FRANCE - Violence flares at French rallies

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Thursday, 16 March 2006,

22:33 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violence

flares at French rallies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A number of

outbreaks of violence occurred in Paris

 

 

 

Protests

have turned violent in France as at least 250,000 people rallied against a

controversial new labour law.

The worst violence was in Paris, where riot

police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and was reported in some of the

other 80 cities holding rallies.

Protesters object to new two-year job contracts for under-26s

which employers can break off without explanation.

President Jacques Chirac has appealed for talks, but says the

new law is important to fight unemployment.

'Slave

labour'

The march in Paris, which police said

was attended by 30,000 but which organisers put at 120,000-strong, was mainly

peaceful.

However, a group of about 300 masked

protesters threw missiles at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber

bullets.

A newspaper stand and a number of cars were set on fire and

protesters at the symbolic Sorbonne University - where street

protests shook France in 1968 - pelted police with stones and

bottles and chanted slogans comparing them to the Nazi SS.

Clashes went on into the evening and the interior ministry said

there had been about 150 arrests in Paris, along with at least

50 more elsewhere.

Two officers and a student were slightly hurt in scuffles in the

northern Paris suburb of Raincy.

Six people were arrested and two officers hurt in Vitry-sur-Seine, south-east of

Paris.

Police also fired tear gas in the

eastern city of Rennes and a small number of

injuries were reported in Nancy, Nantes and Montpellier.

Police put the number of protesters nationwide at 250,000 but

organisers said it was double that.

Student leaders cited an opinion poll showing 68% support for

the protests, while union bosses called for further street protests on

Saturday.

Banners on Thursday read " Slave labour by the back

door " and " If you take away our security, you'll pay " .

" You can't live with a knife at

your throat, " one of the protesters, 21-year-old film student Sophie

Cojan, said.

Police were under orders to be firm with troublemakers but to

show general restraint, the interior ministry said.

Employment aim

Students fear the First Employment Contract (CPE), which passed

into law last week, will erode job stability in a country where more than 20%

of 18- to 25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.

 

Mr Chirac has called for dialogue between ministers and labour

leaders, but union officials say they will not enter into talks until the CPE

is suspended.

The government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin proposed

the law to help youths in the French suburbs who took to the streets last

year, many unhappy with the lack of employment opportunities.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says the worry

for the French government is that, as in May 1968, French students are

expressing wider disenchantment with a government that is seen as remote and

out of touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4812132.stm

 

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