ALMOST a million people marched in protest at proposed labour reforms and many state workers stayed home yesterday even as Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister, vowed that he would never surrender to public revolt.

In the biggest show of force since protests began a month ago, students and unions led mass demonstrations in Paris, Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux and about 30 other cities against a youth employment law that was rushed through parliament by President Chirac’s Government.

Police put the number of protesters at about 892,000 while unions said that the number was far higher. Many schools and post offices were closed and up to 40 per cent of rail, air, and city transport services were cancelled.

Violence broke out between police and gangs of youths who robbed demonstrators and smashed property on the edges of the marches. Attacks by so-called casseurs, mainly youths from immigrant housing estates, have been causing alarm during the demonstrations.

Riot police used water cannon and tear gas against youths who pelted them with stones, bottles and other projectiles. Police arrested 488 people in Paris, and 299 elsewhere in France, National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said, adding that 46 demonstrators and nine police officers were injured.

“There are three million people in the streets today and that is historic,” Bernard Thibault, leader of the militant Confederation Générale de Travail (CGT) union, said. “It is unthinkable that the Prime Minister should remain dug in in his position. The only way out is to withdraw the reform.”

But M de Villepin, whose career is at stake in the battle for the First Employment Contract (CPE) for under 26-year-olds, told Parliament that there was no question of yielding to the street protests. “The Republic does not mean pre-conditions and ultimatums,” he said to jeering from the Socialist Opposition.

The CPE rebellion, supported by more than 60 per cent of the public, according to polls, has expanded into a test of France’s readiness to change a welfare state that provides generous benefits but maintains chronic high unemployment.

On the eve of the latest protests, the Prime Minister was undermined by Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), M Chirac’s party.

M Sarkozy, who is campaigning against M de Villepin for next spring’s presidential elections, urged the Prime Minister to suspend the CPE law while there is a chance of negotiations. “For change to succeed, there has to be social dialogue,” M Sarkozy said.

The main unions rejected as a “provocation” a call from M de Villepin to meet to discuss “modifications” to his job-creation law. They would talk only if he suspended it, they said. Their main objection is that the law allows employers to dismiss young workers for their first two years without giving reasons that must be justified in court.

Medef, the main employers’ association, has given lukewarm backing to the law, saying that priority should be given to overhauling France’s antiquated labour code.

M de Villepin’s aides remained confident last night that the Government could hold out against opposition. The level of protest was about the same as the unsuccessful opposition in 2003 to pension reform, they said.

M de Villepin has been encouraged by polls showing that a strong majority of UMP voters support his stand. There are signs, though, that UMP parliamentarians, who face elections next year, are increasingly worried about what some see as the Prime Minister’s intransigence.

Many protesters said that the Prime Minister was mistaken and that the rebellion would intensify. “We have to defend the rights that were won by our ancestors and which the Government is trying to take away,” said Maxime Ourly, a literature student, who joined thousands protesting on the Left Bank.

All sides are awaiting a ruling on the law from the state Constitutional Council. If the council rejects important aspects of the legality of the jobs scheme, the protests would be likely to subside.

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