At least 1 million workers and students took to the streets Tuesday in cities across France to protest a government measure that would allow companies to fire young employees without justification, organizers of the protests said, according to DPA. "This is an unqualified success, with a very significant participation by students," an official with the CGT trade union, Jean-Christophe Duigou, said. However police estimates were substantially lower, with estimates of 396,000 protesters countrywide, 125,000 of them students from secondary school and university. The largest demonstration took place in Paris where, according to officials from the CGT union, 200,000 people marched in a steady rain against the bill proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, which would allow companies to fire newly hired workers under the age of 26 without justification within two years. Police estimated the crowd in Paris at 46,000. In addition, organizers said some 100,000 people marched in Marseille, 50,000 people in Bordeaux, while 20,000 demonstrators braved the rain in Rennes to demonstrate and up to 30,000 protested in Nantes. The protests were accompanied by strikes in public transport, education, air traffic, post offices and public employment centres.
