Zero hire contract

We haven't had much to say about the new job law in France, withdrawn today under the weight of massive popular protests. It highlights that in the unlikely scenario of us ever living in France, we'd have to be conservative, by their standards. The law was conceived in the wake of the suburban riots, where chronic youth unemployment was at least a proximate cause of the disturbances. And there's abundant evidence that employment restrictions manifest themselves as reluctance to hire. And while one response of government critics was to claim that there are already are employment contracts quite like the now deceased CPE, that just begs the question of why the union and student reaction was so severe.

A couple of observations. One, as we noted last year, France is still living with the hangover of the last general election, in which the electorate was denied a straight right-left vote when the 2nd round of the Presidential election became a run-off between Chirac and Le Pen. Chirac's continued ineptness since the EU referendum defeat has not helped, and Dominique de Villepin is now merely the latest victim of the curse of being anointed Chirac's favourite. Meanwhile, Nicolas Sarkozy, chaotic marriage and all, has once again landed on his feet. The story of the last few weeks was clear from the sight of him at a Saturday morning crisis meeting a couple of weekends ago, conspicuously not wearing a tie as the panicked ENArques elsewhere around the table choked on theirs.

But enough about the government. The tactics of anti-government students were disgraceful. It wouldn't be France if there weren't street protests, but things extended from there to blockades of schools and universities and occupations of railway lines, bridges, markets, and government offices. In one particularly revealing bit of vandalism, students destroyed the equipment in an unemployment office, showing their attitude to the clients thereof. Schools and universities now face a crisis due to missed classes and employers may legitimately wonder about the quality of the education that will underlie any diplomas received based on the last few months work. The blockaders could never explain what exactly constraining the right to study had to do with their opposition to the job law. And their nod-and-wink supporters in the Socialist party and unions could never offer any alternative solution for chronic unemployment that didn't involve yet more government subsidies in already a highly taxed country.

Rant over. Bring on President Sarkozy!