The French are Revolting -- yet again
Like we expected anything different.
From
Reuters:
Paris job law rally turns violent
Rampaging French youths set fire to cars and looted shops in Paris on Thursday, marring protests against a youth jobs law that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in a conciliatory move, agreed to discuss with unions.
Aides said Villepin would meet senior trade union officials on Friday to try to defuse a crisis that has triggered a national strike threat and drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters on to French streets.
In Paris, riot police fired tear gas in clashes with youths, dubbed "casseurs" by the French, in the Invalides areas near the Foreign Ministry, Reuters witnesses said.
Youths threw stones at police and set fire to the door of an apartment building in running battles at the end of a largely peaceful rally by thousands of students and workers against the CPE First Job Contract.
"This time, there are lots of young criminals on the march who are there to steal and smash. This discredits the movement," said Charlie Herblin, a 22-year-old worker on the march.
Dozens of young people, many wearing masks or hoods, overturned cars, smashed shop windows and robbed student demonstrators of clothes and mobile phones, witnesses said. Police said they had arrested 42 people.
Clashes also erupted in the western city of Rennes, where about 300 to 400 youths battled with police.
Tens of thousands of students marched in cities throughout France, including Tours, Orleans and Marseille, as part of rolling protests designed to maintain pressure on Villepin to axe a contract they say will create "Kleenex workers" whom employers can throw away at will.
Emphasis mine -- kind of hard to discredit when you have little or no credibility to begin with. At least Monsieur Herblin is actually a worker and is employed.
As for the Kleenex Workers -- I would bet that the companies are salivating over people who actually have a skill and solid work ethic, the only people who get thrown away in this plan are those slackers who just want a free ride. Good riddance in my book...
And it is nice to see Mr. de Villepin growing some stones. I was at odds with his decisions three years ago but he seems to be slowly seeing the light. This kind of legislation was needed twenty years ago.
Posted by DaveH at March 24, 2006 8:54 PM