Alwaght- French president is facing violent street protests across the country after the government imposed capitalist-friendly reforms to the country's labor laws.
Molotov cocktails and smoke-bombs were hurled at police in Paris, a dozen Socialist Party offices were vandalized and there were scuffles in Caen, Toulouse, Rennes and Le Havre.
President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls decided earlier this week to use their constitutional powers to impose the labor law reforms by decree. Protest marches in Paris and most other larger French cities Thursday afternoon attracted tens of thousands of supporters – including a fringe of hooded youths who fought running battles with riot police. There were fears Thursday's protests could turn ugly after violent clashes between police and hooded youths on the fringes of earlier demonstrations, in which hundreds of police were injured by petrol bombs and other missiles.
President Hollande, facing disastrous poll ratings less than a year before presidential elections, insists that simplification of France’s complex labor laws will create tens of thousands of jobs.
Hardline trade unions and a bloc of traditionalist Socialist politicians – including several former ministers and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo – oppose the changes. So do 70 per cent of French people.
Known as the El Khomri law, after the labor minister, the legislation has given birth to an entire protest movement, Nuit Debout, which has been likened to Occupy in the US, but enjoys broader support in France.
