Mass protests on the streets of France, organisers of the marches claimed that three million people

– Organisers claim 3m people join marches
– Sarkozy floods Paris with 4,000 riot police

by Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of France yesterday, disrupting schools and transport in a nationwide strike to pressure the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to withdraw his controversial new employment law.

Organisers of the marches claimed that three million people joined marches with major demonstrations in Marseille, Bordeaux and a dozen cities and towns across the country. In Paris, unions estimated that 700,000 people joined the biggest and most heavily policed demonstration that snaked its way to Place de la Republique over several hours led by students, schoolchildren and trade unionists, including striking Air France workers.

Police fired teargas into the crowd as isolated skirmishes broke out after the rally, with gangs of hooded teenagers throwing traffic cones and taunting police. Some 50 baton-wielding trade union security guards clashed with another group of young people who tried to break the iron gates of a lingerie shop.

Keen to avoid a repeat of the violence that marred last week’s protest, when gangs of youths with baseball bats attacked demonstrators and torched cars in the centre of the city, the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, had flooded the Paris route with 4,000 riot police, instructing them to arrest "as many people as possible" and saying they would be judged on "the number of arrests and your cool".

Paris police said they made 105 arrests. Officers were armed with guns of indelible ink to fire at troublemakers.

At the edges of the march, plain-clothed police snatch squads grabbed youths, many of them black, and forced them towards riot vans or frisked them as others shouted that the police were "fascists and racist".

The street demonstrations were the sixth in one month against Mr de Villepin’s controversial "first employment contract", which he continued yesterday to insist was the only way to combat France’s crippling youth employment figures - the worst in western Europe.

The contract paradoxically seeks to increase the number of young people in work by allowing employers a two-year period when they can fire workers aged under 26 without cause. This would alleviate the effect for employers of France’s rigidly protective employment laws.

Mr de Villepin faced widening cracks in his ruling conservative party yesterday. Mr Sarkozy, a contender in next year’s presidential elections, made a clear break from the prime minister’s strategy of standing firm by suggesting yesterday that the law should be put on hold to allow talks with unions.

The prime minister told parliament he was open to discussing amendments but refused to withdraw the contract. "Only in action will we convince all of the French that tomorrow can be better than today," he told the national assembly, to heckling from opposition parties. The strikes slowed train, bus and plane services to a fraction of their normal level, with Air France stopping flights and easyJet cancelling 44 flights through French airspace.

At least one third of state school teachers walked off the job, joined by postal, bank, gas and electricity workers. No national newspapers were published and TV and radio was limited, with France’s major news station playing classical music all day. It was the first time that unions had ordered a nationwide walkout in solidarity with students leading protests against Mr de Villepin’s government.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1741820,00.html