Europe · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
France Closes 400 High Schools as Police Clash With Students Across Paris Suburbs
More than 400 high schools closed nationwide amid protests. Riot police clashed with students; numerous injuries and hundreds detained.
Attribution of responsibility for damage: parents pay reparations.
10 of 12 outlets skipped it: fires and clashes included a petrol-spray attack on a teacher in La Ciotat.
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BBC
“It appears that the protests have been hijacked by external casseurs (vandals)”Read the original ↗
One suggests a clear shift to violence; the other foregrounds vandals as suspected hijackers.
France schools shut
France’s student protests forced authorities to close hundreds of high schools, with the Ministry of National Education saying at least 400 of France’s 3,700 high schools were closed on Friday. Education Minister Édouard Geffray warned parents to “tell their children not to go” to the protests, as students blockaded schools, lit fires, and faced off with police across the country. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said the government had accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of commandeering the movement, while he told RTL that parents should be liable for damage caused by their children and “pay for repairs”.
Kesia, a 15-year-old in the Paris suburb of Pantin, said, “We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one-hour lunch break [is too short] for everyone to get food,” before running off as police used tear gas. The fire brigade responded after fire damaged the entrances of two high schools in the capital, Leonard de Vinci in the south of the city and Gaston-Bachelard in the southeast.
Injuries, arrests, blame
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told BFMTV that at least 170 students were wounded, along with 65 school staff members including 40 principals, as the protests turned increasingly tumultuous. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said security forces were “not facing protesters but rioters,” after an investigation was opened for attempted murder over an attack on an off-duty police officer in Belfort. Amnesty International said on social media that “the images of high school students being assaulted by law enforcement are extremely alarming,” and it added, “Many are minors, children,” as the government pressed for de-escalation.
Lola, a 16-year-old speaking to the AFP news agency in Rennes, condemned what she described as police violence while standing outside Jean-Mace high school, saying, “It makes us even angrier – the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us,”. The Ministry of National Education reported that 564 schools across France have been or are still being subject to actions or disruptions since the beginning of the day, according to Anadolu Ajansı.
Dialogue and next steps
Education Minister Édouard Geffray said he planned to meet on Friday with education unions and student associations to find room for dialogue, after the government decided not to charge BTS or prepa class enrollment fees. The Ministry of the Interior said 1,027 establishments out of about 3,700 high schools in the country were affected Thursday by the high school movement, including 222 blockages, as the mobilization continued. The organizations calling for the movement to continue looked ahead to a major demonstration on Tuesday, while Geffray said, “One of the difficulties of this movement is that there is no nationwide demand.”
In Strasbourg, protesters advanced toward a campus of the University of Strasbourg after protesters were pushed back by law enforcement, and mortar fireworks were reportedly heard while gasoline was used to start a fire. The Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region estimated that damage linked to the student mobilization amounted to €25 million ($28 million) to €30 million ($33 million), as the protests spread across regions including Marseille and Rennes.