French President Jacques Chirac gave a call to companies and political parties to acknowledge its diversity and fight discrimination. Companies and labor unions must get mobilized on the essential question of diversity and asked the leaders of political parties to take their share of responsibility.

Chirac's government wants to extend a state of emergency by three months. This law was introduced on Nov. 8 allowing local authorities to impose curfews and restrictions to end the unrest.

According to Bloomberg.com, Chirac yesterday vowed to act ``firmly'' against those involved in the worst public violence in the country since 1968.

The Agence France-Presse Report says that almost 8,600 cars have been torched in the riots that began in a Paris suburb and spread to cities across France. Curfews in some towns and bans on gatherings in Paris and Lyon have brought calm after more than two weeks of violence. About 2,700 people have been arrested.

Three firebombs were thrown at a mosque in St. Chamond, southwest of Lyon, late yesterday, causing some damage.

As per Bloomberg.com, the riots partly reflect tensions in neighborhoods where youth unemployment exceeds 30 percent and where sizeable Muslim communities reside in the largely Catholic country.

While the provocation for the riots was the accidental death of two youths fleeing a police check, the violence reflects frustration of immigrants and their descendants who say they face discrimination.
 
A white man with a French first and last name is five times more likely to be called in for a job interview than a man with a Northern African name with a similar resume, according to a 2004 study by sociologist Jean-Francois Amadieu and Adia, a Paris- based human resources consultant and temporary job company.

Chirac said France must acknowledge its diversity and fight discrimination, which ``saps the foundation of our republic.'' He rejected the idea of introducing a quota system, calling it ``unfair'' for those who aren't able to benefit from it.
`Confusion'

``What's striking is that the president focused on an analysis of the situation more than on measures to solve the issue,'' Bruno Jeanbart, a deputy director at market research and polling company CSA in Paris. ``It shows the confusion of the head of state and of the French society.''

National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said yesterday that measures will be taken to change recruitment patterns in the police and hire more people from ethnic minorities, as in countries such as the U.K.

``Our police must mirror the French society,'' Gaudin said. France, with a population of about 62 million, has one of the largest communities of immigrants of Arab origin in Europe, totaling about 5 million people.

Laurence Parisot, president of Mouvement des Entreprises de France, or Medef, the country's biggest federation, said today in Paris that businesses aren't ``specifically'' guilty of discrimination.
 
Medef will discuss ``diversity'' with unions by the end of the year, she said. She's not opposed to discussing quotas, which are currently forbidden under French laws.

Medef's local branches will study existing best practices to add employees in poor neighborhoods. Tax exemptions for businesses hiring people in these areas have had mixed success and need to be analyzed, Parisot said. Labor laws in general contribute to France's job creation problem, she said.

``We have social laws which are falsely protective and often hamper the growth potential of our companies,'' said Parisot. ``It might be time to create a firing process which would be less traumatizing both for employees and businesses.''
France's jobless rate held at 9.8 percent in September, according to the French government.

It held at 9.4 percent, one percentage point higher than in the average of the dozen nations sharing the euro, according to the European Union statistics office, which uses a different method.

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