Protests Bring France to Standstill

A general strike took more than half of metros and trains in Paris out of service yesterday, causing huge rush hour traffic jams. Only two-thirds of France’s TGV high-speed trains were operational as well.

With many universities and high schools in France already affected by the unrest, teachers also joined Tuesday’s demonstration, along with opposition groups including France’s Socialist and Communist parties.

Students announced that following Tuesday’s strikes and demonstrations by unions and student organizations, they would block main streets and train stations on March 30.

Union leaders are expected to convene tomorrow morning, the second day of the general strike, to discuss the protest’s future direction.

According to a Le Monde newspaper poll yesterday, 83 percent of the public wants President Jacque Chirac to intervene and resolve the current crisis.

Security concerns–

Juveniles have participated in the latest series of protests in the downtown Paris, and violent clashes between youths and riot police took place in the outskirts of Paris yesterday. Police are concerned about a possible replay of last year’s violent youth riots.

Arson and rioting flared up near universities and high schools in the Seine-Saint Denis suburb north of Paris, the epicenter of last year’s violence. About 200 to 300 students took to the streets and destroyed several buses around schools. Four vehicles were burnt and one high school student was injured in the rioting.

At a station between Paris and Charles de Gaulle International Airport, youths and riot police clashed. Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s Minister of the Interior, warned student demonstrators not to join street gang protests.

Political conflict –

As the intensity of the protests is escalating, so is the tension between Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin and the president of the ruling party Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be the prime minister’s rival for the 2007 French presidential elections. During a party meeting on March 27, Minister Sarkozy did not attack the new labor law that was passed in a parliament led by Dominique De Villepin, but indirectly criticized the prime minister who pushed the legislation of the CPE without consulting with labor. Sarkozy, concerned about a fall in the approval rating of the ruling party for the protest against the labor law, did not comment on the riot earlier. But he is now trying to keep his distance from the prime minister.

Some political analysts say that the falling approval rating of the Dominique De Villepin in the aftermath of the ongoing social unrest is likely to benefit Sarkozy.