Paris Perturbations

Back to your regularly-scheduled blog…
The last ten days here have been interesting and busy. Part of the reason for the blog’s interruption is that two of my friends from Montevallo, Robert and Deborah, visited me here in Paris for the last six days. The other reason has to do with some pesky students.

France is facing its worst domestic crisis in more than a decade. It is a complicated story. The crux of the crisis is what is known as a parliamentary-passed law, the CPE—the contrat première embauche, the first hiring contract. This contract would allow French firms to hire and fire employees younger than 26 much more easily. As it stands now, French hiring practices are hamstrung by long-standing bureaucratic rules and regulations. Many companies, especially smaller ones, do without hiring new employees altogether because of the considerable headaches involved. Besides streamlining the hiring process the CPE would allow companies to fire younger employees for no reason whatsoever in the first two years of employment.

Why the CPE anyway? First, France has notoriously high youth unemployment rates that reach up to 40% (and among North African immigrants this percentage goes above 60%, a prime cause in the anger of the November riots here). Second, France has never, like its neighbor Germany, had a dose of Thatcherism in the last thirty years. While I am not a particular fan of Thatcher in many ways, she did allow over the long run the British economy to modernize and become one of the most dynamic in Europe. France and Germany, on the other hand are facing a domestic ticking social time bomb, not too different from the looming United States’ crisis in terms of Social Security in some ways. Generous state benefits over the last fifty years have created a class of employees (especially those hired by the state) who have extremely generous terms of employment. I was listening to a BBC broadcast that mentioned that most young French people desired above all else jobs in the state sector for their pay, benefits, stability, and even social esteem (a legacy of civic humanism that at least still resides in some nations).

The third reason for the CPE is the looming threat of China. I have noticed in my weeks here much more concern about China and its increasing economic impact than I have felt in the US. Europeans in general, and the French in particular, fear that China (and India) will swamp them at some point in the not-too-distant future. To many, France has to become more competitive to survive economically. One can see the CPE as a first step in the partial dismantling of a French economic structure that at least stretches to the Liberation in 1944. And, of course, that dismantling impinges upon a number of interest groups that do not wish to see that occur.

The French political system sees in power today a coalition of two conservative parties (get out your chart), the UMP and the UDF. Jacques Chirac (the UDF) is President and has considerable powers, especially in terms of foreign policy. His Prime Minister (former Minister of Defense that some may recall during the leadup to the war in Iraq) is Dominique de Villepin. Chirac’s second and last term as President ends next year and commentators see Villepin as his chosen successor. However, to control the French parliament, the UDF has to form a coalition with the other main conservative party, the UMP. The UMP’s leader is Nicolas Sarkozy who heads the powerful Ministry of the Interior. This is not like our Secretary of the Interior as the French version controls organizations such as the centralized French police forces. While we regard our Secretary of State as the most important cabinet member the French would see Sarkozy as their most important. Sarkozy, of course, has presidential aspirations himself (more on that later).

De Villepin and the conservative coalition passed the CPE a few months ago. However, the notoriously aristocratic de Villepin has a tin ear to the street and his coalition constructed the CPE with little-to-no consultation on those it would affect. And, of course, it would affect the young in France. France has an extremely well-educated population. Universities, while not really “free” anymore, are inexpensive and France has a high percentage of university-educated workers. However, many of these graduates cannot find jobs (or take jobs well below their qualifications) and as a result find themselves extremely unsatisfied with the “system.” Those in high schools and universities at the present see the CPE as a threat to their future and especially fear the ability of firms to fire them with no cause whatsoever after working at a job even for one year and 364 days. Obviously, self interest is the typical motivator (and youth are especially motivated by the short term) and many youth in France see the CPE as a threat to their wellbeing. Try to tell them that this will help make France more competitive with China and see what type of response one gets. Certainly, I can feel sympathy for them and their situation--no one wants a future that is less secure than that of their parents.

What we have witnessed as a result is a series of protests begun by high school and university students. This is another French cultural tradition that stretches back to the jacqueries of the Middle Ages, that of public protest when other channels and institutions seemed to have failed. I, as some of you know, have a particular interest here as I wrote my Master’s Thesis on the Student “Revolt” in France in 1968. That "revolt" began because of dormitory visiting privileges not being offered to the opposite sex and then morphed into a near-utopian movement where the students hoped to reshape a hierarchichal and inflexible French society. This revolt nearly brought down the Fifth Republic and resulted in some significant socio-cultural-economic changes. France has had a number of student protests in the years after 1968 but this particular movement has proved to be the largest and most durable since then.

Two weeks ago demonstrations began in Paris and a number of other cities with the hope of pressuring the government to withdraw the CPE. It had yet to finish the two final steps to be made law—to first be passed as constitutional by the “Conseil constitutional” (a ten-person body that vets all potential laws) and then to be signed by the President.

The protests two weeks ago saw the de Villepin Government stand firm. “The CPE will remain as passed by the Assembly” replied de Villepin. “We will not let the street dictate laws” would also be a loose translation of his reply. The size of the protest and its vehemence saw others take note. First, French trade unions, no fan of either Chirac and de Villepin stepped in: not so much for sympathy for the young but as a way for them to graft their political needs on top of those of the students (this is much what happened in 1968). Because of Villepin’s instransigeance, the unions called for a general strike to take place on 28 March (the day of my friends’ arrival into Paris).

But the unions were not the only opportunists: Nicolas Sarkozy stepped in and gave an interview to Paris-Match the week before the strike indicating that he though perhaps a compromise was needed and that the CPE could be modified. Of course, this was breaking ranks with the government party line and one could only imagine de Villepin’s reaction to his rival’s announcement. De Villepin could only reply that no compromise was forthcoming from the government but he did arrange a series of meetings with union leaders (that failed) and with student groups (the students refused to meet with him). The one-day strike was inevitable.

What surprised me after reading the news up to the day of the strike was how “un-general” it was. The gloom-and-doom press (of course to sell more copies of papers) was forecasting a shutdown of the nation and especially Paris. How, inconsiderate for the French, especially as I had guests arriving that day. However, on that Tuesday, for example, well over half the Métro trains still ran and the city seemed to run nearly as normal. As my friends and I indulged ourselves in tourism our ramblings took us to the Place de la Bastille at three p.m. This happened to be the same time that a demonstration march of tens of thousands reached the Place on a long march. Certainly, it was a most fortuitous coincidence as my friends and I saw the protest first hand. The demonstration though had the feel of a parade, at least at the point where we watched. Many of the marchers had signs, stickers, placards, or even special outfits on which gave the feeling not so much as a demonstration as a parade. And many of the marchers were not young people but those one would identify as middle class or those in their 50s and 60s. Of course, others were in the crowd as well and some did not quite look too savory and one could identify them as thugs and bullyboys. They too wished to graft their discontentment with the government onto the student movement and some wanted all-too-well just to through some rocks at the heavily clad French riot police (who were out in great number).

It was too much for me not to at least get in the crowd a number of times and “march” as well to either take pictures or videos (hopefully, those videos will follow at some point). Certainly, one could say it was self indulgent and a bit hypocritical (liberal that I am, I do think the spirit of the CPE is probably a good thing, though not the way it is currently constructed) but it may be the only time that I will march in a French protest and being the romantic historian I could not let that moment pass. After an hour of spectating we left and the next day I read that one to two million French marched nationwide against the CPE. The march turned a bit ugly as the day wore on and tempers flared and the French riot police had to move the unyielding crowd at the end with water cannon. Property damaged resulted in several areas and a few cars were overturned and burned. The government still replied “no” to any change to the CPE and the students and unions promised another strike and protest on the next Tuesday, the 4th of April.

A brief postscript follows: Friday night Chirac addressed the French nation for a few minutes on television. He announced that he had indeed had promulgated the law but had also suspended the CPE as he expected the government to modify it slightly. From my perspective, this seemed to be the worst thing for the government to do for now it showed the students and unions that pressure would indeed work. De Villepin seemed to have his feet cut out from underneath him by his boss, the President. The students and unions both called this announcement by Chirac as “incomprehensible” and that still the “students have not been heard.” Sarkozy, at least in the short run has emerged better as he had originally called for modifications and he saluted the “wisdom” of the President as I read in the daily “Le Parisien”: “I had called several weeks ago for a compromise. The President of the Republic has responded to this wish in asking that the disposition of the law not be applied while we wait for a new legislative draft.”

A new strike and demonstration is set for Tuesday. Updates will follow when possible.