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France CPE Riot Watch: Lefties Reject Talks and Vow More CPE Protests
Nicolas Sarkozy (L), France’s Interior Minister and head of the conservative UMP party, walks away from journalists in the courtyard of the Hotel Matignon offices of the Prime Minister in Paris April 1, 2006. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called his main rival Sarkozy and the pro-Chirac speakers of both houses of parliament to meet the day after a televised speech by French President Jacques Chirac in which he both backed a disputed youth job law (CPE) and called for rapid amendments to it.
Reuters: French left-wing vows more protests, rejects talksÂ
French left-wing parties rejected President Jacques Chirac’s call for dialogue on Saturday, reaffirming their plans to march next week against a youth job law they insist the government should withdraw.
Opposition groups, reacting to Chirac’s Friday speech saying he would sign the law but modify it, said they would join unions and students to stage more big protests that have gripped France and put Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin under pressure.
“We have confirmed our unanimous agreement to demand the definitive withdrawal of the CPE (law) and the opening of real negotiations with all unions, students and high school pupils before any new law goes before parliament,” Patrick Farbiaz, a leader of the ecologist Greens party, said after a meeting.
Well, of course, the LEFT SOCIALIST NUTTERS will NOT accept a compromise. They smell blood in the water and want control of the government in this year’s elections.
Former Socialist finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he had missed the point of the students’ protests.
“They don’t want just a trial period shortened from two to one year. They want their work contract to be the same as other workers’,” he said after the left-wing meeting.
Many older French workers have long-term contracts with strong job protection, which employers say puts them off adding young workers to their staff. Youth unemployment stands at 22 percent in France, far above the 9.6 percent national average.
A free lunch. Flap foresees economic ruin for the French economy and business climate. Oh well, more business for the United States.
Stay tuned…..
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France CPE Riot Watch: Jacques Chirac Capitulates on SOME of Job Law
France CPE Riot Watch: Constitutional Council Upholds CPE Jobs Law
France CPE Riot Watch:Fate of CPE Up to Constitutional Council
France CPE Riot Watch: A Million People March to Protest CPE First Job Contract
France CPE Riot Watch: French Police Subdue Riots
France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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Michael Ramirez on France CPE Employment Law
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France CPE Riot Watch: Constitutional Council Upholds CPE Jobs Law
A student looks at a riot policeman during an occupation of the Gare du Lyon station in Paris, in protest against the controversial CPE youth jobs law, March 30, 2006.
ASSociated Press: French Council Upholds Divisive Jobs Law
France’s Constitutional Council upheld a new law Thursday making it easier to fire young workers, a measure that sparked nationwide strikes by labor unions and violent protests by students.
The council’s decision puts the onus on President Jacques Chirac to either implement the law as is — at the risk of further unrest — or negotiate a compromise, perhaps by sending the law back to parliament or by proposing modifications.
President Chirac will capitulate in some face saving way. But, if he deserts Villepin then………more protests and civil unrest.
Rarely has a decision by the council, which rules on the constitutionality of French laws, been so awaited. The student- and union-led protest movement has plunged Chirac’s government into crisis, and a decision to strike the law down would have offered a way out.
Instead, the ruling by the council’s nine appointed members allows the law to go into effect — depending on Chirac’s actions — making it easier for employers to fire workers aged under 26, a degree of flexibility that the government argues will spur hirings. Students and labor unions say the contract will erode France’s cherished workplace protections.
Lawmakers in Chirac’s governing majority said they expected him to enact the law quickly — a decision likely to further infuriate protesters. To soften the anger, Chirac may offer talks with labor leaders or appoint a mediator to deal with their concerns, lawmakers said.
With such an outpouring of opposition (albeit it missplaced) it is hard to believe that Chirac won’t do what the socialists in France tell him.
French gendarmes arrest a student on the Gare de Lyon rail tracks, as hundreds of demonstrating students blocked the rail tracks to protest against the new jobs contract in Paris, Thursday March 30, 2006. The fate of a contested French labor law that has inspired massive protests, gravely wounding its champion, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, hung Thursday on a council of experts.
But, stay tuned…….Previous:
France CPE Riot Watch:Fate of CPE Up to Constitutional Council
France CPE Riot Watch: A Million People March to Protest CPE First Job Contract
France CPE Riot Watch: French Police Subdue Riots
France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France CPE Riot Watch:Fate of CPE Up to Constitutional Council
A woman dressed as Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, holds a French flag during a protest against the first job contract law, known as CPE, Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in Bordeaux, southwestern France. 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.
ASSociated Press: Fate of French Labor Law Up to Council
The fate of a contested French labor law that has inspired massive protests, gravely wounding its champion Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, hung Thursday on a council of experts.
The Constitutional Council, whose 10 members include former statesmen and women, was weighing a demand from the opposition Socialists that the law, which would make it easier for companies to fire young workers, be thrown out as unconstitutional.
Striking down the law could be a face-saver for all sides, allowing protesters to claim victory and defusing the crisis for Villepin, who would likely emerge bloodied but ready to fight another day.
This will be an easy capitulation for Prime Minister Villepin. But, elimination of the CPE, while popular in the polls, will not solve the youth unemployment problem which is as high as 50 per cent in French immigrant communities.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin addresses deputies at the National Assembly during a session of questions to the government, Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in 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.
A poll by the Ipsos agency for LCI television said 62 percent of the French aligned themselves with the movement against Villepin’s law, and that 47 percent want it repealed entirely. Another 45 percent want it to be modified. The poll Wednesday of 804 people aged 18 and over gave no margin of error.
But, the French socialists want power and elections loom. Will these issues really subside if the Constitutional Council overrules Villepin on the CPE?
Doubtful…….
French CGT union leader Bernard Thibault, centre, and France’s UNEF student union President Bruno Julliard march during a protest against the first job contract, knwon as CPE, Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in Paris.
Students and labor unions say the contract will erode France’s time-honored workplace protections. Villepin says it is needed to cut France’s 22 percent youth unemployment rate, which soars up to 50 percent in low-income neighborhoods that were the focus of rioting last year.
Unions and student groups are calling for a new round of strikes and protests next Tuesday to step up pressure on the government. The largest civil servants union on Thursday joined the strike call.
And the French are complaining about foreign press coverage of their CPE protests/riots.
Unbelievable
Government ministers fear the crisis is hurting France’s image abroad. Trade minister Christine Lagarde, who embarks on an eight-day visit to the United States next week, complained of “excessive” foreign media coverage of the demonstrations, which have repeatedly ended in violent clashes between youths and riot police.
Protests continued Thursday. Police used tear gas to dislodge some 300-400 students who blocked tracks and traffic at a railway station in Marseille, France’s second-biggest city.
More trouble ahead for France.
Stay tuned…….
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France CPE Riot Watch: A Million People March to Protest CPE First Job Contract
France CPE Riot Watch: French Police Subdue Riots
France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France CPE Riot Watch: A Million People March to Protest CPE First Job Contract
French students hold a banner picturing France’s Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy as they demonstrate against the new youth contract for first-time job seekers called CPE (First Labour Contract) in Marseille March 28, 2006.
Reuters: A million French protest against youth job law
At least one million people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike on Tuesday, urging the government to scrap a youth jobs law in one of France’s biggest protests in decades.
Unions and student groups said 3 million people took part in rallies across the country, including 700,000 in central Paris, where police used tear gas against hundreds of youths who threw bottles and Molotov cocktail petrol bombs.
One union official said demonstrations against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s CPE First Job Contract were among the biggest since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.
The Interior Ministry put the national turnout at 1,055,000, twice that of a day of action a week ago. Unions and police habitually give widely diverging estimates.
Interesting. Folks are demonstrating/protesting in France because of job security issues surrounding their youth and immigrant workers and in Los Angeles they are protesting the right to enter and work in the United States illegally. But, are these protests effective? Will they change government policy makers minds?
Union and student leaders say the CPE will create a generation of “throwaway workers” by making it easier to dismiss employees under 26 during a two-year trial period. Villepin hopes it will reduce youth unemployment of almost 23 percent.
“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 protesting in Paris.
French students shout slogans at a nationwide protest demanding the government to scrap a contentious youth job law in Paris March 28, 2006.
Villepin, 52, has stood firm over the plan but the strong turnout increased pressure on him to amend or withdraw the measure and calls for his resignation grew. He made a new call for talks with unions, but they rejected his appeal.
The protests forced the Eiffel Tower to close to tourists, while commuters around the country faced delays on public transport and airports were disrupted.
The difference in part between Los Angeles and Paris is that the United States government is responsive with a balance of power between legislative and executive branches. Parliamentary systems can be bureaucratic and non-responsive to voters immediate concerns.
Flap bets that Villepin capitulates.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (L) speaks with Minister for Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing Jean-Louis Borloo (R) as he arrives at the French National Assembly to attend the questions to the government session March 28, 2006.
Stay tuned…..
France CPE Riot Watch: French Police Subdue Riots
France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France CPE Riot Watch: French Police Subdue Riots
Riot policemen await orders next to the Notre Dame Cathedral, following a students’ protest against the First Job Contract in Paris, France Saturday, March 18, 2006. Tens of thousands of students and workers marched in Paris and other French cities Saturday in what appeared to be the biggest show of anger yet at a jobs plan that has led to violence in the streets and threatens to weaken the government.
ASSociated Press:French Police Subdue Riots Over Jobs Law
Police loosed water cannons and tear gas on rioting students and activists rampaged through a McDonald’s and attacked store fronts in the capital Saturday as demonstrations against a plan to relax job protections spread in a widening arc across France.
Firefighters try to extinguished a car set ablazed by demonstrator in Paris at the end of a demonstration against a contested new labor law. Riot police teargassed scores of demonstrators in Paris after an estimated million people took to the streets of France to protest a widely unpopular new labor law.
The protests, which drew 500,000 people in some 160 cities across the country, were the biggest show yet of escalating anger that is testing the strength of the conservative government before elections next year.
At the close of a march in Paris that drew a crowd of tens of thousands, seven officers and 17 protesters were injured during two melees, at the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris and the Sorbonne University. Police said they arrested 156 people in the French capital.
Four cars were set afire, police said, and a McDonald’s restaurant was attacked along with store fronts at the close of the march.
Tensions escalated later Saturday as about 500 youths moved on to the Sorbonne, trying to break through tall metal blockades erected after police stormed the Paris landmark a week ago to dislodge occupying students. The university has become a symbol of the protest.
Police turned water cannons on the protesters at the Sorbonne and were seen throwing youths to the ground, hitting them and dragging them into vans.
“Liberate the Sorbonne!” some protesters shouted. “Police everywhere, justice nowhere.”
Demonstrator clash with riot policemen in Paris at the end of a rally against a contested new labor law. Riot police teargassed scores of demonstrators in Paris.
Protest organizers urged President Jacques Chirac on Saturday to prevent the law from taking effect as expected in April.
The group issued an ultimatum, saying it expects an answer by Monday, when leaders will decide whether to continue protests that have paralyzed at least 16 universities and dominated political discourse for weeks.”We give them two days to see if they understand the message we’ve sent,” said Rene Jouan of CFDT, France’s largest union.
This is a concerted effort of LEFTIE UNIONS to undermine the authority of the French government of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. In response to the November riots, the French center-right goverment has attempted to reduce unemployment that stands at 23 percent nationwide, and 50 percent among impoverished young people. The lack of work was blamed in part for the riots that shook France’s depressed suburbs during the fall.
The law would allow businesses to fire young workers in the first two years on a job without giving a reason, removing them from protections that restrict layoffs of regular employees.
Companies are often reluctant to add employees because it is hard to let them go if business conditions worsen. Students see a subtext in the new law: make it easier to hire and fire to help France compete in a globalizing world economy.
On Friday night, a group of university presidents met with Villepin and called on him to withdraw the jobs plan for six months to allow for debate.
Failure to resolve the crisis could sorely compromise Villepin, who is believed to be Chirac’s choice as his party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election.
Villepin should restore order and hold firm on his employment plan. But, what else is he doing about the immigration “problem?”
Stay tuned…….
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France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France CPE Riot Watch: First Job Contract Protests Grip French Cities
A protester throws a stone next to a burning car, during clashes with riot police, following a demonstration in Paris, France, against the ‘First Job Contract’, or CPE, Saturday, March 18, 2006. More than 500,000 students and workers marched in Paris and other French cities Saturday in the biggest show of anger yet at a jobs plan that has led to street violence and threatens to weaken the government.
BBC: Job protests grip French cities
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through French towns and cities in protest at a new law making it easier to hire and fire young workers.
Unions said more than a million people were on the streets, from Marseille in the south to Lille in the north. The government said 500,000 took part.
Ministers say the law will reduce high youth unemployment, but opponents fear it will entrench job insecurity.
Protests earlier in the week ended in unrest, with hundreds arrested.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Paris.
In Toulouse, in the south-west, up to 33,000 people took to the streets while between 10,000 and 25,000 people demonstrated in Lyon.
Dijon, Marseille, Strasbourg and Bordeaux also saw large demonstrations.
So, what do the French want to do? They have a high unemployment problem especially with immigrant Islamic young people. Their government proposes economic/employment reforms to enable these folks to obtain gainful employment instead of rioting (remember last November) or living on welfare or both. Do the French LEFTIES want a socialist solution of redistribution?
Protesters are bitterly opposed to the new First Employment Contract (CPE), which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.
The government says it will encourage employers to hire young people but students fear it will erode job stability in a country where more than 20% of 18 to 25-year-olds are unemployed – more than twice the national average.
The demonstrations came after a series of mass protests by students in dozens of French universities, which have severely disrupted classes.
Flap thinks the French protest too much. Give the reforms a try and relieve the unemployment situation. But, is there another agenda here?
Are the French islamofascists and communists driving civil unrest in order to undermine the French government and society.
More than likely……
Related:
Students hold a banner front of riot policemen that reads ‘State regressive, State repressive’ during a protest against CPE in Lille March 18, 2006. France braced for mass protests on Saturday against the new employment law as unions said more than one million people would march to increase pressure on the government to repeal the measure.
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France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Technorati Tags:France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France Riot Watch: Students Riot in Paris over New Youth Employment Contract
Flames erupt from a car and a motorbike in front of a hotel during clashes between youths and police that followed a student protest against the First Employment Contract (CPE), in Paris, March 16, 2006.
News.telegraph: Police fire teargas as students riot in Paris
Police fired teargas and fought running battles with rioters in the Latin quarter of Paris last night in the worst violence to erupt since protests began over a new youth employment law.
The trouble flared around the Sorbonne University, closed last week as tensions rose, after a march through the capital by tens of thousands of students.
A red flare was fired as crowds gathered near the university, a key symbol of the 1968 student revolt. This led to a charge in which students were joined by anarchist elements.
Windows were smashed and some business premises looted as demonstrators went on the rampage in the Boulevard St Michelle. Police fired teargas to stop protesters reaching the university.
Some of the rioters wore ski masks to counter the effect of teargas in a clear sign that the trouble was premeditated.
An organized attempt to thwart France’s center-right government’s response to last November’s riots. Again, the government must crack down EARLY on the violence before riots spiral out of control.
Police arrest a protestor during clashes at the end of a students demonstration in Paris March 16, 2006.
The French interior ministry said an operation had begun to round up 300 trouble-makers considered to be at the heart of the violence. Student leaders claimed that more than 120,000 protesters took to the streets of Paris. They were showing their resistance to the centre-Right government’s new law allowing employers to hire young workers on special contracts and giving them the right to fire them without reason.
Estimates of the number of protesters across France varied from 250,000 according to police and more than half a million claimed by student leaders.
Riots over a new law allowing temporary employment contracts in which one can be dismissed within the first two years without cause. and what is so unusual? Flap supposes the socialist French have never heard of “AT WILL” employment?
A demonstrator holds a placard reading “Street governs” during a protest in Lille, northern France March 16, 2006.
As police in riot gear swept through the narrow streets off the main boulevard in Paris, demonstrators took refuge from the teargas in restaurants.
The trouble was significantly more serious than on Tuesday night when a series of marches also led to skirmishes. A kiosk and other targets were set on fire and protesters threw stones, bottles, metal barriers and other missiles at officers.
More than 60 of France’s 84 state universities have been closed or disrupted by the protests.
But the embattled French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin again insisted yesterday that the new employment law would not be abandoned.
Student and union leaders have rejected Mr de Villepin’s offer to discuss ways of improving the so-called “first job contract”.
They say street protests and blockades will continue until the government backs down.
Mr de Villepin said in an interview with Paris Match magazine published yesterday that he would stand firm. “I will do it until the end because I believe in this measure,” he said.
Protesters say that more than a million people will mount further demonstrations tomorrow as the biggest student revolt to hit France in more than a decade intensifies.
Stay tuned………
Related:
Suburban youths wary of new French job law
France braces for mass protests
Technorati Tags: France, FranceRiots, CPE, DominiquedeVillepin, FirstEmploymentContract
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France Nuclear Watch: Secretly Upgrades Capacity of Nuclear Arsenal
French President Jacques Chirac comes aboard “The Vigilant” nuclear submarine, at l’Ile Longue military base, in the northwestern region of Brittany. Chirac for the first time warned Today that France could use nuclear weapons against states that launch or plan “terrorist” attacks against it involving weapons of mass destruction.Guardian Unlimited: France secretly upgrades capacity of nuclear arsenal
· Modification increases range of missiles
· Altitude bomb to knock out electronic systemsFrance has secretly modified its nuclear arsenal to increase the strike range and accuracy of its weapons. The move comes weeks after President Jacques Chirac warned that states which threatened the country could face the “ultimate warning” of a nuclear retaliation.
A military source quoted yesterday by the Libération newspaper claimed France had tinkered with its nuclear weapons to improve their strike capability and make this threat more credible.
The source said there had been two major changes: the bombs can now be fired at high altitude to create an “electromagnetic impulsion” to destroy the enemy’s computer and communications systems; and the number of nuclear warheads has been reduced to increase the missiles’ range and precision.
Flexibility of France’s nuclear capability gives it a more credible nuclear deterrence.
Is this a warning to Iran and Syria?
You betcha…….
French President Jacques Chirac (R) and captain Goalou (L) visit “The Vigilant” nuclear submarine at l’Ile Longue military base, in northwestern region of Brittany. Chirac for the first time warned today that France could use nuclear weapons against states that launch or plan “terrorist” attacks against it involving weapons of mass destruction.
Technorati Tags: France, nuclear, JacquesChirac, TheVigilant, nucleararsenal
