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Paris Police Chief Warns Student Protests Out of Control
Confirmed
In Short: Paris police chief Patrice Faure warns student protests are out of control, urging demonstrators to return to peaceful action.
The student protest movement that has spread across France is now 'out of control,' the Paris police chief said on Saturday, according to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) and Internazionale (Italy). Faure, in an open letter published on X, called on students to abandon school blockades and unrest in favor of peaceful forms of protest.
Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) and Internazionale (Italy) reported that riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday, with unions calling for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron’s government struggled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding.
According to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Internazionale (Italy), and News (Azerbaijan), security officials fear that an organized protest in central Paris could see further violence amid concerns that far-left anarchist groups could hijack the movement.
Student unions have called for a national day of demonstrations on Tuesday, as reported by Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Internazionale (Italy), and News (Azerbaijan).
Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Internazionale (Italy), and News (Azerbaijan) all noted that the students blockading high schools have voiced anger over overcrowding in classrooms, regular shortages of teachers, and dilapidated buildings, blaming years of underinvestment.
Several students in the Paris region, whom Reuters spoke to earlier in the week, said they were staying away from the protests on Friday due to escalating violence, according to En and Nypost.
Teacher Sandra Champain-Seller said, 'The violence is regrettable, but when demands go unheard for years, and given the political and geopolitical context, there are several conditions that put students in a real state of anxiety,' as quoted by En and Nypost.
Darmanin told RTL radio that police had arrested 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, since the protests began, adding that parents of those damaging property should pay reparations, as reported by Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Internazionale (Italy), and Nypost.
Vincent Martin, who joined his daughter outside Helene Boucher high school in Paris, said students were 'fundamentally right to demand better learning conditions,' as quoted by En and Nypost.
A 15-year-old student named Kesia told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin, '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 the police used tear gas.
In a sign the protests may spread beyond France, high school students in Belgium’s Liège began protesting on Thursday, as reported by En and Nypost.
Protesters in Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, set items including fences on fire and threw firecrackers at riot police, before running away, according to En and Nypost.
What's confirmed
- Riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday and unions called for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron’s government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding.
- Paris police chief Patrice Faure, in an open letter published on X ahead of planned renewed protests from next Tuesday, said those who had launched the movement no longer controlled it and called on students to abandon school blockades and unrest in favor of peaceful forms of protest.
- Student unions have called for a national day of demonstrations on Tuesday.
- Security officials fear that an organized protest in central Paris in particular could see further violence amid concerns that far-left anarchist groups could hijack the movement.
- The students blockading high schools have voiced anger over overcrowding in classrooms, regular shortages of teachers and dilapidated buildings, blaming years of underinvestment.
- Several students in the Paris region whom Reuters spoke to earlier in the week said they were staying away from the protests on Friday due to escalating violence.
- “(The violence) is regrettable, but … when demands go unheard for years, and given the political and geopolitical context, there are several conditions that put … students in a real state of anxiety,” teacher Sandra Champain-Seller said.
- Darmanin told RTL radio that police had arrested 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, since the protests began, adding that parents of those damaging property should pay reparations.
- “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,” 15-year-old Kesia told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin before running off as the police used tear gas.
- In a sign the protests may spread beyond France, high school students in Belgium’s Liège began protesting on Thursday.
- Protesters in Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, set items including fences on fire and threw firecrackers at riot police, before running away.
- The protests erupted in the Paris region last week but have turned increasingly violent as they spread nationwide.
What's still developing
- World Brief: Violent Student Protests Loom Over France’s Budget Proposal Create an FP account to save articles to read later.
- (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Susan Fenton) Venerdì la polizia antisommossa si è scontrata con studenti delle scuole superiori in tutta la Francia e i sindacati hanno indetto uno sciopero degli insegnanti, mentre il governo del presidente Emmanuel Macron lottava per contenere le proteste sempre più violente sulle condizioni delle aule e sui finanziamenti.
- Four hundred high schools — roughly one in 10 — were closed on Friday due to the unrest, while Geffray urged parents to keep their children from protesting.