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Protest snowballs, people jam streets all over France

Vaiju Naravane

Over two million people participate in 192 demonstrations

Paris: The eight-kilometre stretch between Place de l'Italie and Place de la Republique here was thick with people — wave after wave of them carrying banners and placards, singing, shouting and beating drums.

In yet another massive show of strength, an estimated 7,00,000 persons turned out in Paris to protest against the Government's First Employment Contract, which President Jacques Chirac promulgated into law last week. The atmosphere was almost festive with fine weather and good-natured jostling. In 192 demonstrations across the country over two million people jammed the streets, saying `no' to the half-hearted compromise offered by the President. In a nationwide address last Friday, Mr. Chirac said he would promulgate the new law but some of its key clauses, hotly contested, would not be applied. In effect, he asked MPs from his ruling UMP Party, led by Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, to start negotiations from Wednesday on a new law that would supplement or supplant the earlier one.

But trade unions and student bodies said they wanted a clear retraction or abrogation of the earlier law and negotiations without preconditions. Meetings between UMP parliamentarians and the unions are to begin on Wednesday.

In the Mediterranean port of Marseille, unions said 2,50,000 people took part in a rally, while in Nantes in the west an estimated 75,000 people turned out — a small rise over the last big demonstration on March 28.

In most cities there were sharp differences over figures given out by the police and the organisers, the police attempting to play down the size of the protesting crowds. Although Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Mr. Sarkozy had lunch together, the Prime Minister has clearly lost the initiative and the dossier is now firmly in the hands of the Interior Minister, who is also the leader of the UMP Party.

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