Reform On Hold?

For the nearly 11 years he's occupied the Elysée Palace, French President Jacques Chirac has promoted social and economic reform, yet shied away from the conflicts that invariably result. Last week he attempted another awkward balancing act after France saw more huge protests, some of them violent, against a new law allowing workers younger than 26 to be fired without cause within their first two years on the job. Thousands of students staging public sit-ins around the country booed as Chirac, speaking on TV, rejected their demands to repeal the law, then continued jeering as he ordered ruling conservatives in parliament to water down what Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had intended to be his boldest reform. Chirac wants the probation period halved, and to require that bosses give a reason if they want to fire a young person. "Don't look for legal, economic or logical coherence in this — because there is none," says Dominique Reynié, professor at Paris' Sciences-Po. "Its goal is strictly political: defuse a month of crisis by letting everyone win a little, and no one lose."

It didn't work. Those favoring reforms despaired of another retreat; unions and student groups promised more strikes and demonstrations, building on the momentum from last week when more than two million people took to the streets. Chirac's approval ratings dropped to 20% — a record low for recent French Presidents — while Villepin's slipped to 29%, just a year away from presidential elections.

Ironically, the only short-term winner from the crisis appears to be Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — front-runner in the 2007 presidential race that Villepin is expected to contest too, with Chirac's likely backing. Sarkozy called for "compromise" with protesters — a position at odds with his plan for vast reforms cutting far deeper than the youth labor law. "We have a program, but we're pragmatic," says a Sarkozy adviser. "Plus, you need stability and calm to reform." Until the next protests, anyway.