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French protesters set Easter deadline

French gendarmes push students off the road where they stopped a convoy transporting parts of the Airbus super jumbo A380, near Toulouse, south of France, yesterday in a protest against the government's contested First Employment Contract. PHOTO: AFP

French union and student leaders set an Easter deadline on Wednesday for the government to repeal its youth jobs law or face a repeat of the million-strong protests that have engulfed the nation.

Emboldened by protests on Tuesday in which more than a million people poured into the streets, they gave President Jacques Chirac's government until April 17 -- the Easter Monday start of parliament's spring recess -- to completely remove the legislation.

They said they were "ready, unless there is a rapid decision to withdraw the CPE [First Employment Contract], to decide on a new day of action."

Opponents of the CPE on Wednesday began holding separate meetings with Bernard Accoyer, parliamentary head of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to press their demands.

The talks, which are also to involve the MEDEF employers' association and the CGPME small business federation, were to continue until today.

Francois Chereque, of the CFDT, said UMP leaders had listened to his union's concerns but would not answer them until they had heard all parties involved.

President Jacques Chirac, whose government has been badly shaken by the scale and handling of the crisis, called on all sides to ensure the talks were "constructive," according to a spokesman.

Masses of demonstrators -- police said 1 million and unions said up to 3 million people -- took to the streets on Tuesday for a fifth day of nationwide protests against the law.

The main opposition Socialist Party issued a separate call for the law to be rescinded before the parliamentary recess.

Bernard Thibault, leader of the main CGT union, said he would not give up until the youth contract was withdrawn in full.

Student leader Bruno Julliard called for protests and strikes that have shut down dozens of French universities to "intensify" in the coming days.

Conceived as a tool against youth unemployment which runs at 22 percent in France, the CPE is a contract for under 26-year-olds that can be terminated by the employer without explanation during a two-year trial period.

Opponents accuse Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin of trampling on hard-won labor rights and railroading it through parliament without proper consultation with unions and employers.

More than 3,500 people have been arrested and hundreds of riot police injured in two months of street protests.

Chirac offered an elaborate compromise to end the crisis last week -- ratifying the measure, then suspending it pending a new law to amend its most contested provisions.

This week's talks are intended to hammer out an agreement on a new law -- although the student-union alliance refuses concessions on the CPE and wants all trace of the hated contract written out.

The French press was scathing about Villepin's chances of surviving the crisis, which has fractured the government and caused anguished soul-searching about France's social model.

"What use is Villepin?" the daily Parisien headlined.

Responsibility for drawing up the new law has been handed to Villepin's powerful rival, UMP chief and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, and a new poll shows that 45 percent of the public think the prime minister should resign.

The disruption continued on Wednesday with youths blocking access to a wholesale market in western Nantes, and similar action on roads and railway tracks in western Rennes, central Poitiers and southeastern Chambery.

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