Hajer M'tırı
05 July 2016•Update: 06 July 2016
PARIS
France embraced for yet another day of demonstrations Tuesday as thousands of people came out on the streets across several cities to protest against the government’s proposed labor law.
The protests kicked off at around 12 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) in several French cities such as Rennes, Grenoble, Caen, Bordeaux, Nice, Saint-Nazaire and Clermont.
In Paris, demonstrators began marching between Place d'Italie and Bastille in the afternoon.
French labor unions said Tuesday’s protests would be the last for the summer and vowed to return to the streets in September.
Meanwhile, the lower house of French parliament, the National Assembly, has until Friday to examine the many amendments suggested and voted by the Senate on June 28.
Most of the amendments are unlikely to be approved since they are not backed by the government.
Unions have been protesting and striking against the reforms since March. They are demanding that the left-wing government scrap a controversial labor bill -- dubbed the El Khomri law after Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri -- claiming it paves the way for fundamental changes at the expense of workers’ rights.
French President Francois Hollande said his government would not withdraw the reforms.
The Socialist government reserves the option to invoke Article 49-3 to push through labor reforms without a parliamentary vote.
“Let there be no doubt on this. The law will be voted on and signed off on time. I would like to see the majority backing for it. Short of that, it will be a case of recourse again to Article 49-3,” Hollande told Les Echos newspaper Thursday.
Olivier Faure, spokesman of the socialist group at the National Assembly, said Prime Minister Manuel Valls told them Tuesday he would use Article 49-3.
