PARIS (AP) – France’s Constitutional Council upheld a contested labor law Thursday making it easier to fire young workers, leaving President Jacques Chirac to decide the next step as students and labor unions threaten more nationwide protests.

Chirac’s office said he would speak Friday about the law, which proponents say will spur hiring and help solve France’s chronic youth unemployment. Students and labor unions say it will erode France’s cherished workplace protections.

Thursday’s ruling by the council’s nine appointed members allows the law to go into effect – depending on Chirac’s actions – in what could be a turning point in a dispute that has dominated French news and politics for weeks.

None of Chirac’s choices is easy. If he signs the law, he risks a social battle and more protests. Sending the law back to parliament would be a blow to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who has championed the law, leaving Chirac’s governing party drifting just a year before presidential and legislative elections.

Lawmakers and government officials have speculated that Chirac would push through the law, standing by Villepin as he has throughout the crisis.

Even if Chirac proposes changes to the law or offers talks with labor leaders, unions are unlikely to bite. They want the law withdrawn before they will negotiate. The measure allows a two-year trial period for workers under 26 during which companies can fire them for no reason.

Rarely has a decision by the council, which rules on the constitutionality of French laws, been so awaited. The student- and union-led protest movement has plunged Chirac’s government into crisis, and a decision to strike the law down would have offered a way out.

The jobs plan has taken a drastic toll on the popularity of Villepin, a poet, writer and longtime aide to Chirac appointed premier in May. He has never been elected to office, but was widely considered a presidential hopeful for next year’s vote – an ambition that the labor crisis has probably dashed.

On Tuesday, more than 1 million demonstrators took to the streets and strikes disrupted air, rail and bus travel – even shutting down the Eiffel Tower – in the largest nationwide protest against the law. Police arrested more than 900 people nationwide, and protesters have threatened to boost their demonstrations.

Government ministers fear the crisis is hurting France’s image abroad. Trade minister Christine Lagarde, who embarks on an eight-day visit to the United States next week, complained of “excessive” foreign media coverage of the demonstrations, which have repeatedly ended in violent clashes between youths and police.