Hundreds+of+thousands+march+in+France,++Guardian

The Guardian, London, Tuesday April 4, 2006
=Hundreds of thousands march in France=


 * Associated Press**

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through French cities today, in what union organisers hope will be one of the biggest shows of strength yet against a controversial new job law.

A nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower for the second time in a week and delayed air and rail traffic.

Students barricaded schools in protest against the legislation, which would make it easier to sack young workers.

Despite mounting demonstrations, the French president, Jacques Chirac, signed the new law off on Sunday, saying France needed it to keep up with the world economy.

He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them. They said they wanted the law withdrawn, not softened.

"What Chirac has done is not enough," said Rebecca Konforti, 18, who was among a group of students who occupied their school in southern Paris. Police estimated that at least 100,000 people had hit French streets by midday. The demonstrators included buoyant students parading through Marseille, and marchers in cities ranging from Nantes in the west to Saint-Etienne in the south-east.

The organisers of the demonstrations said they hoped that the combined turnout for a total of 150 marches would pass the million mark.

Last week up to 3 million people took part in the country's biggest protests in decades. Rioters threw pieces of concrete, bottles and petrol bombs in clashes with the police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.

Today the protests reached the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion, where 2,000 people marched. Some 60 students lobbed eggs and other objects at police in the northern city of Lille. At least one person was detained.

An afternoon march through Paris promised to be the biggest of the demonstrations, and the city deployed 4,000 police to prevent a repetition of the violence that marred previous protests.

Police actively looked to thwart troublemakers. At Paris's Saint-Lazare station, armed riot officers pulled over passengers disembarking from the city's suburbs, searched their bags and checked identities. Tourists, meanwhile, stood bewildered before pickets and closed gates at the Eiffel Tower. Parisian commuters squeezed onto limited subway trains.

Rubbish bins in some Paris neighbourhoods stood overflowing after not being emptied by striking sanitation workers.

The Irish budget airline, Ryanair, cancelled all its flights in and out of France. And the British budget airline Jet2.com used its website to attack the strikers as "lazy frogs" who should "get back to work". The Jet2.com chief executive, Philip Meeson, later described the jibe as "a bit of fun". He said: "After all, the French call us 'les rosbifs'."

France's prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, devised the disputed "first job contract" as a bid to boost the country's economy and stem chronic youth unemployment.

He maintains it would encourage job creation by allowing employers to dismiss workers under 26 during their first two years on a job without giving a reason.

Critics say it threatens France's hallmark labour protections, and the crisis has severely damaged Mr de Villepin's political reputation.

Now that the law has been signed, protesters have less room for manoeuvre.

The government is hoping the protests will die down after today's demonstrations, and is considering talks between more moderate trade unions and the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy, a leading presidential hopeful, is the only senior government official unscathed by the crisis. Previously, his political ambitions were considered to have been severely damaged by riots in France last November.

Signs of a possible breakthrough in the current dispute began to emerge today as union leaders suggested they could hold talks with the government.

Bernard Accoyer, parliamentary leader of the governing UMP party, told reporters he had invited union leaders to talks starting tomorrow. Two union leaders, the CFDT union chief, François Chérèque, and the CGT union chief, Bernard Thibault, suggested they would attend. But both said they hoped the law would eventually be rejected.


 * From: [|http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1746705,00.html]**

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