With new student protests in Paris on Tuesday and trade unions calling for nationwide strikes, pressure is rising on French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to scrap his controversial labor market reforms. Villepin has declared himself willing to negotiate over changes to his so-called "First Job Contract," but refuses to abandon the piece of legislation altogether, claiming that it will help combat France's high youth unemployment. If the measure does indeed take effect next month, it will allow employers to fire workers under 26 for first two years of employment without having to give a reason that could be contested in court. Students and trade unions call that an unacceptable attack on job security.

German papers discussing the issue have moved from a focus on the student protests to a more general reflection on the structural problems that have brought French society to this point only a few months after the violent riots that shook the suburbs of Paris and other cities last November. Several commentators draw a comparison between France and Germany, pointing out that Villepin's labor reforms is in many ways similar to the so-called Hartz reforms by which the previous government in Berlin attempts to combat high unemployment in Germany.

An editorial in the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung begins by arguing against too hasty a comparison between last year's riots and today's protests. "There's a world of difference between the violent residents of Clichy-sous-Bois"  -- the Paris suburb where the November 2005 riots began -- "and the students who are now causing trouble in front of the Sorbonne," the commentator writes. Nonetheless, both events are indicative of the profound divisions that characterize French society, such as that between younger and older citizens and that between politicians and common people. "As long as these divisions persist, the country will remain in crisis," the commentator writes, going on to criticize France's educational system as too closed, perpetuating social hierarchies. The paper pulls no punches when it comes to France's politicians either -- they are a "conspiratorial community with no idea of what the people are concerned about." It is such structural problems -- the reproduction of inequality through the university system and the isolation of the "political class" -- that explain the current protests, the commentator concludes: "Young people have taken to the streets because they feel they've been mocked by politicians and denied opportunities by society."

The conservative daily Die Welt warns against comparisons between the current student protests and those of 1968. What is happening today, the editorial argues, is not a reprise of the 1960s but rather their very opposite, and the reasons are mainly economic: "In the 1960s, the French were wallowing in their wealth. Today, the country is in the middle of one of the worst economic crises since World War II." The rioters in Paris may be young, but the condition that is driving them onto the streets is not specific to any particular age group, according to the commentator: "France's youth is no revolutionary vanguard; it's simply expressing a sentiment common to all generations." What is it the young and the old have in common? According to the commentator, they're both "on the warfoot with reality," clutching to memories of the golden 1970s in order not to confront the challenges posed by today's globalized economy and creating a situation in which politicians working to reform the economy are simply powerless: "Whoever sets out to free the country from its state of paralysis is immediately punished by the cheering masses." The story is the same from Alain Juppé's 1995 pension reform to Jean-Pierre Raffarin's 2003 efforts at bureaucratic de-centralization, according to the editorial, which identifies France's complex state bureaucracy and a general tendency to look to the state for solutions to social and economic problems as two of the most serious problems facing the country: "A society that looks to the state for help, that rejects renewal and has lost the courage to make an effort, has nothing to blame but itself. France seems to have lost the courage to make a new beginning." After noting that the situation is reminiscent of nothing less than the decline of the Roman Empire, the commentator concludes by pointing out that none of what he has described should make Germans feel superior: "Things are not so different on the other side of the Rhine."

This comparison between France and Germany is also the focus of an editorial published in Financial Times Deutschland. The paper makes a general argument that the European welfare system is hopelessly inadequate to today's economic reality, and that no reform attempt will solve the problem, whether it be Villepin's First Job Contract or the Hartz reforms by which Germany hoped would reduce unemployment. In other words, it is not a matter of economically viable reforms failing due to political obstacles -- the reforms are in fact economically useless. "Employment legislation is a topic that interests politicians and journalists more than it does economists," the commentator writes, adding that, "among economists, removing obstacles to the firing of workers is not considered a viable instrument for eliminating unemployment." True, such measures may contribute to eliminating long-term unemployment, but long-term unemployment is a problem that mainly concerns older people, not the youths Villepin claims to have been thinking of when he proposed his measures. "Whoever wants to solve France's problem of youth unemployment by measures such as the First Job Contract is moving in the wrong direction," the commentator writes, adding that what is really needed is a radical and generalized reduction of the minimum wage. Not having followed this approach, the policies of the French and German governments were doomed to failure from the start, and the result is that "people are now not only losing their faith in politics, but also their faith in economic reform," the commentator writes. "The only thing the French are better at than the Germans," he concludes, "is demonstrations."

Scotland Yard is currently investigating a case of possible corruption that could threaten to end Prime Minister Tony Blair's political career. Four persons nominated for positions in the Upper House of Britain's parliament have been revealed to have made generous loans to Blair's Labour Party prior to their nominations. The news comes at a time when Blair's popularity is already low among voters. In commenting on the scandal, two German papers speculate on whether Blair's days are indeed numbered. Both papers link the scandal to the transformations Blair has wrought within his own party, pointing out that Blair's reforms have strengthened the position of the Prime Minister while weakening that of the party base.

According to the left-wing Berliner Zeitung, "the scandal reveals the extent to which Blair is out of touch with the roots of what used to be a traditional working-class party, financed by trade unions; it also shows how weak the foundation of the Prime Minister's political power has become." The editorial opens with a quote from conservative British politician Enoch Powell: "All political careers end in tears" and points out that Powell was referring to Margaret Thatcher's departure from Downing Street, which saw the "Iron Lady" crying over the fact that her political demise had been urged by members of her very own Conservative Party. The paper suggests Tony Blair may be bound for a similar fate. "A self-confessed admirer of the iron lady, Tony Blair always wanted to decide the day of his departure himself," the Berliner Zeitung writes, adding that this may have become little more than a wish. "Calls for Blair to resign are becoming ever louder."