The National Tantrum

Whoops! It's almost a month since I updated this. Unfortunately that means I will have forgotten plenty of details and that I'm going to have to write several posts as I try and recount what I've been up to and in order not to bore you in one go.

Well, where do I start? First thing, the riots are over. The government eventually backed down and has withdrawn the CPE (contrat premier embauche - first employment contract) following the national tantrum led by the students. This is good news for my English friends over here as this means the universities are finally open again (although there's been the Easter holday for the past 2 weeks) so they can get back to studying for their degrees. Unfortunately due to the university closure, they will now have to have lectures on Saturdays to catch up on all the lectures they've missed.
Although the CPE has still been withdrawn, there are still a few die-hard commuists.... *ahem* protestors who are still trying to get the entire loi des égailités des chances (the law which the CPE was a part of) withdrawn. There are also a couple of people protesting about the CNE (which seemed to be forgotten about). The CNE is basically the same as the CPE but only for companies with 20 or fewer employees.
I am quite amazed at the protests here. The students went on strike over the CPE, some journalists have gone on strike, I think because their paper was being taken over (or something like that), and there's also a homeless man who has gone on hunger strike to raise awareness of how everyone forgets about the homeless after winter. Now, this just seems stupid to me as students, journalists and the homeless are all people who do no work anyway so I'm not sure how they can strike.
Speaking of hunger strikes there is also a politician who has gone on hunger strike. From what I gather, a factory owned by a chinese company was due to close in his reagion. Obviously this would be bad as many jobs would disappear - so, he went on hunger strike and now the chinese company has decided that it probably wouldn't be good if he died and they'd better keep it open.
I'm going to check up about that last point as I may not have the complete story. If I'm wrong I'll update this.

The stikes/manifestations against the CPE have been quite interesting to watch. It's difficult for me to decide if it's "democracy in action" or a national tantrum. I've seen Jacques Chirac support the Prime Minister one week, and then seen the government back down and remove the law. In short, Dominique de Villepin has lost all hope he may have had of becoming the next President.

Perhaps we just put up with too much in the UK but it has seemed very week of the French government to have backed down on this issue. In my view, a firm hand was needed to do something to encourage emplyers to create jobs. To me, the 2 year period in which you could be fired for no reason seemed a bit too long but it would've allowed employers greater flexibility to employ people for short periods.
I'm expecting more protests in September when the students protesting this Spring have finished uni, been on their month long holiday (France basically closes for August) and then find they can't get jobs in September.

I can't say I'd be proud to live in a country where the government will roll over if you have a tantrum because you don't like a law which has been introduced in your best interests.