Manuel
Valls uses payouts to nip student movement
French
prime minister makes the next move in the government’s
‘redistribution’ phase.
By NICHOLAS VINOCUR
4/11/16, 5:54 PM CET Updated 4/11/16, 6:17 PM CET
PARIS — If you
can’t beat ‘em, pay ‘em.
That was the message
from French Prime Minister Manuel Valls Monday, as he unveiled €500
million in subsidies for students and young workers amid youth-led
protests against his government’s reform plans.
After a meeting with
student unions, Valls’ office said the government would extend new
grants to low-income students, act as a guarantor for people under 30
trying to rent apartments and raise taxes on short-term “CDD” job
contracts to incite firms to hire young people on long-term
contracts.
Valls and President
François Hollande are eager to recapture the support of disappointed
youth, one year before a presidential election. Thousands of students
joined protests Saturday against plans to overhaul France’s labor
code, while a separate nighttime sit-in movement, known as “La Nuit
Debout” (“Up All Night”), has spread to several cities since it
started in Paris on March 31.
“These are
measures that respond to the concerns of young people at the start of
their professional careers,” said William Martinet, head of the
UNEF student union that has been organizing protests against the
proposed labor code reform. “So it’s a very good answer in that
sense.”
However, Martinet
added that the plan did not remove students’ concerns about the
labor bill, which aims to ease hiring-and-firing rules in order to
stimulate the labor market. The bill has already been watered down
following a slew of protests — to such a degree that the head of
the MEDEF employers’ lobby said Monday he no longer supported it.
Protesters rallied
Saturday against the labor bill in several cities, but the turnout
was lower than for previous demonstrations.
No more vegetable
garden
Hollande’s
Socialist government is trying to mend fences with traditional
left-wing supporters in the final year of his term.
With March data
showing that France lowered its budget deficit in 2015 faster than
expected, Hollande and Valls have begun what a spokesman called the
“redistribution” phase of his presidency — or extending
taxpayer largesse to various groups.
In March, Hollande
pledged €2 billion to increase wages for public sector workers, a
crucial demographic for the Socialist party.
Now the government
is targeting young voters, many of whom voted for Hollande but have
been disappointed by a president whom they accuse of betraying
left-wing values.
A demonstration
against working conditions, salaries and pension plans, in Paris
While subsidies may
bring Socialist-affiliated student unions into line, they are
unlikely to end another headache for the government: the “Nuit
Debout” sit-in movement, which has seen hundreds of volunteers take
over public places in several cities to hold nighttime debates, party
and, recently, plant a vegetable garden.
The movement, styled
after Spain’s “Indignados,” so far has no political affiliation
and no precise agenda.
In Paris,
participants who are mostly from the capital itself gather on the
Place de la République and take part in semi-formal debates where
each person is allowed three minutes’ speaking time. Discussions
range from feminism to the Panama Papers tax evasion scandal to the
disputed labor bill.
The movement’s
name comes from the fact that people gather in the evenings and have
to evacuate the square each morning at 5 a.m.
Early Monday, the
movement suffered a setback when police officers ordered makeshift
structures dismantled and removed.
Politicians are
keeping a close eye on the grassroots movement, with far-left leader
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, ex-socialist presidential hopeful Pouria
Amirshahi and others all paying low-key visits.
“The youth of
France is back!” tweeted centrist politician Jean-Lassalle, who is
also a presidential hopeful, in a typical approving reaction.
Valls, however, is
studiously avoiding the gathering. Last week, he spoke at an event
organized just meters away from the sit-in, without ever
acknowledging it.
Authors:
Nicholas Vinocur
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