By Brian Love
PARIS (Reuters) - France's Socialist government faced nationwide protests and a no confidence vote in parliament on Thursday after its decision to bypass widespread opposition and impose a labor law reform that will make hiring and firing easier.
The government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls was expected to survive the confidence vote easily since it was called by opposition parties that do not have enough votes to get it through.
But the call for a wave of street protests exposes the government to the risk of escalating popular opposition and violence over reform that three in four people are against, according to pollsters.
"It's time to move up a gear," Philippe Martinez, head of the large CGT labor union said in l'Humanite newspaper. His union's main objection is that the reform would allow firms to adopt in-house terms on pay and conditions instead of complying with national standards.
Having narrowly escaped from a rebellion by dissenters in his own party on Wednesday, the deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande is now in an uncomfortable position a year from elections.
But as crowds started to gather in cities across France, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said there was no question of withdrawing the reform.
The reform is not only under fire from unions but also a rolling youth protest movement known as Nuit Debout, which roughly translates as Night Rising.
Several hundred police have already been injured in clashes with protesters, many of them hooded youths hurling stones and petrol bombs. News television channels showed footage of secondary-school pupils blocking schools entrances with garbage bins.
The interior ministry advised motorists to stay away from central Paris ahead of an afternoon march across the capital and also reported traffic halted by road blockages in some places.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a prominent Socialist, added her voice to the dissenters, declaring on Europe 1 radio:
"This law does just nothing for social justice and it shocks me to hear that improving the protection of employees boils down to making it easier to lay them off."
Hollande has several other problems piling up.
Media speculation is rife that his youthful economy minister Emmanuel Macron could run for president in the election scheduled for May 2017.
His government has also been caught up in a controversy over sexual harassment in the corridors of power.
After the resignation this week of a politician accused of harassing female colleagues, Finance Minister Michel Sapin, one of Hollande's closest long-term allies, published a statement on Wednesday admitting behaving inappropriately towards a female journalist.