Chirac urges dialogue after riots

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac yesterday called for swift talks between the government and unions over a youth employment law after Paris protests against the measure ended in violence and arrests.

Ministers tried to calm opposition to the new contract by promising to find a solution, one saying no worker could be laid off without justification. Critics say the law will allow companies to fire people at will.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who took a hardline position with suburban rioters last year, said the vast majority of students had protested peacefully and blamed the violence on a hardcore group of hooligans spoiling for a fight.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has stoutly defended his First Job Contract despite mounting opposition that has sunk his approval ratings and threatened to damage his thinly-veiled ambition to run for president in 2007 elections.

“You know the government is ready for dialogue and I hope this will start as quickly as possible,” Mr Chirac said.

Unions and student groups have tied any talks to withdrawal of the law, which is opposed by 68% of French people according to an opinion poll published in Le Parisien newspaper.

Student leaders said 300,000 to 600,000 university and high school students took part in Thursday’s action and vowed to press on. Officials put the number at 247,500 nationwide.

Largely peaceful, marches turned violent in some areas, notably Paris, where police used teargas and water cannons on stone-throwing protesters and 187 people were arrested.

Unions and student groups are planning further marches today and hope to bring more than a million people onto the streets.

Mr Chirac again defended the CPE as an important weapon in the battle against unemployment that would provide jobs for those left behind by the jobs market.

The contract allows companies to take on workers for a two-year trial period before offering them a permanent job but critics say it will create a generation of “disposable workers”.