French High School Protests Spread, Hundreds of Arrests Amid Unrest

According to interior ministry figures, 1,027 high schools out of the 3,700 across France had been affected by the movement's actions against overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.

Le Monde with AFP

Published today at 11:20 am 

French students set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools in several cities, protesting overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities. Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during blockades at high schools on Thursday, October 1, according to reports from regional education authorities, prefectures and union representatives.

Police have already detained hundreds of protesters at the high schools. The interior ministry said police and gendarmes had made 1,949 arrests on Thursday, while 305 officers had been injured.

According to interior ministry figures, 1,027 high schools out of the 3,700 across France had been affected by the movement's actions, with blockades at 222 of them. The authorities in the Paris region said around 50 schools had been "the scene of violence, clashes and damage."

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned what he described as "unbridled violence." The office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the demonstrations had become "urban violence" and cited the intelligence service to justify claims that it had been organized by the radical left.

Manuel Bompard, a leading figure in the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI), quickly dismissed the claim, accusing the government of "sinking into conspiratorial thinking" in comments to Agence France-Presse. LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon demanded to know which arm of the intelligence service had said that.

This latest wave of social unrest comes with tensions already running high over inflation, particularly soaring fuel prices – and just seven months away from France's presidential election, where opinion polls suggest far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the frontrunner.

School staff targeted

Since last week, pupils have staged protests outside schools over a range of grievances. They range from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves. The protests have spread across the country from the Paris suburbs.

Riot police have lined up against the students, and the force has launched internal probes after accusations of brutality against three pupils, said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. University students also joined in Thursday, blocking access to around 30 campuses, a student union said.

Among reports of school staff being targeted was one incident in the southern port city of Marseille when a school principal and his deputy were splashed with petrol. A journalist with TV channel M6 was attacked at the same school, local officials said.

In the northwestern city of Nantes, firefighters had to intervene to extinguish a fire in the entrance of a high school "following a gathering marked by violence towards staff," the regional education board said.

Authorities reported violence near high schools, mainly in Nantes, blaming "violent individuals" who "join the students to carry out acts of vandalism." In the northeastern city of Strasbourg, trams were ordered to halt to "restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators," the regional prefect said.

In neighboring Belgium, there were protests and damage at a handful of schools in the eastern city of Liège, police said.