Protests turn violent as million take to streets

DEMONSTRATORS opposed to a new jobs law swarmed parts of downtown Paris last night throwing stones, tearing down street signs and ripping up park benches.

Riot police, firing tear gas canisters and making charges, carried away protesters in handcuffs.

Police said at least one million people poured into the streets around the country in the latest protests against the law, which makes it easier to fire young workers. Organisers said three million people marched.

A strike shut the Eiffel Tower and snarled air and rail travel for the second time in a week, while students locked themselves in schools.

The largest march, in Paris, drew at least 80,000 people, while 935,000 marched in other parts of the country, police said.

Organisers put the figure in the capital at 700,000.

Violence erupted in Paris, where youths pelted police with stones and broke up chunks of pavement, which they then hurled at officers.

Protesters have mounted demonstrations for two months against the law. But President Jacques Chirac signed it on Sunday, saying it will help France keep pace with the global economy.

He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn.

“What Chirac has done is not enough,” said Rebecca Konforti, 18, who was among a group of students who put tables against the door of their school in Paris to block entry.

“They’re not really concessions. He just did it to calm the students.”

By midday, police said at least 100,000 people had hit French streets, including major marches from Nantes in the west to Saint-Etienne in the south-east.

Protests even reached the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where 2,000 people marched.

At Paris’ Saint-Lazare station, officers pulled over travellers, searching bags and checking identities.

Tourists, meanwhile, stood before closed gates at the Eiffel Tower. Rubbish bins in some neighbourhoods stood overflowing and uncollected by striking sanitation workers.

Ryanair cancelled all its flights in and out of France.

However, signs of a possible breakthrough began to emerge as labour leaders suggested they could hold talks with lawmakers after yesterday’s demonstrations.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin devised the “first job contract” to boost the economy and stem chronic youth unemployment.

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

The measure is meant to cut a 22% unemployment rate among youths that reaches 50% in some poor, immigrant neighbourhoods.

Mr de Villepin cited the national statistics agency as saying it would create up to 80,000 jobs.

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

The government appeared to be hoping that protests would die down after yesterday’s event and was looking to possible talks between more moderate unions and lawmakers, led by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful, is the only senior senior government official unscathed by the crisis.