French students have staged sporadic victory marches across the country, a day after President Jacques Chirac axed a hire-and-fire youth jobs law that had drawn millions onto the streets in protest. A few thousand students have marched across France - just a fraction of the estimated 1 million who had marched a week earlier to demand the withdrawal of the First Job Contract (CPE).The CPE would have made it easier for employers to sack young workers. Parliament is due to start debating measures to help disadvantaged young people find work designed by the ruling Union for a Popular Movement to replace the CPE and end two months of crisis. Police say 2,300 people marched in Paris, compared with 700,000 last week before the Government u-turn. The lower turnout has been repeated in provincial towns across the country. "What's happening today is that there is some wavering ... but one should not conclude that our movement is dead," Anna Melun, of the main Unef students' union, said.
As CPE opponents vow to keep up their guard until Parliament votes through new measures for young workers, Education Minister Gilles de Robien says life at most of France's 84 universities is returning to normal. Some 3,400 people were arrested over five days of nationwide protests against the CPE in two months.