Some 2,000 angry students massed on railroad tracks in Paris on Thursday, stopping international train traffic in a new push to force a contested youth labor law off the books. But France's equally combative prime minister refused to say whether the measure would be repealed.
Dominique de Villepin, calling for calm, spoke more clearly about his own destiny, brushing off growing speculation that he would resign.
President Jacques Chirac "gave me a mission, and I will lead this mission to the end," Villepin told a news conference. "All the rest is pure speculation and fantasy."
PHOTO: EPA
Stepping up wildcat disruptions with high-profile protests, students set up a pre-dawn blockade that stopped a convoy of parts for the Airbus A380 jumbo jet, the crown jewel of European aviation.
Students paralyzed all trains at the Gare du Nord station in Paris for nearly two hours, blocking arrivals and departures including Eurostar runs to and from London and the Thalys to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Some 200 police in riot gear moved them out, allowing thousands of passengers packed into the station to start their travels.
Protesters earlier occupied the tracks of another Paris station, the Gare de l'Est, for an hour. In the evening, about 40 protesters temporarily blocked a northern section of the circular highway around Paris.
There was some violence during the evacuation of some 450 students blocking rails at a train station in the southwest city of Toulouse, and four protesters and a police officer were hospitalized with head traumas and other injuries, officials of the local prefecture said. The officer had been hit with a stone. The Sud railway workers union denounced the force used by police as "totally out of proportion."
There were protests elsewhere in France, from the eastern city of Strasbourg, where several hundred students blocked the Pont de l'Europe bridge that links France and Germany, to the Brittany city of Rennes.
"This is very irritating, but I can understand it," said John Ring, a 40-year-old French businessman at Paris' Gare du Nord who was trying to get to The Hague. "What I can't understand is how the government would allow the situation to get to this point."
While continuing to justify the reasons behind a reform aimed at denting sky-high joblessness among the young, Villepin said he was listening to the voices of discontent.
As the crisis over the jobs law that gained steam in the middle of last month rolled on, lawmakers from the governing UMP party met for a second day with unions and students in search of a way out. Protesters are demanding the measure be withdrawn.
"The immediate priority, as we all know, is restoring calm," Villepin said.
"It is time to get out of the crisis," he said, adding that classes should resume ahead of exams.
The jobs law, which aims to encourage hiring by making it easier to fire youths, has inspired disruptive protests at hundreds of universities and high schools and spurred massive demonstrations that have ended in violence by a few troublemakers.
The law is designed to inject flexibility into the country's rigid labor rules. It originally provided for a two-year trial period during which employers could fire youths under 26 without cause. Protesters say it would make young employees easy to get rid of.
Villepin for weeks relentlessly defended the jobs law, until Chirac handed the problem to lawmakers from his party.
In a maneuver to save face for Villepin, Chirac signed the controversial measure into law last weekend -- but ordered the talks.
Villepin refused to prejudge the outcome of negotiations, saying "we will draw conclusions together" and "make the necessary choices to combat unemployment."
He backed down several notches from his inflexible stance of the past.
"I am pragmatic. In this time of dialogue it is important to be open," he said. "I am listening."
But the prime minister insisted that the 23 percent rate of youth unemployment that climbs above 50 percent in depressed, heavily immigrant suburbs, is at the heart of "French difficulties." It was a major cause in triggering riots by suburban youths last fall.
"It is my responsibility, as head of the government, not to allow such a situation to go unanswered," he said. "Our country today needs action."
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS