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Mass protests over job law turn ugly in French capital

Mass protests over job law turn ugly in French capital

PARIS – Riot police teargassed scores of demonstrators in Paris on Saturday night after an estimated million people took to the streets of France to protest a widely unpopular new labour law.

Hundreds of young demonstrators defied police following a peaceful march though Paris which attracted up to 350 000 people, hurling objects at officers who eventually drove them back, charging the crowd and using tear gas grenades. Vehicles were set on fire and overturned, and nearby windows smashed.At least five officers and about a dozen demonstrators were injured and over 100 people were arrested in the unrest at the eastern Place de la Nation that lasted nearly four hours, police said.About 500 student then marched on Paris’ Sorbonne university in the Latin Quarter, the scene of earlier clashes.Chanting “Liberate the Sorbonne!” the students charged and removed some barriers erected by police to block access to the university, and threw a Molotov cocktail at a riot police van, but a fire was quickly extinguished.Police drove back the students with water cannon, and then deployed in front of the remaining barriers to prevent their advance.In the Mediterranean port of Marseille hundreds of militants demonstrated, some trying to set fire to the entrance to the town hall before police drove them back.One officer was injured and six youths arrested, police said.There were also clashes in the northern city of Lille with police responding with tear gas, as well as Grenoble in the east and Clermont-Ferrand in the centre.Unions said 1,5 million demonstrators took part in more than 150 rallies across the country against the centre-right government’s First Employment Contract (CPE) – drawing students, workers, pensioners and families.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 CPE, a contract for under 26-year-olds that can be terminated in the first two years without explanation, is supposed to encourage employers to take on young staff.Drawn up in the wake of riots late last year in high-immigration city suburbs – where youth unemployment can be as high as 50 per cent – the CPE was approved by parliament last week as part of a wider equal opportunities law.But the opposition says the CPE is a step back from hard-won labour rights, and will make it more difficult than ever for young people to find long-term employment.”The demand for withdrawal of the CPE is gathering ever greater force.Seventy per cent of the French want it withdrawn, and 80 per cent of young people.The government is in a dead-end,” said Bernard Thibault of the CGT union.- Nampa-AFPVehicles were set on fire and overturned, and nearby windows smashed.At least five officers and about a dozen demonstrators were injured and over 100 people were arrested in the unrest at the eastern Place de la Nation that lasted nearly four hours, police said.About 500 student then marched on Paris’ Sorbonne university in the Latin Quarter, the scene of earlier clashes.Chanting “Liberate the Sorbonne!” the students charged and removed some barriers erected by police to block access to the university, and threw a Molotov cocktail at a riot police van, but a fire was quickly extinguished.Police drove back the students with water cannon, and then deployed in front of the remaining barriers to prevent their advance.In the Mediterranean port of Marseille hundreds of militants demonstrated, some trying to set fire to the entrance to the town hall before police drove them back.One officer was injured and six youths arrested, police said.There were also clashes in the northern city of Lille with police responding with tear gas, as well as Grenoble in the east and Clermont-Ferrand in the centre.Unions said 1,5 million demonstrators took part in more than 150 rallies across the country against the centre-right government’s First Employment Contract (CPE) – drawing students, workers, pensioners and families.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 CPE, a contract for under 26-year-olds that can be terminated in the first two years without explanation, is supposed to encourage employers to take on young staff.Drawn up in the wake of riots late last year in high-immigration city suburbs – where youth unemployment can be as high as 50 per cent – the CPE was approved by parliament last week as part of a wider equal opportunities law.But the opposition says the CPE is a step back from hard-won labour rights, and will make it more difficult than ever for young people to find long-term employment.”The demand for withdrawal of the CPE is gathering ever greater force.Seventy per cent of the French want it withdrawn, and 80 per cent of young people.The government is in a dead-end,” said Bernard Thibault of the CGT union.- Nampa-AFP

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