Dissent within France's ruling UMP party over a widely criticised youth job seeker contract has added to the woes of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, presenting a fresh test of his governing style and authority.
Facing strikes and street protests over his CPE jobs contract, members of the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) have begun urging Villepin to soften or even suspend the law which cleared parliament on Thursday.
Herve de Charette, a former foreign minister, told the Le Parisien daily that the plan "is a failure that could, if the government persists with it, cost us the presidential election" next year, and urged Villepin to swallow his pride and drop it.
Even Employment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, accused by the opposition of supporting the measure in public while privately criticising it, hinted he too had had his doubts over the plan.
"Over this type of thing, doubt is not necessarily a sign of stupidity," Borloo said on RTL radio, the closest he has come to openly admitting differences with Villepin over how the new job seeker contract was drafted and pushed through.
"Right now, we are first of all explaining it and then we'll try to respond to additional questions" about the plan, which allows firms to take on under 26s for up to two years before hiring them permanently.
Villepin reportedly overruled concerns of key ministers, including Borloo, and railroaded the measure through parliament via a constitutional device that ensured its passage unless the opposition won a no-confidence vote.
Despite failing to bring down Villepin, the left - in disarray since splitting last June over the EU constitution referendum - has been galvanised by the CPE and a wave of anger that has swept universities and state schools.
Almost 40 universities were strike bound on Thursday, and unions are planning fresh protests as a coda to demonstrations that estimates say this week brought between 396,000 and one million people onto the streets nation-wide.
Villepin, widely believed to be considering a presidential bid in 2007 elections, has made reducing jobless queues his top priority since becoming prime minister nine months ago.
Until recently riding high in the polls, he established himself as a serious challenger to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the UMP leader, for the support of conservative voters.
But his strident defence of the CPE has hurt his hitherto consensual image, alienated centre-left support and seen his approval ratings tank.
Sarkozy, on a fence-mending trip in the French West Indies with communities angered by some of his law and order rhetoric, welcomed Villepin's offer to work with unions to amend the plan.
Sarkozy ally Patrick Devedjian urged the government to "both retain the project and improve it", for example by forcing employers to justify termination of the CPE contracts before the two year trial period is up.
Francois Fillon, another Sarkozy ally, urged the party to hold its nerve and show solidarity with the government.
French political scientist Jacques Capdevielle said Sarkozy's uncharacteristic discretion was a sign of the dilemma facing the government number two, who is all but certain to challenge for the presidency next year.
"He is not unhappy to see his rival nose-dive, but at the same time, if he nose-dives too much he's in danger of being brought down with him," he said.
"He's in a difficult position. He can't be seen to break with the government, so I think today he he's regretting having forced his way back into the government."
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