The French are rejecting reforms and are increasingly turning pro-tectionists. What does it mean to the fifth largest economy in the world and what repercussions would it have on the progress of the European Union?

Millions of protestors filling the main streets, overturning vehicles, setting up roadblocks, invading railway stations and airportsno, these are not the glimpses of people power, which has resulted in change in governments in Ukraine and Georgia nor are these protests at the Independence Square in Kiev or the parliament building in Tbilisi. These are glimpses of the protests in Paris, the heart of modern Europe. Here, people are not protesting against a change in the leadership, but for overturning a controversial law. The implications in the long run might be as dramatic and as far-reaching as the happenings in Eastern Europe.

Weeks of protests in the major cities of France, mostly by students and trade unions forced the French government to bury the Contrat Première Embauche (CPE) law, which would have enabled employers to hire and also give them the flexibility to fire young people during the first two years of probation. After the two-year period, these youth would be given permanent jobs.

This reform would encourage employers to hire the growing number of unemployed people in France who now constitute nearly 10% of the population. This move was intended to reduce growing unemployment as the law would give more flexibility to the employers. France still has rigorous labor laws with high minimum wages and tough-to-fire employees.

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