France's Constitutional Council approved a controversial youth jobs law this evening, leaving President Jacques Chirac to sign it and spark more street protests or risk losing his prime minister by withdrawing it.
Contrary to expectations, the council did not issue any reservations about the law, which cuts job protection for workers under 26 years of age, a move that could have forced the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to amend the text.
Aides said Chirac would go on national television tonight to give his response to the decision after weeks of protests by millions of workers and students around France.
Parliamentary sources said they expected Mr Chirac to sign the CPE First Jobs Contract into law the same day.
Mr de Villepin says the law is a crucial tool to fight youth unemployment but student demonstrators and unions have urged Mr Chirac (73) to send the law back to parliament -- stripped of the CPE articles that were attached to it.
Government ministers earlier today repeated their support for the plan as students blocked several main traffic routes around France, causing traffic jams totalling 345 km (215 miles) around the country.
Train lines were blocked around Marseille, Rennes and in Paris at the Gare de Lyon.
Labour Minister Jean-Louis Borloo dismissed talk of the CPE law being withdrawn or suspended, telling the Senate upper house of parliament: "In our constitution, as it stands now, the word withdrawal does not exist.
"Nobody, neither the prime minister nor the president, has the power to suspend" a law voted by parliament, he said.
Mr Chirac has repeatedly backed Mr de Villepin, widely viewed as his preferred successor should the president (73) not stand for a third term in elections next year.
Retaining the unpopular Mr de Villepin will likely prolong the protests while backing away from the new jobs law could trigger his resignation and a full-blown government crisis.