Home > Riots in France - against the government’s youth jobs plan

Riots in France - against the government’s youth jobs plan

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 14 March 2006

Un/Employment Demos-Actions Movement School-University France

Students invade Paris school

Scores of angry students and other demonstrators invaded one of Paris’ most elite schools on Monday and clashed with police in a new escalation of protests against the government’s youth jobs plan.

About 200 high school and university students swarmed into the College de France to press their demand that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin withdraw a plan that they fear will hurt job security.

The protests came a day after Villepin, hoping to defuse the biggest labor test of his nine-month tenure, appealed on television for support of the "first job contract" that he insists is needed to reduce France’s sky-high unemployment rate among young adults.
Many students, unconvinced, pressed on with protests that already swelled last week. On Saturday, riot police raided the Sorbonne University to oust students who had staged a three-day sit-in.

To deal with the mounting crisis, Villepin was skipping a joint Cabinet meeting between the French and German governments scheduled for yesterday.

With the Sorbonne closed indefinitely and riot police blocking every entrance, youths spread out elsewhere Monday across Paris’ Left Bank. About 200 stormed the nearby College de France, one of France’s top research and teaching institutions.

One officer was lightly injured during the melee, but no arrests were made, police said. At about 11 p.m., police entered the College de France and calmly removed about 40 protesters.

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