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Protests spread across France today as thousands of students marched against controversial government reforms intended to reduce unemployment among young people.
University and high school students clashed with police in several cities as they demanded the repeal of a new law proposed by the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to give employers greater flexibility to sack young workers within their first two years of work.
Fearing the new contract erodes coveted employment protections, students renewed their protests today with marches in Paris, Marseille, Grenoble, Rennes and Bordeaux.
In Rennes, students wearing flowers and carrying the rainbow flag of peace lay down in front of police carrying riot shields and wearing full armour and helmets. About 100 students burst into the city hall and refused to leave. The university has been closed for six weeks as students boycott classes in protest. The university at Toulouse closed its doors after clashes between students who wanted to shut the school in protest and those who wanted to keep it open.
"You can't live with a knife at your throat," said 21-year-old film student Sophie Cojan, a student protesting at the Place d'Italie in southern Paris.
"Villepin, you're toast - the students are in the streets!" the students chanted.
Mr de Villepin proposed the idea as a way to help underprivileged youths find jobs following riots in poor urban areas across the country last October and November. According to the OECD's latest figures, unemployment among under-25s in France is 23%, compared with 11% in the UK, 12% in Germany and a European Union average of 16.5%.
Under current law, employers face a stringent test when they terminate contracts and risk fines, or being forced to make fixed-term contracts permanent if they fail to adequately justify the redundancy.
The new contract allows employers to take on workers aged under 26 who have not worked for six months on a two-year deal. The test for making the employee redundant during that period is less tough than under the existing law, but remains reasonably stringent, according to the Paris-based employment lawyer Florence Dupont.
"If young people don't want this system then it has no chance of reducing unemployment," she said.
The prime minister has refused to withdraw the jobs measure, but was today seeking ways to make it more palatable. Mr de Villepin's office said he was to meet tonight with university presidents, who have urged negotiations to end the standoff.
The employment minister, Gerard Larcher, defended the government's decision not to consult unions before devising the law, saying it was hurrying to respond to unemployment problems exposed by last year's riots.
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