In 1968, the heyday of Parisian radicalism, the students, young people and intellectuals who took to the streets achieved nothing. But in 2006, when to be radical is to be unfashionable, millions of people, mostly young and unemployed, protested against the first job contract, known as the CPE, and won their point. At the end of March, a nationwide strike closed schools and disrupted the transport system. The unrest continued, especially as Mr Dominique de Villepin, France?s prime minister, refused to roll back the law which had been passed without a parliamentary debate or even a consultation with the unions. Mr Villepin has been forced to eat humble pie after the president of France, Mr Jacques Chirac, scrapped the law. Mr Chirac?s decision does not come as a complete surprise since it was becoming increasingly obvious that Mr Villepin?s high-handedness did not have the backing of all his ministers. Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the minister for interior, for example, was openly in favour of a more tentative approach to the reforms than the bulldozing attitude of the new law. Mr Chirac obviously picked up these differences. He also could not have forgotten the presidential elections due next year.

The face-off between the French president and the prime minister only underlines the complex nature of the problem facing France. Statistics show that in France, under-25 unemployment is very high. This creates a potential body of social unrest. But this unemployment is related to the existing job-protection measures which are so severe that they actually discourage employers from recruiting young people. Mr Villepin?s argument was that the CPE for the under-26 would relax the job-protection measures and thus encourage employment. This argument, somewhat spurious, was not accepted by a large number of French citizens. They interpreted the CPE as an attempt to introduce hire-and-fire through the back door and with a high falutin? name. Mr Chirac seems to have caught the popular mood much better than his prime minister. People care for employment, but they also care for the security of employment. Mr Villepin?s scheme thought of the former while completely disregarding the latter. The age of revolution may be a thing of the past, but the politics of influencing government policy through mass protests remains a part of democracy.