Student and labour unions held nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday against government plans to overhaul labour laws, highlighting a widening rift between President François Hollande and the French socialists who swept him to power in 2012, reports The Wall Street Journal.
In Paris, protesters gathered near the headquarters of France’s largest business lobby Medef, which backs Mr. Hollande’s plans to make it easier to dismiss workers and circumvent France’s rigid laws on working hours. Later in the afternoon, the demonstrations converged on the Place de la République, northeast of the centre.
Protesters waved flags and brandished placards saying that they refuse to negotiate and demanding the draft bill be abolished.
Jean-Gabriel Chambon, a masters graduate of Sciences Po university, joined the demo with fellow former students. He said that he feels betrayed after voting for Mr. Hollande in 2012. After a series of temporary work placements, he says that the new law will do nothing to improve his job prospects.
“I’ve no idea who I’ll vote for in 2017. I’ll probably cast a blank ballot,” Mr. Chambon added.
The conflict reveals deep fault lines in France and potentially exposes the limits of Mr. Hollande’s attempts to pass painful reforms to repair the moribund economy.
The Socialist leader is scrambling for initiatives to spur job creation after saying that he will not run for re-election in May 2017 if the double-digit unemployment rate does not decline. But if Mr. Hollande pushes ahead with the latest plans, he risks divorcing his traditional supporters before the campaign even begins.
It is already the fiercest backlash since Mr. Hollande took office in May 2012 and unions are threatening further action including strikes if the government does not back down.
Business leaders are worried that Mr. Hollande may succumb to pressure from the street like the government of Jacques Chirac, which scrapped plans to change labour laws in 2006 after mass demonstrations.
The labour bill echoes changes Spain and Italy made over the past four years. While unemployment rates are higher in those countries than in France, they have begun falling from peaks recorded during the eurozone debt crisis.
If the French bill is enacted, it would cap court-ordered severance packages and create a clearer template for companies to lay off workers. The French government says that the current system of ironclad safeguards in work contracts discourages businesses from hiring in the first place.
Mr. Hollande also plans to make it easier for companies to negotiate directly with employees on working hours and overtime pay. That would potentially cut out labour unions and lift restrictions imposed by sacrosanct national laws, such as the 35-hour work week.
But the protesters say the overhauls would deal a fatal blow to French job security that labour unions and the Socialist Party have spent decades defending.
“This bill will not resolve unemployment but it will increase job insecurity,” said André Guisti, a 59-year-old buildings-maintenance worker. “I’ve had a job all my life and I’d like the same for young people.”
Demonstrations were also taking place in major cities across the country.
Surveys this year had shown strong appetite for overhauls of France’s complex labour code. But that initial support evaporated as Socialist Party heavyweights and moderate trade unions accused Mr. Hollande of going too far in picking apart fundamental principles of the French Left.