FRANCE: Thousands of workers and young people march in protest against youth job plan that has sent the Prime Minister's popularity tumbling

Record ID: 341353

  • Title: FRANCE: Thousands of workers and young people march in protest against youth job plan that has sent the Prime Minister's popularity tumbling
  • Date: 8th March 2006
  • Summary: PROTESTOR TALKING OVER LOUDSPEAKER; RALLIERS STANDING; RALLIERS MARCHING; PROTEST SEEN FROM ABOVE PEOPLE WATCHING RALLY FROM APPARTMENT BUILDING WINDOW; HUNDREDS OF PROTESTORS SEEN FROM ABOVE
  • Embargoed: 23rd March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABVD93R6LSD3A3T0CMAZHR1L9Q
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of workers and young people marched in France on Tuesday (March 7, 2006) to protest against a youth job plan that has sent Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's popularity tumbling.
    Students carried banners and chanted slogans slamming the new job contract, or CPE, which would allow firms to hire people aged under 26 for a two-year trial before offering them a permanent job.
    Villepin says it will encourage firms to hire young people, but critics say it will make it easier to fire them, increasing the feeling of insecurity that was seen as one of the root causes of suburban riots last year.
    "We are students and later we want to have jobs, but we see that the situation is getting worse in France, on all fronts. We have to come here and make ourselves heard. The vote is not enough; they approve laws without even asking us our opinion. It's not right," said one protestor, Anenne.
    A group of retired men also joined the Paris march.
    "The precarious situation of the youth will have an impact on our retirement, so we defend their cause and our cause at the same time. The CPE is a bad idea," one man, Jean Pierre, said.
    The students were joined by some power workers protesting at a government-backed merger between state-owned Gaz de France and private group Suez, saying the alliance will mean job losses and force the conservative government to cede control of GDF.
    Protests against the CPE legislation -- which was passed by senators on Monday (March 6) but must be scrutinised by a cross-party committee before it becomes law -- were held countrywide.
    Police said 12,000 people marched in the southern city of Marseille and 11,000 protested in Rennes in western France against the plan. Organisers in Marseille put the turnout at 100,000. Thousands protested in nearby Toulon.
    Criticism of the new employment plan has hit Villepin's once solid popularity, sending him an ominous signal a year before a presidential election in which he is expected to be a candidate. An opinion poll published on Monday (March 6) showed a seven-point fall in his approval rating in the past month to its lowest level since he was named prime minister in May 2005.
    Villepin defended his plan, saying France must be brave and take steps to keep moving forward in a changing world. The government argues the measure will boost opportunities for young workers, many of whom can only find short-term contract work at best. Villepin has made the CPE the centrepiece of his plans to reduce the unemployment rate, which has fallen to 9.6 percent from a five-year high of 10.2 percent last May.
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