New And Bigger French Protests

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through French cities Tuesday, with organizers aiming for a final total of more than 1 million and their biggest show of strength yet to demand the repeal of a job law that has divided the country.

A nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower for the second time in a week and snarled air, train and rail traffic. Students barricaded schools in protest against the job measure, which would make it easier to fire young workers.

Protesters have mounted ever-larger demonstrations for two months against the law. But President Jacques Chirac signed it anyway Sunday, saying France needs it to keep up with the world economy. He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn, not softened.

"What Chirac has done is not enough," said 18-year-old Rebecca Konforti, among a group of students who jammed tables against the door of their high school in southern Paris to block entry. "They're not really concessions, he just did it to calm the students."

By midday at least 100,000 people had hit French streets, according to police, including buoyant students parading through Marseille under a sunny southern sky and major marches from Nantes in the west to Saint-Etienne in the southeast. Protests even reached the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where 2,000 people marched.

Some 60 students lobbed eggs and other objects at police in the northern city of Lille, and at least one person was detained.

Organizers — who put the figure much higher, in the hundreds of thousands by midday — hoped turnout at 150 marches throughout the day would pass the 1 million who marched last week.

The afternoon march in Paris promised to be the biggest, and the city deployed 4,000 police to avert violence that marred previous protests.

Police actively looked to thwart troublemakers. At Paris' Saint-Lazare station, riot officers bearing sidearms and with a dog pulled over train travelers disembarking from the suburbs, searching their bags and checking identities.

Tourists, meanwhile, stood bewildered before closed gates at the Eiffel Tower, shuttered by strikers. Parisian commuters flattened themselves onto limited subway trains. Garbage bins in some Paris neighborhoods stood overflowing and uncollected by striking sanitation workers. Irish budget airline Ryanair canceled all its flights in and out of France.

The strike appeared weaker, however, than last week's action. And signs of a possible breakthrough began to emerge as labor leaders suggested they could hold talks with lawmakers — but only after Tuesday's demonstrations.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin devised the disputed "first job contract" as a bid to boost the economy and stem chronic youth unemployment. He maintains it would encourage hiring by allowing employers to fire workers under 26 during their first two years on a job without giving a reason.

Critics say it threatens France's hallmark labor protections, and the crisis has severely damaged Villepin's political reputation.

Now that the law has been signed, protesters have less room for maneuver. The government appeared to be hoping that protests would die down after Tuesday's big event, and was looking to possible talks between more moderate unions and lawmakers led by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, a leading presidential hopeful, is the only senior government official unscathed by the crisis.

The head of the governing UMP party's bloc in parliament, Bernard Accoyer, told reporters he had invited labor leaders to talks as of Wednesday.

Two labor leaders — CFDT union chief Francois Chereque and CGT union chief Bernard Thibault — suggested they would attend. But both said they hoped the law would eventually be rejected.