French Jobs Law Failure

Villepin's biggest mistake was passing the law by force, if he took the regular law-making way, it would have had a much better chance. Chirac didn't help out either, reacting too late as usual, only adding fuel to the fire, and in the end weakening his PM's position. And of course there's Sarkozy, who couldn't help but make sneer remarks. I won't even mention the opposition, since imo they didn't even try to take advantage of the situation.

I personally am not too pleased with Villepin giving in. More andmore students are not happy that they can't go to the classes that they need to pass their exams because of the protests, and if Villepin would have held on for a couple of weeks maybe, the protest would have died out. What has happened now, is that the students know that they can achieve their goals with pressure, and they don't stop at the CPE, but they are going after the other law that was passed the same way (forgot the name).

In Belgium, we had some difficulties last year, which our so-called "Generation Pact", which forces people to work a few years longer, until 58 before they can go on early retirement. We had weeks of strikes, but the government didn't give in, and in the end, the unions didn't have any other option but agree with the pact.

I agree with Niki, Sarkozy has the best chance of becoming the next president, Villepin is hated and humiliated, so it would be foolish of him to try, and the socialists just don't have the right appeal. If Sarkozy is a good choice, I'm not sure.

Jam it back in, in the dark.