By Andrew L. Jaffee

When I asked, “Will Chirac have the guts to defy the mob and do what is best for France?,” I received a resounding “non.” President Chirac was faced with signing into law the First Employment Contract (CPE), approved both by Parliament and the highest constitutional court. Chirac blinked, not because of France’s democratic institutions, but because the mob — the fonctionnaire-minded jeunes de la bourgeoisie — rioted. He has denied France the economic reforms necessary to decrease its appalling unemployment rate. From the BBC:

…Mr Chirac promised to modify two of the law’s most controversial clauses.

He pledged to shorten from two years to one the period in which youths under 26 could be fired - and said employers would need a reason for the dismissal. …

It seems that Mr Chirac’s attempt to please everyone has ended up pleasing no-one, says the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

It leaves his government looking weak and indecisive, exactly what his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had wanted to avoid, she says.

And it will upset those who want real reform to France’s economy, while doing little to quell the anger on the streets, our correspondent adds.

France’s youth unemployment rate is 23%, while its overall jobless rate is 9.6%. In fact, those “protesting” the new employment law will probably not even be affected by it, according to Standard & Poor’s:

“THE WRONG KIDS.” Ironically, the students involved in the most recent demonstrations against the CPE are the ones least likely to be affected by it. That’s because university students in France are often nearly 26 by the time they complete their studies. Relatively few would thus fall under the law’s purview. Similarly, many of the trade unionists and civil servants protesting the CPE are also unlikely to ever be affected by it because they already have extremely strong job protection.

Indeed, the French youth who might benefit the most from the CPE, the immigrant and first-generation youth that burned the suburbs of Paris last year, are rarely seen or heard from in the fevered demonstrations about CPE. “To a certain extent,” notes Six, “It’s the wrong kids marching in the street.”

Employment reforms are just what France needs:

Employment among the middle-age cohort of the French labor force remains high because it’s virtually impossible to fire civil servants, while those in the private sector have protections almost as strong. But because of those strenuous job-protection measures, employers are simply reluctant to hire anyone in the first place, and the unemployment rate among the young is, by U.S. standards, stratospheric.

But the student protestors seem determined to keep themselves, and many other French, out of work. Drag the whole nation down so some can have lifetime security — and let the others eat cake, to paraphrase Marie Antoinette? Again, the Beeb:

• 2005: Conservative education minister withdraws key elements of school reform after pupils and teachers protest
• 1995: Protests over pension reforms push conservative PM Alain Juppe from office two years later
• 1994: Conservative PM Edouard Balladur abandons law cutting wages for young people in job training in face of month of protests
• 1986: Conservative government shelves plan to implement university reform in face of mass protest

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Related: Europe, Economy

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