Britannia Radio

This may be part of Sarkozy's plan to undermine Vaclav Klaus stint as 
his successor as  President of the EU when he relinquishes it in 8 
days time.  What he is after is an extended semi-permanent job as 
president when the Lisbon treaty (if ratified)  provides for such a 
post.

On the other hand the threat is real and far too many people here are 
living in a fool's paradise.  But January will awaken even them to 
reality and it must be recognised that it is not just people losing 
their jobs but also the young failing to get their first job.  The 
young are the stuff of riots.

See also  "Which way's the EXIT?" 17/12/08  where Ambrose Evans-
Pritchard outlines the likely flashpoints in the coming year.

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EU OBSERVER     23.12.08
Sarkozy fears spectre of 1968 haunting Europe
LEIGH PHILLIPS

As disparate but linked militant youth protests simultaneously erupt 
in a number of countries across the continent, French President 
Nicholas Sarkozy has retreated on two controversial pieces of 
domestic legislation out of fear that a spectre is haunting Europe - 
the spectre of 1968.

Mr Sarkozy, the outgoing chairman of the six-month rotating European 
Union presidency, has dropped plans for changes to high school 
curricula and Sunday retail opening hours in dread that the "Greek 
syndrome" - the two-week-long youth riots that have rocked the 
Hellenic Republic in the country's most widespread unrest since the 
overthrow of the military junta in 1974 - could spread to France, or 
even across the continent.

"We can't have a European May '68 for Christmas," the French leader 
said to his cabinet, according to reports in Le Canard Enchaîné, 
referring to the left-wing student protests and general strike in 
France in 1968 that led to the eventual collapse of the government of 
Charles De Gaulle.

Similar protests took place that year around the world, particularly 
in the United States and Germany, but the 'événements' of '68 hold a 
unique place in the French political imaginary.

"The French could upturn the country - look at what's happening in 
Greece," Mr Sarkozy reportedly told deputies from his party, the UMP, 
during a lunch at the Elysée Palace, according to French daily Le 
Figaro.

Barricades
On Monday of last week, his government reversed itself over plans for 
increased Sunday shopping, resisted by the Catholic Church and the 
trade unions.

The next day, in the wake of militant protests by high school 
students, plans for the re-organisation of the secondary school 
curriculum were postponed indefinitely by education minister Xavier 
Darcos at the insistence of the president.
"I don't want the schools reform to become hostage to social 
tensions, worries, anxieties that are not connected to the schools 
issues," the minister said, announcing the move.

The month-long protests by high-school students' unions against the 
education changes that saw school buildings barricaded across France, 
boiled over in Rennes in the west of the country in particular, 
turning violent.
Despite the announcement of the withdrawal of the legislation, 
protests continued, attracting larger numbers than the week before. 
While the demonstrations were for the most part peaceful, Lyons and 
Lille saw a number of arrests after some cars were burnt.

The French National Student's Union, UNEF, following the government's 
decision, also made the link between French protests and the events 
in Greece, declaring its "solidarity" with Greek youth "against 
police repression".
"After the 'CPE Generation' in France," said the student organisation 
in reference to the widespread French protests in 2006 that resulted 
in the defeat of the Contrat première embauche (First Employment 
Contract) law that would have allowed employers to more easily 
terminate young workers' contracts, "it is the '?600 Generation' in 
Greece demonstrating with the same refusal of precariousness and 
feeling that we have no future."

The Greek protesters have described themselves as the '?600 
Generation', mocking their low average monthly wage, even after years 
of post-secondary education.

The ?600 Generation
"Things are heating up everywhere in Europe, in Greece, but also in 
Spain, Italy and even in France. The slogan of the Greek students 
about 'the ?600 Generation' could easily catch on here," President 
Sarkozy told his ministers.
"When you see people confront each other with such violence, when you 
see the pillage," he is reported to have said, "...in a country like 
Greece, obviously it makes us think twice."

In recent weeks, demonstrations, occupations of universities, and 
even the blocking of railway lines have spread across Spain in 
protest at the Bologna Process, an EU-inspired series of university 
and college reforms.

The Bologna Process has also provoked significant student opposition 
in Italy, Finland and Croatia, with hundreds of thousands of 
students, professors and parents descending on Rome on 30 October for 
the largest student protest the country has seen since the sixties.

Echoing the 2005 riots by black and Maghreb young people across 
France, in the last few days on a albeit on a much smaller scale in 
Malmo, Sweden, there have been running battles between youth and police.

On Thursday (18 December) Immigrant youths and left-wing students 
protesting the shutting down of an Islamic cultural centre threw 
stones at police and set fire to vehicles and refuse bins.

The 'Greek Syndrome'
According to Britain's Daily Telegraph, the French president 
conferred with his counterparts at the December EU summit in Brussels 
about the youth protests, returning to Paris even more worried about 
a pan-European 'May 1968'.

Raymond Soubie, a councillor of the French president, said: "In my 
forty-year career, I have always refused to say that the spring or 
the autumn will be hot."
The Hot Autumn of 1969-70 was a massive rolling series of strikes in 
northern Italy that has since in the continental press referred to 
other autumns - or any season - with a larger than usual amount of 
industrial action.
"But today," he continued, "I think that all could be hot."

French and European leaders are all the more worried, as while the 
youth actions are likely to fizzle out in the short term, they have 
kicked off before the economic crisis really begins to pinch and 
could return with a vengeance if unemployment rates soar. [as they 
are bound to -cs]

Leading member of France's Socialist Party, Laurent Fabius, told i-
Tele: "The 'Greek Syndrome' menaces all countries today, as we find 
ourselves in a truly grave crisis with an explosion of social 
inequalities."