Chirac gathers ministers to end labor law stalemate

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- French President Jacques Chirac gathers ministers and politicians today to find an exit to a stalemate on a youth labor law that has prompted more than two months of protests and knocked his approval ratings.

Chirac, 73, met today at the Elysee Palace in Paris with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party seeking to resolve a deadlock with workers and student unions. De Villepin may agree to scrap the law, bowing to opponents' demands, Les Echos reported, without citing anyone.

France, where one young person in five is unemployed, is bracing for more protests this week as students and union leaders keep up pressure on the government to withdraw the work contract, known as CPE. Chirac begins his 11th year as president next month with approval ratings at 25 percent, the lowest in at least three years, according to a survey by Institut LH2.

"Chirac will say whatever he can he to keep his job", Christophe Maillard, a spokesman for Beloved Liberty, a Libertarian group, said during a march yesterday from Paris's Place de La Republique. "Whatever decision he takes we can be sure of one thing: the unemployment rate for young people will remain the same -- shamefully high."

Counter-Marches

After two months of marches and unrest, Beloved Liberty yesterday led a 3,000-person march across Paris opposing strikes and the blocking of access to schools.

Damping protests may have been the start of school vacations and unions waiting for Chirac's response. Marches on March 28 and April 4 each drew more than 1 million people. The size of the protests increased steadily since the first demonstrations on Feb. 7, when about 400,000 people rallied, according to the unions. Another nationwide protest is scheduled for tomorrow, if the government doesn't make a move to repeal the law.

"It needs to be a very clear response: the repeal of the CPE", Bruno Julliard, head of the UNEF student union, said in an interview on LCI television. Business leaders and unions called for the government to take action.

"Enough Is Enough"

"Enough is enough", Jean-Francois Bernardin, president of the French Assembly of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said in an in interview with Le Parisien. "We can't afford the luxury of playing too long with this type of psychodrama. If not everyone is going to pay a heavy price, starting with youths looking for work."

Chirac's political opponents in the Socialist party charged he's delayed too long in deciding what to do.

"Someone at the summit of power, I don't know who, needs to decide how to take control, that's to say recall the CPE", Francois Hollande, head of the opposition Socialist party, said on LCI.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, French president from 1974 to 1981, criticized Chirac in an article in the Journal du Dimanche for dithering.

"It's high time to exit this quagmire", he wrote in an article describing it as "heart-wrenching" to see France in such disarray. "The enemies of France have viewed these images with delight, and her friends with consternation."

"Speculation or Fantasy"

Chirac and de Villepin's ratings have slid as opposition intensified to the law, which would make it easier to fire youths in their first two years of employment.

The Institut LH2 poll showed Chirac's approval rating was the lowest in at least three years at 25 percent and his disapproval rating 64 percent, the most since June 2005 when France rejected the European Union constitution. A longer time- frame for Chirac's rating wasn't available.

De Villepin's approval rating was 25 percent, half the level in December, and his disapproval rating 65 percent, the most since he replaced Jean-Pierre Raffarin as prime minister in May 2005.

A separate CSA poll published by Le Parisien yesterday showed 86 percent of French said de Villepin had been damaged by the dispute while 86 percent said Chirac had been. De Villepin says the new law makes France's labor market more flexible and is needed to counter unemployment of 9.6 percent nationwide and 22.2 percent for the young. Students say it reduces job security.

De Villepin has dismissed suggestions that he may soon be fired or resign. "The president gave me a mission and I'll lead it until the end", de Villepin said on April 6. "All the rest is pure speculation and fantasy."