castledoom.com

[JuntaJoe]

First the article:

Unrest Reaches Paris; 13 Cars Torched

November 05, 2005 9:53 PM EST
PARIS - The urban unrest that triggered scores of arson attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets from the Mediterranean to the German border reached Paris overnight, with police saying early Sunday that 13 cars were burned in the French capital.

By 1 a.m., at least 607 vehicles - including those in Paris - were burned during the 10th night of violence, said Patrick Hamon, spokesman for the national police. The overall figures were expected to climb by daybreak, he added.

The violence - originally concentrated in neighborhoods northeast of Paris with large immigrant populations - has spread across France, extending west to the rolling fields of Normandy and south to resort cities on the Mediterranean. Attacks were reported in Cannes and Nice.

In the Normandy town of Evreux, arsonists burned at least 50 vehicles, part of a shopping center, a post office and two schools, Hamon said.

Five police officers and three firefighters were injured battling the blazes, he said.

The unrest is forcing France to confront long-simmering anger in its suburbs, where many Africans and their French-born children live on society's margins, struggling with unemployment, poor housing, racial discrimination, crime and a lack of opportunity.

Police deployed a helicopter and tactical teams to chase down youths speeding from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes. Some 2,300 police were brought into the Paris region to bolster security, France-Info said. More than 250 people were arrested.

The violence erupted Oct. 27 following the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who hid in a power substation, apparently believing police were chasing them.

The anger spread to the Internet, with blogs mourning the youths.

Along with messages of condolence and appeals for calm were insults targeting police, threats of more violence and warnings that the unrest will feed support for France's anti-immigration extreme right.

"Civil war is declared. There will no doubt be deaths. Unfortunately, we have to prepare," said a posting signed "Rania."

"We are going to destroy everything. Rest in peace, guys," wrote "Saint Denis."

The unrest reached Paris late Saturday. Hamon had no immediate information on the neighborhoods where the vehicles were torched. Paris police headquarters said three cars were damaged by fire in the Republique section, northeast of City Hall.

"It's copycat acts," Hamon said. "All these hoodlums see others setting fires and say they can do it, too."

Evreux, 60 miles to the west, appeared to suffer the worst damage Saturday. The burning of the shopping center showed that "there is a will to pillage," Hamon said. "This has been true since the start," referring to grocery stores, video stores and other businesses that have been set afire.

The unrest has taken on unprecedented scope and intensity, reaching far-flung corners of France on Saturday, from Rouen in Normandy to Bordeaux in the southwest to Strasbourg near the German border.

However, the Paris region has borne the brunt.

In quiet Acheres, on the edge of the St. Germain forest west of Paris, arsonists burned a nursery school, where part of the roof caved in, and about a dozen cars in attacks the mayor described as "perfectly organized."

Children's photos clung to the blackened walls, and melted plastic toys littered the floor. Residents gathered at the school gate, demanding that the army be deployed or suggesting that citizens band together to protect their neighborhoods.

Mayor Alain Outreman tried to cool tempers.

"We are not going to start militias," he said. "You would have to be everywhere."

Cars were torched in the cultural bastion of Avignon in the south and the resort cities of Nice and Cannes, a police officer said.

Arson was reported in Nantes in the southwest, the Lille region in the north and Saint-Dizier in the Ardennes region east of Paris. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, 18 cars were set alight in full daylight, police said.

In one attack, youths in the eastern Paris suburb of Meaux prevented paramedics from evacuating a sick person from a housing project. They pelted rescuers with rocks and then torched the waiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry official said.

Most of the overnight arrests occurred near Paris. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned that those convicted could face severe sentences for burning cars.

"Violence penalizes those who live in the toughest conditions," he said after a government crisis meeting.

Most rioting has been in towns with low-income housing projects where unemployment and distrust of police run high. But in a new development, arsonists were moving beyond their heavily policed neighborhoods to attack others with less security, Hamon said.

"They are very mobile, in cars or scooters. ... It is quite hard to combat" he said. "Most are young, very young, we have even seen young minors."

There appeared to be no coordination between separate groups in different areas, Hamon said. But within gangs, he added, youths are communicating by cell phones or e-mails.

"They organize themselves, arrange meetings, some prepare the Molotov cocktails," he said.

In Torcy, close to Disneyland Paris, a youth center and a police station were set ablaze. In Suresnes, on the Seine River west of the capital, 44 cars were burned in a parking lot.

"We thought Suresnes was calm," said Naima Mouis, a hospital employee whose car was torched.

On Saturday morning, more than 1,000 people marched through one of the worst-hit suburbs, Aulnay-sous-Bois. Local officials wore sashes in the red, white and blue of the French flag as they filed past housing projects and the wrecks of burned cars. One white banner read, "No to violence."

Anger was fanned days ago when a tear gas bomb exploded in a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois - the northern suburb where the youths were electrocuted.

Sarkozy also has inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as "scum."


Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[JuntaJoe]

So what do you think will come of all this?


Is this a civil war brewing?

Is this the beginning of another Fortress Europe?


The Africans are literally storming Gilbralter trying to cross into Europe.

The Morrocan army has to machinegun the human waves to keep them back from Spanish enclaves.

[CooJoe]

I could see another French revolution coming. (I bet there'll be cake.)

It's also likely a bunch of punks who think they're hardcore, setting daycares on fire.

I'll have to find out more.

[Baron]

Here are some quotes from an article in the New York Sun, dated November 4th (http://www.nysun.com/article/22526):


"If President Chirac thought he was going to gain peace with the Muslim community in France by taking an appeasement line in the Iraq war, it certainly looks like he miscalculated...the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs...It turns out that France's Muslim community lives in areas rampant with crime, poverty, and unemployment, much the fault of France's prized welfare system...The lack of labor market flexibility and other socialist policies have created unemployment at nearly 10%, most of which falls among immigrants...

"It's a barely kept secret that Mr. Chirac led the opposition to the Iraq war out of fear of how his Muslim population would react. This fear is a big part of why France portrays itself as America's counterweight and why it criticizes Israel at every turn and coddled the terrorist Yasser Arafat right up to his death. This doesn't elicit thanks from Muslim radicals in France. It turns out to project an image of weakness. Unsurprisingly when faced with some unhappiness they believe they can pressure the French state into submission.

"A number of observers of the French scene have looked at population trends and suggested that France is on its way to becoming a Muslim country (one that would, let it be noted, be armed with hydrogen bombs). Some react to this by suggesting a halt to immigration and even expulsion. The better approach is to impose law and order, more speedily to reform the burdensome welfare state, and start integrating the Muslim community. France could also help itself by dispatching troops to help battle the radical Islamists in Iraq, thereby sending a message to Muslims at home and abroad that France is on the side of those Muslims, the majority no doubt, who want to live in peace."


Burn, Paris, burn. If I were there, I'd be rioting too. The French government has perpetuated outrages! They banned religious icons in schools...no Catholic student can wear a crucifix, no Jewish student can wear a skullcap, no Muslim student can wear a headscarf or burka. I remember an article a few years ago, in which a French girl complained that all her teachers want her to fit in---by wearing tight jeans and small shirts, instead of her traditional garb. I think I'm going to protest this by wearing Muslim garb, or a priest outfit, to class every day. And post pictures online, and send angry letters to all my congressional representatives and the French ambassador. Generally, I'm one pissed student.

I see three results: the first scenario is, the current joke of a government in France collapses to be replaced by something more classically liberal. This will be to socialism what the collapse of the Soviet Union was to communism. Unfortunately, that is unlikely. The next scenario is that, by the unstoppable trend of demographics, France becomes a muslim country. That will certainly play hell with politics in the region.

The most likely thing I can imagine: France is set on a sort of Road to Serfdom, as the government will have to resort to more and more totalitarian measures to protect itself.

[JuntaJoe]

France Declares State of Emergency

November 08, 2005 9:59 PM EST

PARIS - France declared a state of emergency Tuesday to quell the country's worst unrest since the student uprisings of 1968 that toppled a government, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth" over its failure to integrate Arab and African immigrants and their children.

The extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday and are valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews after nearly two weeks of rioting in neglected and impoverished neighborhoods with largely Muslim communities.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, tacitly acknowledging that France has failed to live up to its egalitarian ideals, reached out to the heavily immigrant suburbs where the rioting began. He said France must make a priority of working against the discrimination that feeds the frustration of youths made to feel that they do not belong in France.

"We must be lucid: The Republic is at a moment of truth," Villepin told parliament. "The effectiveness of our integration model is in question." He called the riots "a warning" and "an appeal."

Despite his conciliatory tone, Villepin said riot police faced "determined individuals, structured gangs, organized criminality," and that restoring order "will take time." Rioters have been using mobile phone text messages and the Internet to organize arson attacks, said police, who arrested two teenage bloggers accused of inciting other youths to riot.

The rioting is forcing France to confront anger building for decades among residents who complain of discrimination and unemployment. Although many of the French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants are Muslim, police say the violence is not being driven by Islamic groups.

Images of teenagers from immigrant families pelting riot police with stones and gasoline bombs - reminiscent of Palestinian youths attacking Israeli patrols - are striking a cord throughout the Arab world.

The Egyptian daily Al-Massaie referred to the riots as "the intefadeh of the poor." Arabic satellite networks have given lead coverage to the mayhem, with regular live reports. Newspapers throughout the region have closely followed the story, calling it a "nightmare" and a "war of the suburbs."

Arson attacks, rioting and other unrest have spread from the suburbs to hundreds of cities and towns - though acts of violence were down somewhat Monday night from the previous evening.

In the first reports of violence Tuesday night, a clash broke out between youths who threw gasoline bombs and police who retaliated with tear gas, LCI television said.

The 50-year-old state-of-emergency law that President Jacques Chirac invoked was originally drawn up to quell unrest in Algeria during its war of independence from France and was last used in December 1984 by the Socialist government of President Francois Mitterrand against rioting in the French Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia.

That Chirac took such steps was a measure both of the gravity of the crisis and of his sorely tested government's determination to restore control.

"France is wounded. It does not recognize itself in these devastated streets and neighborhoods, in this outburst of hatred and of violence that vandalizes and kills," Villepin said. "The return to order is the absolute priority."

Under the emergency laws, police - with 8,000 officers deployed and 1,500 reservists called up as reinforcements - could be empowered in areas where curfews are imposed to put troublemakers under house arrest, ban or limit the movement of people and vehicles, confiscate weapons and close public spaces where gangs gather, Villepin said.

The Interior Ministry said local officials were deciding whether curfew measures were needed in their areas. The Justice Ministry said curfew violators could face up to two months imprisonment and a $4,400 fine. Minors face one month imprisonment.

The northern French city of Amiens and the central city of Orleans said they planned curfews for minors under age 16, who must be accompanied by adults at night. Amiens also planned to forbid the sale of gasoline in cans to minors.

The widespread violence has already led France to begin fast-track trials, with 106 adults and 33 minors so far sentenced to prison or detention centers.

The violence started Oct. 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb angry over the accidental electrocutions of two teenagers, of Mauritanian and Tunisian descent, while hiding from police in a power substation.

It has grown into a nationwide insurrection by disillusioned suburban youths, many of them French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories like Algeria. France's suburbs have long been neglected and their youth complain of a lack of jobs and widespread discrimination.

In his speech to parliament, Villepin said jobseekers with foreign-sounding names do not get equal consideration as those with traditional French-sounding names.

The French system, said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a lawmaker from Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of northeast Paris where the unrest started, is "running out of steam."

The main opposition Socialists, through their parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, said they did not oppose the use of curfews but also warned that they should not be used to hide suburban "misery" or become "a new mark of segregation."

Communist Party leader Marie-George Buffet warned that the decree could enflame rioters. "It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out more violence," she said.

French historians say the rioting is more widespread and destructive in material terms than the May riots of 1968, when university students erected barricades in Paris' Latin Quarter and across France, throwing paving stones at police. That unrest, a turning point in modern France, led to a general strike by 10 million workers and forced President Gen. Charles de Gaulle to dissolve parliament and fire Premier Georges Pompidou.

Associated Press 2005

[JuntaJoe]

France isn't the only country with troubles tonight.

Germany and Belgium too. That represents the bloc of countries who kept NATO out of Iraq.

Appeasement never works. It fosters isolationism that enemies exploit. Engagement is always the answer. Note my choice of word there. Engagement. It's more than just aggression. It's about getting into their communities and dealing with all the issues.

Note how the "hated Anglo" countries deal with the issue. We go after the figureheads, regimes, and destructive cultures, while encouraging assimilation at home. Join us. Truly join us. That means dropping the destructive ties to the old countries. Sift your past culture for the the things that coexist and those that don't so you can meld with the native environment.

When acts of terror happened in America and England, the visible Muslim community at home strongly denounces the terror, and not glorifing it.


Creating a padded wall at home or abroad never works.

You must break down the walls and move into their living rooms.


France needs to accept that allowing immigrants means letting them fully enter society instead of trying to dole them into complacency in their refugee enclaves. Warehousing people never works.

If France wants to keep their socialistic luxury state then they will need to send those refugees away.

They can have socialism or refugees. Not both.

[s_stabeler]

Good point JuntaJoe, look how quickly trhose responsible for the second wave of attacks lost their hideawaysd, and the masterminds of both lost theirs too, they ended up being brought to justice I believe, and condemmened by their own families. not exactly going to destabilise the brittish government, are they. kind of smacks of somehting that happened in russia with one of the tsars, he wanted to give the people a vote, they assasinated him, he was replaced by his son, who pulled the plans for votes for people. that meant they went backwards, which is what these people have, without isolating the muslim community. hell, they aren't even engaging in a proper jihad, as it is a war of offense, not defence, it is targeted at the innocent, and it has not been declared by a religious leader, or at least not one that is a muslim leader, it is their own self-appointed leaders specifically for the task.

[JuntaJoe]

You can thank the Iron Lady for your situation, Stabler. Margaret Hatcher tore down some of the walls of your old dole system and required everyone to compete in the marketplace. Your mixed bag of immigrants had their chance finally to get real jobs if they worked hard enough.

Sure, you still have poor immigrant slums in England. We have them here too.

But it is all about giving hope to those who try hard as an example to those who don't.

This breaks down the us/them barrier and puts it on the shoulders of the individual. Glory or guilt becomes a personal issue instead of a collective one.

Protectionism and Isolationism never works. You aren't protected and they never leave you alone. No, you have to deal with them so they begin worrying about themselves instead of you.

[s_stabeler]

exactly. over here, they certainly can get benifits (i think they have to wait a few months first) but they don't get the cosy life some people think they get. and also, what with the minimum wage rising, it is much better for them to actually work, ok so it seems they actually have to pay tax if they are employed, it has been very cynically set, but they would have significantly more money if they worked, and people are actually accepting of immigrants, because, like america really, we are a nation of immigrants, there is no such thing as a true brit, as there have been so many immigrants, the celts, the romans, the saxons, the vikings, and many more. that seems to help a lot.

Maybe france could learn from our 'anglo-saxon' social model, it does prevent violence, we havehad unrest, sure, but have we ever had a revolution ( not counting the english civil war or the glorious revolution, they were not the same thing, as we were under an oppressive king, which isn't the point), no. have we ever had a terror, save when we have had senile and paranoid kings? no. what we have is a working democracy, that treats its people well and doesn't need to cause massive arguments over farm subsidies.

Remember, that britain was ready to compromise over the rebate, it basically said, allow reform of your boated farm subsidies, which would hit all the EU countries, and we'll allow you to reform the rebate. but no, they had to say that it had to be without conditions. may i remind everyone that the rebate is so that britain does not have to pay an unfair amount into the EU budget, we would be the largest contributor to the EU budget, and are pretty much running a deficit ourselves, and they want us to run a worse one just so they can taske the money and give it to their farmers which are causing problems for our own farmers?

In essence, they are asking us to abandon our farmers, let them sink financially, when the north sea oil and gas is beginnig to run out and when we really need to be supporting our farmers, they basically tell us, we are having difficulties paying our farmers too much, so can you pay them the whole of your rebate, and let your farmers sink? I have a farmer for an aunt, and the french don't realise that although over here, subsidies are linked to amount of land you own, if you own a combine, you can still turn a profit without the subsidies.

They are shielding their farmers from having to face up to the modern era, while ours have had to endure basically cuts in subsidy, and they are more efficient, so that even a small family holding can actually make a profit if they own a combine harvester. but, to prevent this injustice, we had to veto the whole EU budget. how sad is it that due to france wanting to shield it's farmers from the reality of needing to be efficient, spending just enough, the whole EU budget had to go up in flames, causing a crisis.

sorry for the rant, but i wanted to point out the mistake chirac made in denigrating the so-called 'anglo-saxon' social model.

[JuntaJoe]

I fully understand the feelings behind protecting farmers. It's a cultural thing in every culture.

But the time is truly ripe to take them off the subsidies. Huge agriculture conglomerates are fully capable of providing the bulk sustinence of the planet without tax subsidy. And yet they manage to find a way to get their share of the handouts. That's just corporate welfare, imo.

So that leaves the small farmer. They come in two varieties. Inefficient general purpose farms that are family enterprises and don't really do more than provide cash for the family and modestly increase the food supply for the local area. The other is specialty farms that produce high demand or high value foods. These are becoming very profitable with international shipping and refridgerated trucking.

These specialty farms really don't need the subsidy either, but they get it. What needs to happen is a multi-year plan to help the small "general produce" farms convert to specialty farms. Wean them off the farm subsidies slowly and also send out experts to help them convert to a high profit product line.

Then when all the farmers are stable then you open the import floodgates. Put cheap produce on the shelves for the masses. The specialty farmers will survive. Just look at your local big grocer produce section. You see two sections. One is the "Organically Grown" section. A higher price to cover the lower volume sold. But it still sells well.

France prides itself on its produce. They worry that cheap imports will reduce the quality of the local cuisine. Don't they trust the shoppers? Why would a Michelin 4 Star restaurant chef go buy cheap produce off the docks? Trust me, he won't. He'll order directly from quality local farms with excellent reputations. And if some restaurant tries to go cheap then the critics will notice and change the ratings.

Instead of subsidies that are little more than dole for some farmers, and corporate graft for others, we need to modify the business model so that smaller farms generate a high value/demand product and can sustain themselves without burdening the taxpayer.

We simply have so much emotion wrapped up in this problem that we can't see that some small farms have escaped from marginal status with innovation. In an increasingly wealthy world, there will always be demand for niche market foods and we need to steer the family farms in that direction with tech, horticultural, and business consulting.

So many trade barriers and so many taxes in this world are wrapped up in this food issue that other needs go unfunded when we really don't need to prop these farms up with cash handouts.


Ok, enough of that sidetrack.


Anyone notice that the riots still continue, but the world press has stopped reporting it?

More lefty manipulation of the media, if you ask me.

[s_stabeler]

nope, actually it's because it is becoming old news.

[Baron]

Stocktraders are trading in New York, officials are taking bribes in Moscow, call centers are busy in Bombay, and cars are burning in Paris. The world keeps on turning.

Aren't most agricultural subsidies given to tobacco and cotton farmers?

[JuntaJoe]

Not hardly. ConAgra and ADM are the biggest recipients of farms subsidies in the US. They are the big grain, corn, and soybean conglomerates.

But what is the pattern here is not relevant to Europe. They subsidize all the farmers.

[JuntaJoe]

So many ironic things came to mind as I read this that I simply went into brain gridlock.

But I've decided to let it speak for itself. :wink:


Chirac: TV Network to Display French Values

PARIS - A French international TV network starting up in 2006 will be a vehicle for transmitting France's values and world vision to other parts of the globe, President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.

The president's comments at a Cabinet meeting came a day after Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin signed off on a deal for a joint venture between France Televisions and the private station TF1, clearing the way for the network's creation.

The French Channel for International Information, or CFII - will be able to "carry the values of France and its vision of the world everywhere on the globe," Chirac said, according to government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

Authorities consider CFII a counterpoint to the influence of American and British global news networks.

"We must be first in the global battle of images," Chirac told the Cabinet.

CNN, a world leader in 24-hour television news, said it welcomes the French addition to a field of more than 70 news channels operating around the clock - but doesn't see CFII as direct competition.

"As the pioneer of 24-hour news broadcasting, CNN welcomes the growth of a genre," spokesman Nigel Pritchard said by telephone from Atlanta, Georgia, CNN headquarters.

"Competition is always healthy, but CNN International is an English-language network and we don't see CFII as direct competition," Pritchard said. "We wish them well in their new venture and stand ready to help."

The French cable network will received some $17.7 million from the government in startup funds. That will be increased to $76.7 million next year and $82 million per year between 2007 and 2010.

The aid was approved in June by the European Commission because the project is regarded as "a service of general economic interest."

News programs in French, English and Arabic will reach audiences in Europe, Africa and the Middle East by cable, satellite and the Internet. Later, the channel plans to target Spanish-speakers and broadcast in Asia, Latin America and North America.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

[Brf]

Propaganda machines always amuse me.

[s_stabeler]

true. even more amusing when it isn't likely to actually work on many countries, as france never had that large an empire. while it'll probably be approved for broadcast in the UK, who is honestly going to listen when they can listen to UNBIASED news on other stations. why does there need to be a counter to the BBC when it is impartial anyhow? i'd say they are simply trying to gain allies at the expense if Britain, and wrec k the world economy like they have their own. sigh.........

[JuntaJoe]

BBC unbiased? Ha! :lol:

We get BBC-America here on our PBS stations. It's nothing but a constant barrage on the Bush administration. It's not very nice to Blair either.

But you Brits do have pretty good programming on your ITN news. I found it very impartial. But the lefty college kids running our PBS station kicked it off the air here in favor of the BBC. I'm pretty steamed about that move.

Nothing can be truly unbiased when people are involved, but you can get close with the newswires, Chicago Tribune, and ITN.

So France wants to export their mess, huh?

Perhaps it's secretly funded by Detroit as a way to sell more cars.......after they burn. :P

[JuntaJoe]

Violence erupts in French student protests


French police used teargas and water cannon when violence erupted as students turned up the heat on Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin over a jobs law on Thursday, while his government struggled to defuse the crisis.

Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police at the end of a march by several thousand university and high school students in Paris and later outside the Sorbonne university.

A kiosk and a car were set ablaze and several windows in shops and cafes were smashed during the violence, which went on late into the evening with scattered groups clashing with police in the Latin Quarter. Police said 181 people were arrested.

Protests across France have gathered in momentum since hundreds of thousands of protesters turned out on March 7 against the law, which critics say reduces job protection for young people. The protests have been largely peaceful so far.

Student leaders said 300,000 to 600,000 marched across France and that 64 of the country's 84 universities were hit by the protests. Officials reported 247,500 protesters nationwide.

"CRS = SS!" chanted protesters at the Sorbonne, comparing the riot police to the leading Nazi troops. At least eight riot police were injured in the unrest and several dozen youths, many of them hooded or masked, were hauled away by police.

The protests could hurt the conservative Villepin's hopes of running for president in 2007. He says the law will help reduce unemployment among the young, now running at 22.8 percent, more than twice the overall national rate.

Opinion polls show Villepin's popularity has tumbled during the biggest test of his 10 months in office.

Street protests can make or break governments in France. Protests in 1995 badly undermined the then conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppe, who lost snap elections two years later.

MORE PROTESTS PLANNED

Trade unions plan another action day on Saturday and hope to top the one million protesters they estimated took part in the March 7 protests. Police estimates were half that figure.

Police fired teargas after 100 students briefly occupied a town hall in the western city of Rennes on Thursday. Thousands of students marched in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille and in Bordeaux in the southwest.

In Paris, police in riot gear fired teargas at several dozen youths pelting them with stones after the main march ended at a square only a few blocks from Villepin's Matignon Palace office.

Nearby boutiques and the elite Sciences Po university closed as a precaution as the protests signaled hardening opposition to the law, which allows employers to dismiss workers under 26 during a two-year trial period without having to give a reason.

"Chirac, Villepin, Sarkozy, your trial period is up!" read one banner in Paris, referring to President Jacques Chirac, his prime minister and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Student and union leaders have spurned an offer of talks over the law from Villepin, who railroaded the measure through parliament. They say he must back down.

"I am open to dialogue within the framework of the law and to improve the First Job Contract," said Villepin. But he has vowed to stand firm over the law because he believes in it.

With no end in sight to the standoff, ministers have offered six-monthly reviews of the law in an effort to defuse tensions.

"Perhaps it isn't the best solution, perhaps we could improve it, but at least we're moving forwards," Finance Minister Thierry Breton said on RMC radio.

France's unemployment rate is one of the highest in Europe at 9.6 percent and more than twice that for under 25-year-olds. It tops 40 percent in some run-down neighborhoods.

Surburban riots last year were widely blamed on high youth unemployment in poor areas.

(Additional reporting by Brian Rohan in Paris, Jean Francois Rosnoblet in Marseille and Pierre-Henri Allain in Rennes)

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.

[JuntaJoe]

I just found out what this job law is all about.


It seems that if you go to government funded college that the government must guarantee you a job for 2 years after your graduation.

No matter how crappy you work or belligerent you are, you get to keep that job.

Makes a Teamster job look positively risky in comparison.


Well, the government feeling the money pinch has decided that you should keep your job based on, of all things.....*gasp*.....merit! :shock:

The horror!

To actually earn your right to keep your job?!!





Slackers. :roll:

[Eddy]

Normally I'm against employers and for the employees (my career history might account for my bias), but that's just incredible. Guaranteed employment regardless of the employee's attitude? Yeesh. We just got rid of some deadweight here at work and it was amazing to see their attitude. Good riddance. Telling an employer that they must keep an obviously unsuitable person is just wrong.