By Andrew L. Jaffee

Despite the fact that the First Employment Contract (CPE) was approved both by the French Parliament and the highest constitutional court, President Chirac has dropped the law, 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:

The BBC’s Caroline Wyatt in Paris says the U-turn on the CPE (First Employment Contract) has almost certainly killed off any chance of reform in the twilight years of Mr Chirac’s long presidency.

Equally, it has ended any hopes Mr de Villepin had of becoming the Right’s candidate for the presidency next year, she 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?

What scares me is that the U.S. Congress’s attempts to reform America’s immigration problems may be scuttled for the same reasons, i.e., mobs of illegal immigrants protesting in our streets:

“They are demanding that they be given rights U.S. citizens have when their first act was to break the law by coming into this country illegally,” said Susan Wysoki, spokeswoman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Take action. Tell your senators to support LEGAL immigration.