Villepin

At 9am CET, after a private conversation between the President and his Prime Minister, a meeting will be held at Chirac's official residence, the Elysée.

The survey, by pollsters CSA for Le Parisien/Aujourd'hui en France and i-TELE, says that over 80% of the French now judge that the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (86%) and President Jacques Chirac (85%) have been "weakened" by the CPE crisis. Only 9% of the questioned people said that Villepin had been "reinforced", and 4% could not decide.

- Four student demonstrators and one policeman were injured on Thurday, the 6th April. At the end of the aftermoon, the police force removed some 450 students who were blocking the railways on the North Matabiau station and stopped traffic for an hour and half. According to the local authority, the five injured people were transferred to the hospital.

-Socialist MP François Holland warns Jacques Chirac that in his broadcast tonight, sticking with the CPE would open "a major crisis"

-"the fever mounts" writes Le Parisian after yesterdays day of blockings by high-school pupils, and the constitutional Council Decision to validate the CPE

42% of those questioned said they wished "the suspension" of the CPE with "time to find a solution", 41% supported its withdrawal, just 12% backed Villepins wish to keep it as it is and some 5% could not decide.

The article was written by Marie-Joelle Gros, Vanessa Schneider and Francois Wenz-Dumas.

After yesterday’s mobilization, without precendent since 1995, the government is finding it difficult to come up with an exit after two month of crisis.

Tuesday 28th of March - Summary

-Hundreds of student delegates met in Aix-en-Provence in South-Eastern France to coordinate their actions and plan ahead this weekend.

This refusal follows the refusal of school students and the failure of a union meeting with Villepin.

The union federations represented were the CGT, CFDT, FO, CFTC and Cfe-cgc.

Summary of todays events:
-The five main trade unions to meet Villepin today at the Matignon (his official residence)

In a transcript of the speech distributedto journalists, translated for libcom.org, Villepin declares:

In an interview with the weekly magazine Paris-Match thats due to appear in shops from Thursday, Domenique de Villepin recognizes that he "wanted to move quickly" on the contract first engages (CPE). "Now, it is necessary that I explain and convince. I will do it until the end because I believe in this policy", declares it.

A poll in left-leaning newspaper Liberation put his approval rating at 37 percent, down from 44 percent in February and 49 percent in January. The previous low was 41 percent last June.

Domenica de Villepin, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy are from now on like mountaineering comrades. If one is to fall, the two others risk the same fall or, at least, of serious wounds.

The last week of protests and university sitins has seen up to a million on the streets and the violent crushing of a student occupation at the University Sorbonne.