France's students and unions prepared a victory parade yesterday to mark the demise of a hated youth jobs law, with politicians and analysts split over whether the hope of labor market reform was dead too.
The opponents of the First Job Contract (CPE), whose five previous protests mobilized millions across the country, vowed to keep up their guard until new measures to replace the "easy hire, easy fire" law for young workers have been passed.
The marches were due to start in the early afternoon. "We are calling for the pressure to be kept up until parliament votes the repeal of the CPE, including by blocking universities if necessary," said Unef students' union head Bruno Julliard.
Unions refrained from calling for fresh strikes and some universities, including the protest center at Rennes in western France, voted to reopen classes with Easter holidays and spring examinations fast approaching.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who emerged strengthened after his rival Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was forced to withdraw the law, argued that the government's change of heart did not mean Paris could not pass needed but unpopular changes.
"I don't think the French refuse reforms," he told Europe 1 radio. "The French accept change but always want to be assured that it is fair. They found these proposals unfair."
But Sarkozy admitted there was little leeway for change in the twilight of Jacques Chirac's 12-year presidency: "You don't reform the same way at the end of an administration as you do at the beginning."
The business daily La Tribune disagreed, saying that the CPE and Villepin's pride were not the only victims of the unrest.
"Alas, the hope for reform has been buried with them," it wrote. "No important reform can be undertaken in the 12 months ahead of us until next year's presidential election. And nothing says it will be easier after that," the paper said.
Another business daily, Les Echos, said: "The politicians have no real margin for error anymore. After so many years of failure on the jobs front, they're not far from collectively losing all of their credit."
Tuesday's nationwide rallies will be the first test of sentiment after Chirac said on Monday the CPE would be replaced by measures to help disadvantaged young people find work.
His statement carefully avoided the words "withdrawal" or "repeal" to spare the blushes of the CPE's main champion, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, but some of its opponents hinted the battle was not yet over.
Meanwhile, wildcat protests continued across France yesterday, despite the demise of the law. Dozens of students blocked two bus depots in southwestern Toulouse, where two universities have voted to remain on strike, despite the decision to drop the contested contract.
In Nantes, in the west, around 150 demonstrators vaulted fences at the city airport, briefly invading the runways, before being evacuated by police.
Students at Nantes university also voted to remain on strike.
In Rouen, northwest France, some 200 university and high-school students set up a roadblock on a city access road, causing a major traffic snarl on the highway linking the city to Le Havre.
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