CNN has been showing live clashs with protesters and riot police on TV. You can see rocks being tossed at them and property being destroyed.

I'm not sure if these protests are a real danger to anyone in Paris or the other cities of France. I do however presume it has had impact on everyone there.

From what I understand the government is trying to pass a labour law that makes it legal for employers to terminate without reason anyone under the age of 25. The goal of this policy is that more employers would be willing to hire young people as they would have less to risk. They have stated that it has worked in other areas. Students, trade unions, and most young people seem to disagree that this in their best interest...

[quote:5c535cf6cc]Over Million protest in France

Paris (dpa) - More than 1 million French students, teachers, workers and trade union members demonstrated Saturday in the largest nationwide protest yet against a new youth labour law, union leaders said.

The biggest demonstration took place in Paris where, according to the organizers, 350,000 people marched through the streets against the First Hire Contract (CPE), amidst signs that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin may be willing to climb down from his previously inflexible position on the measure.

An independent estimate put the number of protesters in the capital at 285,000.

According to organizers, 130,000 people took to the streets in Marseille, while 60,000 marched in Bordeaux and 45,000 protested in Toulouse on Saturday to demand that Villepin scrap the CPE. Police estimates for these cities were significantly lower.

The head of the opposition Socialists, Francois Hollande, urged Villepin to listen to what he called "the voice of reason."

"Villepin must listen to the voice of reason," Hollande told journalists. "When there are thousands and thousands of citizens, young and less young, when all the trade unions are represented, without exception ... what is the use of waiting for the next demonstration?"

Saturday's protest was the third, and largest, nationwide demonstration against the law. An estimated 400,000 people took part in the first nationwide protest against the measure on February 7. One month later, 700,000 protesters demonstrated throughout France.

This past week, hundreds of thousands of students took part in two separate protests against the CPE.

The student protests were accompanied by violent clashes between hardline protesters and police, especially near the Sorbonne in the French capital's Latin Quarter, that on Thursday left scores of police officers injured.

There were no reports of similar incidents in Saturday's demonstrations.

The growing protest movement appears to be shaking the resolve of Villepin, who had repeatedly vowed not to budge on the law.

After a meeting between Villepin and a group of university rectors late Friday, the head of the Conference of University Presidents, Yannick Vallee, said the prime minister was "prepared to make a significant gesture" to ease the crisis, which has seen some 60 of France's 84 universities totally shut down or disrupted.

Vallee said that he and his group had asked Villepin to allow "six months of reflection about the universities and, at the same time, about youth employment." This would mean, he noted, "suspending the CPE."

The CPE allows employers to fire without justification newly hired workers under the age of 26 within two years.

Villepin claims that the measure will help ease unemployment among young people living in France's suburban ghettoes, where joblessness stands at some 40 per cent. Minority youths in the suburbs rioted for three weeks late last year.

Opponents of the law say it will erode workers' rights and enable employers to lay them off at will, and are demanding that it be scrapped.

Recent surveys have shown that a large majority of the French want the CPE to be repealed. The crisis over the law has seen Villepin's popularity plunge and cast doubts about his candidacy for the 2007 presidential election.[/quote:5c535cf6cc]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=85919


Cameron Bay.