FRANCE - Riots erupt after French protests

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Sunday, 19 March 2006,

05:10 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riots

erupt after French protests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unions are

threatening fresh strikes unless the law is withdrawn

 

 

 

French

riot police have used tear gas and water cannon after protests against a new

labour law turned violent.

More than 160 people were arrested after clashes erupted in

eastern Paris following a day of largely peaceful

demonstrations across France.

Vehicles were set on fire and stores were

damaged as masked youths clashed with police.

Twenty-four people, including seven police

officers, were injured in the violence, which lasted about six hours.

A tense calm had returned to the streets of

the French capital by Sunday morning.

Cars set alight

The violence broke out at the eastern Place de la Nation as

police attempted to disperse demonstrators following a mainly peaceful march

through the capital involving students, workers, pensioners and families.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demonstrators hurled stones and bottles at

officers, who eventually drove them back, charging the crowd and using tear

gas grenades.

Several cars were set on fire and nearby shop windows smashed.

About 500 students then marched on Paris' Sorbonne

university in the Latin Quarter, chanting:

" Liberate the Sorbonne. "

Students removed some of the barriers erected by police to block

access to the university, and threw a fire bomb at a riot police van, but a

fire was quickly extinguished. Police repelled the students with water

cannon.

Clashes also erupted in other cities, including the port of Marseille, where

demonstrators tried to set fire to the entrance to the town hall. One officer

was injured and six youths were arrested, police said.

'Message

from the street'

Unions said 1.5 million demonstrators took

part in more than 150 rallies across the country against the government's First Employment Contract (CPE).

The interior ministry put the overall turnout at just over

500,000, but unions urged Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to heed

" the message from the street " .

 

 

 

 

The government

will be counting the political cost of the violence

 

 

 

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the new law,

which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during

a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior

warning.

The government says it will encourage employers to hire young

people but students fear it 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.

The demonstrations came after a series of mass protests by

students in dozens of French universities, which have severely disrupted

classes.

Several unions have threatened fresh strikes next week unless

the government withdraws the law, AFP news agency reported.

'Softening' stance

The BBC's

Caroline Wyatt in Paris

says the protests have gained their own momentum, turning into the worst

crisis that Mr de Villepin has had to face since taking office last year.

The contracts have been seen by students and many on the left as

an attack on job security at a time when many in France are feeling

deeply threatened by globalisation and any hint of change at home.

An official spokesman has talked of the need to improve the

contracts - which sounds like a government preparing to soften its position

in the face of growing disruption, our correspondent adds.

Mr de Villepin proposed the CPE law as part of a series of

measures designed to help youths in the French suburbs who took to the

streets last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4821670.stm

 

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Jorge Angelino

 

 

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