(31 Mar 2006)
1. Various exteriors of National Assembly building
2. National Assembly hall
3. Various of left-wing parties leaders' roundtable
4. Francois Hollande, leader of the French socialist party, with reporters
5. SOUNDBITE: (French) Francois Hollande, French Socialist Party leader:
"There's a social crisis, a political crisis. We have to get out of it and the only way out is for the president to announce that he won't publish the law and that he's going to open a debate in parliament."
6. Cutaway camera
7. Henri Emmanuelli, socialist Member of Parliament with official
8. SOUNDBITE: (French) Henri Emmanuelli, Socialist MP:
"What we're asking is that he (the president) withdraws the law, because there won't be any negotiations without the withdrawal. Then there must be discussions with the unions and the employers to examine exactly what needs to be done. Labour law must not be overlooked, we don't really want to find ourselves back at the end of the 19th century in order to deal with the 21st."
9. More of National Assembly hall
10. Various of newspapers kiosk
11. Newspapers headlines
12. SOUNDBITE: (French) Vox pop:
"I think that in the context we are in, we must try to soothe minds and on both sides we should try to work on real and concrete facts."
13. Various of newspaper headlines
14. SOUNDBITE: (French) Vox pop:
"His declaration? (Chirac's TV address this evening) I don't expect much from it after everything that has happened. I don't think it is the head of state that deals with what is happening today, he has no hold over the events and what he will say will be just words but it will change nothing."
15. More newspaper headlines
16. Street scene
STORYLINE
A coalition of eleven leftwing party leaders gathered at the French National Assembly in Paris on Friday and called on President Jacques Chirac to withdraw a controversial labour law.
Francois Hollande, the leader of the French Socialist Party, said there needed to be a parliamentary debate on the issue.
"The only way out is for the president to announce that he won't publish the law and that he will open a debate in parliament," he told reporters at the National Assembly.
Socialist MP Henri Emmanuelli said negotiations would be impossible until the law was withdrawn.
"Then there must be discussions with the unions and the employers to examine exactly what has to be done", he said.
French President Jacques Chirac is due to speak on prime-time television on Friday night about the CPE (First Employment Contract), the law which makes it easier for companies to fire young workers.
Some people on the streets of Paris said they didn't really know what to expect from Chirac's speech.
"I don't expect much from it after everything that has happened. I don't think it is the head of state that deals with what is happening today, he has no hold over the events and what he will say will be just words but it will change nothing," one woman said.
In a much-awaited ruling, the Constitutional Council gave the go-ahead for the job law on Thursday, increasing tensions after weeks of protests.
The protests over the measure have shut down universities, tangled transport and dominated French news and politics for weeks.
Some had hoped the council would throw out the CPE as unconstitutional, offering a way out of the crisis.
Unions called the ruling "a call to protest," and planned new strikes and marches for Tuesday.
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