The New French Man of the People

Violent Protests Greet Sarkozy’s Election in France

By CRAIG S. SMITH

PARIS, May 7 — Violent protests against the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France ended early today with hundreds of people arrested, hundreds of cars gutted and hundreds of windows smashed in several cities across in France.

Some people fear the reaction is just a taste of what is likely to come if Mr. Sarkozy makes good on his campaign promises to push through controversial economic legislation during his first 100 days in office.

Agence France-Presse, citing national police headquarters, reported that 730 cars had been set afire overnight, 35 in Paris, and that 592 people had been arrested, 79 in the capital. It said 78 police officers had been injured.

Some of the most concentrated violence took place at Place de la Bastille in Paris where the police fired volley after volley of teargas cluster grenades that looked like fireworks before descending on the crowd of young protesters. At one point, the square — the site of the July 14, 1789, uprising that is celebrated annually — was thick with white teargas reflecting the orange glow of a car fire while silhouetted youths heaved paving stones at tight formations of armored riot police officers.

But the violence also struck elsewhere in the French capital, leaving bus stop shelters shattered and slogans like “Sarkozy Fascist” scrawled on walls around Paris.

While Mr. Sarkozy is most despised by minority youths in the country’s poor housing projects on the outskirts of major French cities, most of the violence took place in city centers. Reuters quoted an internal police memo that said there had not been “any large demonstrations of urban violence in sensitive neighborhoods.”

In Paris, at least, the protesters were mostly white and below the age of 30, similar to the crowds who took to the streets last year to protest a new labor law that would have made it easier for companies to fire young workers.

Those protests eventually led to the repeal of the law and killed Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s chance of running for president.

Mr. Sarkozy risks facing even greater unrest with his proposed legislation, which includes a law that would require unions to guarantee a minimum of public services — transportation, in particular — during strikes.

That provision would take the sharpest teeth out of France’s unions, which rely on their ability to block transport in order to pressure the government. Although less than 10 percent of the French work force is unionized, the unions’ call to action is often met with support from groups in many sectors of society — including youths.

Already, France’s largest and most critical unions — the CGT and the CFDT, which are heavily involved in public transportation and utilities — are warning Mr. Sarkozy to expect protesters in the streets if he tries push through changes in pension plans or moves to limit the unions’ ability to strike, as he has vowed to do in his first 100 days.

“If the government wants to pass reforms by force during the summer, it risks a big reaction by workers,” said Michel Grignard, national secretary of the CFDT, in an interview before Sunday’s vote.

Given Mr. Sarkozy’s lack of popularity among many of the country’s youth, any mass demonstration against his policies would likely draw young people into the streets creating the conditions for even more violent clashes.

Violence was reported in the southeastern city of Lyon and the southern city of Toulouse. Bus shelters were smashed in the northern city of Lille and a school was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Evry, Reuters reported. In the northern area around Lille, about 100 cars were reportedly set on fire.

Reuters also quoted the head of public security for the Loire-Atlantique as saying that 26 people were being held for questioning and six police officers were slightly injured during an anti-Sarkozy rally in Nantes. In the northern city of Caen, four police officers were hurt and some protesters tried to set a local Sarkozy campaign office on fire.

Original article posted here.