National Assembly: The right-wing members of the National Assembly voted on the new Law proposed by the parliamentary majority (UMP). The text of this Bill will now be sent to the Senate, who should be debating it this evening, and, with the prospect of adopting it definitively.

[translator’s note : if the abbreviations get complicated, please see the list at the end.]

Midday yesterday, the UMP’s Bill replacing the CPE was adopted by the National Assembly, by 154 votes for (UMP and UDF) and 93 against (PS and PCF). This has now to be sent to the Senate, and it may be confirmed as soon as late today, if the latter does its duty, as is likely, without any amendments to the text coming from the National Assembly.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the debate by the members of the National Assembly had taken a surprising turn. The Socialist Party’s Didier Migaud started with a broad-ranging attack, which led to suspension of the Assembly’s hearings for an hour on the basis of the inadmissibility of the proposal of a new Bill under Article 40 of the Constitution. This Article states that any proposition which would have as a consequence an increase in the public debt can be ruled inadmissible. This initiative contradicted what the Socialist group had said the same day, that they would not “prolong the debate unnecessarily”. The government got out of this one by presenting an amendment by admitting this possibility (ie, guaranteeing state financing would be provided), the only motion that got adopted).

“Turning the page on the confrontations”

On the Right, Assembly members were hesitating between saying they wanted to “turn the page on the confrontations” (Laurent Hénart, spokesperson, UMP) and grudgingly accepting that the CPE had to be replaced. Like Jean-Michel Dubernard (UMP), president of the Social Affairs Commission, for whom the CPE had been the victim of "a massive misunderstanding”, of a “paralysing conservatism” and “politically motivated strategic manoeuvres ” by the Left.

For Maxime Gremetz (PCF), on the other hand, it was “the popular movement that had united the youth, the workforce and the unemployed of all ages”, which had “inflicted another blow on unbridled neo-liberalism”. This was “a first victory, which recalls others”, he suggested. The Communists had broken the so-called “consensus” (in the words of Laurent Hénart) on the UMP’s Bill. For, if they seemed to be happy to abandon the CPE, the government was not announcing any “change in direction”, rather adopting policies that will remain “just as regressive”.

Muguette Jacquaint (PCF) went on the attack: “What the government is proposing is just face-saving. Providing more support for state-assisted jobs, but particularly handouts to employers”. And “all the negative elements of the so-called Equal Opportunites Law, like apprenticeships for youths from the age of 14, and working on night-shifts from the age of 15, are still in the Law” she recalled. Also not abandoning “the CNE, which was the test-case for the CPE.” The PCF members of the National Assembly proposed in vain to annul completely the CPE, the CNE and the Equal Opportunity Law and to “create a real framework for security in jobs and training , in which “the CDI - constracts guaranteeing security - would remain the norm”.

“It’s time to finish with this”

Gaëtan Gorce (PS) attacked a “text made up of bits and pieces”, to which “we are not opposed [but, the PS bloc did vote against it - journalist’s comment] since it’s time to finish with this, but the resignation [of the government] would have been easiest option and the total withdrawal of this Law much clearer.”

Rejecting all the amendments presented by the Left and the UDF - and after censuring Jean-Pierre Brard (allied with the PCF) who proposed to “karcherize” [translator - see below] the CPE - the UMP adopted the text supported by the UDF, under the watchfulk eyes of Bruno Julliard, president of the students’ union (UNEF), who had come to listen to the debate.

[translators notes ... abbreviations explained]

CDI - “Contrat de durée indéterminée” - providing job security : any firing must be justified before an industrial tribunal.

CNE - the “new hiring contracts” (contrat nouvel emploi) a precursor of the CPE, for employers with less than 20 employees, adopted in August 2005: “easy-hire, easy-fire” contracts

CPE - the “first job contracts” (contrat première embauche) - the target of the last two months protests

PCF - the French Communist Party

PS - Socialist Party - currently headed by first-secretary François Hollande

UDF - Union pour la Démocratie Française - the other principle member of the Right-wing governing coalition.

UMP - Chirac’s Rightist “Union pour un Mouvement Populaire”, headed by Chirac’s arch-rival for power, interior-minister Nicolas Sarkozy

UNEF - l’Union Nationale des Étudiants de France, the national university students union, headed by Bruno Julliard

karcheriser (vb) - Before the riots in the housing estates in January 2006, interior minister Nicolar Sarkozy called for the suburbs to be "karcherised" - a reference to a common brand of high-pressure industrial cleaner, to be used to “clean out” the suburbs, of trash, and by extension, of the “scum” (la racaille) living there.

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