Letter From Paris: The Revenge of the Not-So-Radicals

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The outpouring of opposition is the latest challenge to the government of Villepin, already damaged by the rioting last fall. Villepin has vowed to stand up to the protesters, a move that many commentators see as a bid to display toughness in anticipation of a possible showdown with his right-wing rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in next year's presidential election. But hanging on to a deeply unpopular policy won't help Villepin--whose personal approval rating has sunk to the mid-30s--or the rest of his party. His best hope, Moïsi suggests, might be that the Socialist opposition wins a court challenge to the employment law, allowing it to die without his fingerprints.

But that would leave the larger problem unanswered: how to change France. André Glucksmann, a veteran of the 1968 protests, says things may be churning beneath the surface already. "Every generation we have a war, a revolt or a revolution," he says. "That's how we recycle our élite." Riding at the top of preliminary polls for the presidency are Sarkozy and Socialist Ségolène Royal, who both support greater labor-market flexibility. That might not win them friends at the Sorbonne. But the fine air of France can't resist the winds of change forever.