year-old man hospitalised after Saturday's protest was injured in the face during clashes between police and protesters at the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, police said in a statement. He was in serious condition, it added. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened a preliminary enquiry, the statement said. Bernard Allaire of Sud-PTT denounced police violence and told Reuters: "His situation is worse than alarming. No one is allowed to see him except his immediate family." Large rallies can make or break governments in France. Protests in 1995 badly undermined the then conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppe, who lost snap elections two years later. Critics within his own ruling UMP party have dubbed the CPE Comment Perdre une Election -- How To Lose an Election. Police clashed with protestors in a suburb outside Paris on Monday and more student rallies are planned for Tuesday. Commentators say the unrest could hurt Villepin's ambitions of contesting the presidency in 2007 and harm Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy or any other possible right-wing candidate. Lasting protests could also dent, if only briefly, French consumer confidence as did riots in poor suburbs last autumn. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday the protests were not yet having a major economic impact. "At the moment, I don't see significant economic effects, certainly not on the level of the euro zone's 313 million inhabitants," Trichet told LCI television, adding European countries needed structural reforms to battle mass unemployment. A BVA opinion poll piled fresh pressure on the government, showing 60 percent of French voters want the law withdrawn. Another poll, published in Liberation newspaper, showed 38 percent want the law modified while 35 percent want it withdrawn. Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said that poll showed the importance of further discussion.
