Protests Spur More Violence In France

Thousands of demonstrators hurled pieces of concrete at police, who responded by filling a picturesque Paris square with tear gas Thursday after protest marches over a contested jobs law.

Amid the violence, unions and the prime minister agreed to meet for the first time in the standoff.

Villepin, facing escalating protests over the law, had invited the unions earlier in the day to no-holds-barred talks on the law. Five leading unions said they would meet him, but would refuse to negotiate unless the law was first withdrawn.

Villepin agreed to their terms for the meeting, and scheduled it for Friday.

CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk said that scheduling the talks appears to be Villepin's best option.

"With gendarmes lined up with riot gear in front of the National Assembly at the Palais-Bourbon in central Paris and violence breaking out at the student rally on Thursday, the new law is putting the government of Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin on the line," said Falk from Paris. "Negotiations with the unions to end the protests appear to be the next step to achieve the original goal of lowering youth unemployment."

The violence took place on Paris' verdant Esplanade des Invalides, with riot police using tear gas on rowdy protesters who threw grapefruit-sized chunks of concrete at police officers. Some of the 23,000 marchers turned on each other, beating and kicking.

Plumes of smoke billowed skyward as youths set trash bins on fire, and vandals smashed glass bus shelters and windows at several shops. A phalanx of hundreds of riot police, three men deep, pressed forward to drive back the protesters and blocked off the ornate Alexandre III bridge.

Dozens of people appeared injured, and police said 42 people had been arrested.

"The movement is destroying itself, we've turned upon each other," said Gael Ojardias, a 25-year-old cook at the Paris march, after watching demonstrators turn on a fellow marcher and beat him violently.

It was the latest in several protests in recent weeks over the law, which has thrown the government into a crisis and wreaked havoc at universities, many hit by strikes.

Police also used tear gas on protesters in Grenoble, where an officer was injured, and groups of youths clashed with police in Marseille. Some broke shop windows and damaged cars and bus stops in Paris and elsewhere.

Fearing renewed violence, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned Wednesday that those taking part in violence would face severe punishment. A 39-year-old demonstrator caught up in Saturday's skirmishes with police remained in a coma.

Villepin's invitation to unions — and another invitation to students — signaled a possible softening in his rigid stance.

The education minister invited students to a meeting Friday evening, a student leader said. Student unions were to meet employee unions Friday morning.

A radical fringe emerged at the start of the Paris march, jumping on cars and breaking shop windows. Several journalists and others were roughed up by protesters. At least 30 cars had their hoods crushed in and windshields broken.

The jobs law, meant to put the brakes on sky-high unemployment among youths and make France's economy more flexible, would allow employers to more easily hire — and fire — workers under 26. Critics feel it will eat into job protections and leave youths even more vulnerable.

"This is our big chance as a generation, because we're all united. Me alone, I can't do anything, but all of us together are going to achieve our goal," said Ivan Dion, a 17-year-old high-school students at the Paris march.

Fallout from the jobs law, passed by parliament this month and expected to take effect in April, has shaken students and government alike. It could take a toll on the governing conservatives, including Villepin and Sarkozy, both top would-be contenders for the presidential elections next year.

By Friday, 21 universities were on strike to protest the jobs law with disturbances at 46 others, the Education Ministry said. The protest movement also was disrupting high schools. Unions plan a national strike Tuesday.

Trying to tempt unions to the bargaining table, Villepin said talks would be "obviously limited in no way," his office said.

Villepin has said he is ready to discuss modifying the most criticized aspect of the measure — the two-year period during which an employee can be fired without justification.

Centrist opposition leader Francois Bayrou said Villepin must put everything on the table, including the possibility of withdrawing the law.

"The time has come, if we want to avoid mounting dangers and risks, to make this gesture," Bayrou said Thursday on Europe-1 radio.

Sarkozy broke from Villepin's order for unity within government ranks by suggesting a six-month trial period for the measure, in remarks in Thursday's edition of the weekly Paris-Match.