French Crisis, Left Crisis: Report by a Compromised Social Democrat

Paris: The first thing I noted on arriving here at the New Year was the number of homeless in an especially cold winter. They seemed to me, a frequent visitor, to have expanded exponentially in recent years. Then, in ensuing months, I saw more and more people in the streets—not the homeless, but protesters. First in small clusters, later in larger numbers, and soon in large demonstrations. The principal target was a government bill, the CPE (Contrat première embauche or "First employment contract"), which allowed employers of large firms to fire new hires under age twenty-six without explanation within two years of taking them on. But there is a broader picture. The French word for "demonstration" is manifestation. A very uneasy society was manifesting itself loudly.