Hundreds of thousands of students marched through French cities
Tuesday in new protests aimed at killing off a youth hire-and-fire
law as rail workers and teachers staged one-day sympathy
strikes.
France's ruling conservatives stopped short of agreeing to scrap
the law but, faced with sliding poll ratings and internal rifts
over how to deal with two months of sometimes violent protests,
signaled possible concessions to trade unions.
Early counts around the country suggested turnout could reach
that of a week ago, when anything between one and three million
took part in one of the biggest days of protest seen in France's
48-year-old Fifth Republic.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told a rowdy parliament the
government would not "throw in the towel." But the long-time Chirac
ally risked being sidelined as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
his main rival to lead the right in 2007 presidential elections
emerged as a possible broker to end the conflict.
"The only solution is to scrap it (the law)," Lisa Mancin, an
18-year-old student said ahead of the main rally in central Paris,
which began to a fanfare of a brass band, drums and the clanking of
empty water bottles.
The mood at the front was festive and police were keeping a
low-profile, mainly watching in side streets off the main
route.
More than a quarter of a million demonstrators earlier marched
through the southern city of Marseille, organizers said, while up
to 75,000 joined a rally in the western city of Nantes, both higher
turnouts than on March 28.
But disruption from the strikes was less than a week ago, and
rail unions said 80 percent of trains were running across the
country with city underground networks largely unaffected. Air
traffic was hit, with authorities estimating around a third of
flights had been cancelled and others delayed.
President Jacques Chirac has urged a softening of key parts of
the First Job Contract (CPE) legislation and his conservatives
signaled further possible climb-downs on the measure.
"We'll be ready as of tomorrow to receive the unions, to listen
to them. There won't be any limits to the talks," Bernard Accoyer,
parliamentary chief of Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
party, told French radio. But unions have vowed to resist overtures
for talks unless ruling conservatives pledged to scrap the CPE and
start anew on ways to tackle chronic youth joblessness stuck at 22
percent.
(China Daily April 5, 2006)
