ... The prime minister is like a pyromaniac who has set fire to the valley and then withdraws to the hill to watch,'' said Jean-Claude Mailly, secretary general of the Workers' Force union.

Unions and the left were in favour of a general strike on March 23, said Olivier Besancenot, a young Trotskyite leader.

France's unemployment rate is 9.6 percent and youth joblessness is double that. The rate rises to 40-50 percent in some poor suburbs hit by weeks of youth rioting last autumn.

REUTERS