French Prime Minister Manuel Valls | Hannah Peters/Getty Images Manuel Valls vows to ‘change nothing’ on labor reform French prime minister says he hopes François Hollande will run for re-election.

PARIS — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday he would “change nothing” about the labor law reform that street demonstrators and France’s hardliner unions keep demanding he pull altogether.

On the eve of a public transport strike that was presented by organizers as “unlimited,” Valls showed only a narrow path to compromise to opponents of the labor market bill: Some aspects of the law could be “improved” in further parliamentary discussions, he said in an interview with selected foreign media organizations, including POLITICO. But he insisted he would not cede ground on the controversial article 2 of the law, which decentralizes contractual negotiations to the firm level.

Valls noted that strikes, ongoing or planned, at the French railway company and in the Paris metro had nothing to do with the labor law reform, and were caused by specific pay or other conflicts at the respective companies. “But in any case I would not pull the reform to avoid a strike,” he said.

On the other articles of the labor bill, the prime minister said, he was “waiting for suggestions” from the unions that oppose it.

In a sign that things were beginning to move on that front, the CGT union, the main force behind the protests, has hinted it would not now demand the government scrap the bill altogether. Valls said that earlier this week he had spoken by phone with the union's leader, Philippe Martinez. The number of demonstrators, never high to begin with, is dwindling, even though violent episodes at the periphery of the marches have projected an impression of mayhem on TV.

In a wide-ranging interview that seemed in part intended to reassure readers of non-French media that they could and should attend the Euro 2016 football championship, due to begin in France next week, Valls said that although there were serious security concerns, the government had taken all the necessary steps to make the event as smooth as possible.

Valls also said he thought France was at a “key moment” of the decade-old dispute between the reformist and the radical wings of both the Socialist left and the union movement. He presented himself as the prime minister who would show that contrary to some foreign perception, “it is possible to reform France.”

But although he thinks that is not an impossible task, he also noted that compromise has always been difficult to find. “We’re a country that likes revolution, confrontation, conflict,” he said.

As for today, the government’s main challenge, as seen by its PM, is “how to govern a country when you’re caught between far right populism polling at 30 percent and the terrorist threat?”

Valls said it was “normal” that his popularity would take a hit as he was the one leading the charge for unpopular reforms. “I accept that I am unpopular,” he insisted, saying that it would take months for slowly improving economic numbers to translate into political results.

Valls was once one of the government’s most popular figures but his ratings have gone down in the last months — near the dismal level of President François Hollande — partly because of his management of the labor law reform.

Asked about the moonlighting style of his popular Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, who has launched his own political movement and whom he has reprimanded at times, Valls noted: “His line is not different from mine… I can’t complain when I see there is aspiration for change and reform [in French society].”

Valls said he hopes Hollande will run for another presidential term next year — a wish Macron has always pointedly refused to express — because it would be the “logical thing” to do.

By the end of the year, the French, who are disappointed and at times angry at the government, will start so see results, Valls said. “And then going into the campaign we will start comparing platforms: with the far-right, with the conservatives — then we’ll have a good, sound debate and the French will choose — not only on our record but on a project. And then we’ll see,” he said.