Sulla the Dictator
03-13-2006, 10:08 PM
PARIS - Scores of students stormed one of Paris' most elite schools Monday, hurling stones and cinder blocks at riot police in the latest protest against a government plan to reduce France's sky-high unemployment rate among young adults.
About 200 high school and university students swarmed into the College de France to demand that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin withdraw a measure that makes it easier for companies to fire workers under 26 during the first two years of employment.
Many students holed up inside, and others came back outside to face down officers on the street. Police used tear gas to try to disperse the chanting crowd.
The law, which takes effect next month, offers a measure of flexibility the government hopes will spur employers to hire young people, knowing they will be able to get rid of them if they have to. But critics say it would offer younger workers less job security than older colleagues and undermine France's generous labor protections.
Tanguy Arrigoni, a 20-year-old Sorbonne student, called the protesters who surged into the College de France a "fringe group" and said they were "not at all representative of the student movement."
"Those guys are really violent," he said. Police said one officer was lightly injured and there were no arrests.
The protests came a day after Villepin, hoping to defuse the biggest labor test of his nine-month tenure, appealed on television for support of the "first job contract."
Many students, unconvinced, pressed on with protests that already swelled last week. On Saturday, riot police raided the Sorbonne University to oust students who had staged a three-day sit-in.
The College de France is one of the country's top research and teaching institutions. About a mile away, 100 students briefly formed a human chain in an effort to march up the steps of the National Assembly before police calmly ordered them away.
Villepin, facing his toughest labor test yet since taking office last June, said France needs to catch up with reforms already enacted in neighboring countries and reduce youth unemployment rates now at 23 percent.
In some troubled suburbs — like those where a wave of rioting broke out last fall — the figure is as high as 50 percent, he has said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_re_eu/france_jobs_plan
This is ridiculous.
About 200 high school and university students swarmed into the College de France to demand that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin withdraw a measure that makes it easier for companies to fire workers under 26 during the first two years of employment.
Many students holed up inside, and others came back outside to face down officers on the street. Police used tear gas to try to disperse the chanting crowd.
The law, which takes effect next month, offers a measure of flexibility the government hopes will spur employers to hire young people, knowing they will be able to get rid of them if they have to. But critics say it would offer younger workers less job security than older colleagues and undermine France's generous labor protections.
Tanguy Arrigoni, a 20-year-old Sorbonne student, called the protesters who surged into the College de France a "fringe group" and said they were "not at all representative of the student movement."
"Those guys are really violent," he said. Police said one officer was lightly injured and there were no arrests.
The protests came a day after Villepin, hoping to defuse the biggest labor test of his nine-month tenure, appealed on television for support of the "first job contract."
Many students, unconvinced, pressed on with protests that already swelled last week. On Saturday, riot police raided the Sorbonne University to oust students who had staged a three-day sit-in.
The College de France is one of the country's top research and teaching institutions. About a mile away, 100 students briefly formed a human chain in an effort to march up the steps of the National Assembly before police calmly ordered them away.
Villepin, facing his toughest labor test yet since taking office last June, said France needs to catch up with reforms already enacted in neighboring countries and reduce youth unemployment rates now at 23 percent.
In some troubled suburbs — like those where a wave of rioting broke out last fall — the figure is as high as 50 percent, he has said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_re_eu/france_jobs_plan
This is ridiculous.