FRANCE: France will be paralysed by a general strike today as students and trade unionists take to the streets for the fourth time to demand the withdrawal of the CPE or First Job Contract.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is staking his political career on the law, which would allow employers to fire youths under the age of 26 without explanation during a two-year trial period.
The violence that broke out following street demonstrations on March 23rd has raised fears that the race riots of last November could be reignited.
Some 2,000 youths from the suburbs of Paris used last Thursday's march as "cover" to attack policemen and students. At least 690 were detained, of whom nine have since been sentenced to short prison terms.
Today's strike will stop one in two metro trains in Paris, and disrupt public transport in 70 cities across France. Air and train traffic will also be affected. Some 200 protest marches are planned. The biggest, in Paris, will go from the Place d'Italie to the Place de la République.
Trade union and student leaders rejected proposals by interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to corral the marchers between mobile fences or rows of police. They also objected to police breaking into the cortege to apprehend troublemakers. The interior ministry will use video cameras to identify attackers and looters.
The CPE has turned into a contest of wills between Mr de Villepin and French students, who now demand the government's resignation. If Mr de Villepin persists, the students say, they propose blocking roads and railways on March 30th and an open-ended strike from April 4th.
Student unions claim 68 universities (of 82) and about 1,000 lycées have been shut down by protesters, though the education ministry provides lower estimates. A poll published in Le Monde today shows how, one year before a presidential election, the crisis over the CPE has polarised France along left-right lines.