Home · World · Oct 2 archive
Riot police clash with students as education protests rage in France
Confirmed
In Short: Intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI).
French high school students continued their protests over education standards, clashing with police and disrupting more than 560 schools across the country on Friday. The unrest, which began last week in Paris, has spread to cities including Montpellier, Nantes, and Marseille.
At least 65 staff members have been injured in the unrest, according to the education ministry. In Strasbourg, tear gas was deployed as police feared conditions would become more hostile.
French Education Minister Édouard Geffray said the movement had been hijacked by non-students. He told French broadcaster BFMTV that teachers had said, “the people in front of me were not my students.”
The protests have seen high school students block access to buildings and clash with police. In Belfort, a 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide after a police officer was targeted.
In the Paris suburb of Pantin, police charged at protesters and made arrests after projectiles were thrown at officers. French firefighters put out burning barricades during protests in Aubervilliers.
Students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions are inadequate, and there are too many staff absences. A 15-year-old student in the Paris suburb of Pantin told Reuters, “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.”
Intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI). French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio that police had arrested 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, since the protests began.
The interior ministry said they had opened three investigations into police violence against protesters. Darmanin said prosecutors had been asked to hold parents liable for damage caused by their children and “pay for repairs.”
What's confirmed
- "It makes us even angrier - the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us," she added.
What's still developing
- Police published pictures of some of the items they had seized from demonstrators, including petrol bombs, an axe and so-called mortar fireworks.
- French riot police apprehend a protester during clashes outside a Toulouse school "We banned him from coming. I hope he isn't here, but he did leave the house," she told AFP.
- Education union SNEP-FSU, public services union SNUEP-FSU and Solidaires have all called for members to support them.
- In the western city of Rennes, the tension was already palpable outside the Jean-Mace high school with students dressed in black and wearing balaclavas standing not far from a heavy police presence.
- Education is traditionally the largest budget item, but that changes next year with debt servicing costs expected to reach €74.5 billion, according to the draft bill.
- "Students must be protected, not beaten with batons," the advocacy group said on social media platform X.
- School protests send shivers down French government's spine Darmanin said that 735 of France's 3,700 schools were now affected "one way or another" by the violent protests.