Emboldened by success, French students continue demonstrations

FRENCH students staged a fresh day of wildcat protests yesterday, vowing to keep up the pressure on the government and calling for further concessions despite the scrapping of a contested jobs contract.

Unions and student groups were celebrating victory after President Jacques Chirac bowed to two months of strikes and street protests by dropping the plan, but said they would remain “vigilant” until a substitute law is voted in.

Dozens of students blocked bus depots in Toulouse, briefly invaded the runways at Nantes airport, and blocked roads in Rouen, while 600 people marched in Marseille.

Universities in all four cities remain on strike, despite a call by a national student leader, Julie Coudry, for classes to resume at disrupted faculties in time for students to prepare for their examinations.

Debate on the two legal articles replacing the First Employment Contract (CPE), which was part of a broader law on equal opportunities, was to start late yesterday in the National Assembly.

The CPE, a contract for workers aged under 26 that could be broken off without reason during a two-year trial period, is to be replaced by new state subsidies to encourage companies to take on unqualified young staff.

Emboldened by their success, some students have set their sights on a repeal of the entire law on equal opportunities, as well as a similar New Employment Contract introduced last year for employees of small companies.

The equal opportunities law, drawn up following riots in French suburbs last November, includes a controversial provision lowering the minimum age for apprenticeships to 14.

Within the centre-right, the debacle over the CPE has brought about a power shift that is expected to weigh on next year’s presidential election.

Both Chirac, 73, and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, 52, who fathered the CPE, have seen their approval ratings plunge.