France CPE Riot Watch: Protests Continue – “Only a First Victory”

Student leader Bruno Julliard smiles during an unions meeting outside Paris Monday April 10, 2006. President Jacques Chirac on Monday abandoned an employment measure that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid to pull France out of crisis. Poster reads ‘Withdraw the CPE’, which was the name of the planned new job contract.

Reuters: France faces more protests, asks if reform possible

France’s students and trade unions prepared a victory parade on Tuesday to mark the demise of a hated youth jobs law, with politicians and analysts split over whether the hope of labor market reform was dead too.

Opponents of the First Job Contract (CPE) vowed to keep up their guard until new measures to replace the “easy hire, easy fire” law for young workers have been passed.

In a sign that unrest that accompanied some of the protests might not be over, about 100 students blocked two bus depots in the southwestern city of Toulouse for four hours on Tuesday.

Anna Melun, local leader of the Unef student union, told Reuters that Monday was “a first victory” but students also had other grievances.

And the socialists in France will continue to stir the pot until they have victory in the 2007 elections when Chirac steps down. The business climate and the French economy will continue to flounder and unemployment will worsen.

And there is a “VICTORY?”

University employees hold signs for voters at the Rennes university, western France, Monday April 10, 2006. President Jacques Chirac on Monday abandoned an employment measure that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier Dominique de Villepin in a bid to pull France out of crisis. Opponents to blockade are invited to go on the left, while supporters of the blockade should go to the right.

Parliament will this evening start to debate the ruling party’s measures to help disadvantaged young people find work a day after President Jacques Chirac scrapped the CPE, a measure aimed at reducing a youth unemployment rate of 22 percent.

The marches, due to start early afternoon, should test sentiment since the government’s climbdown, though around 600 young people earlier marched in the southern city of Marseille demanding the total withdrawal of the equal opportunities law.

“We are calling for the pressure to be kept up until parliament votes the repeal of the CPE, including by blocking universities if necessary,” said Unef national head Bruno Julliard.

Unions refrained from calling for fresh strikes and some universities, including the protest center at Rennes in western France, voted to reopen classes with Easter holidays and spring examinations fast approaching.

So, is economic reform dead in France until the 2007 elections?

Most probably.

Stay tuned for photos of the victory march……