It has been unrestful in France for a few weeks now. What started as a small-scale protest at a high school outside Paris has grown into a national popular movement that university students have also joined. At the same time, hooligans or rioters are taking advantage of the demonstrations. Where does this unrest come from?
Where in recent days it was still about hundreds of schools, demonstrators today have blocked 1800 high schools. According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were at least 250,000 people on the streets, from Rennes and Toulouse to Paris, to increase pressure on the French government. Education and teachers' unions are also participating.
The demonstrators want an end to a series of problems in French education, such as the poor condition of school buildings. The police are acting harshly: last week 5000 people were arrested, of whom 87 percent were minors.
On September 17, students in a suburb of Paris decided to block the entrance of their high school. They wanted to take a stand against overcrowded classes and long school days. The students were not alone; they received support from teachers who expressed their concerns about the shortage of staff and materials, and the high workload.
French high school students are required to have more lessons than their peers in many other European countries. "I leave home at half past six in the morning and when I come back, it is seven in the evening. I see my teachers more often than my family. That is not normal," a student from Val-de-Marne told local media.
Vulnerable neighborhoods
In addition, many French high schools suffer from a lack of basic facilities such as tables and chairs. Due to a lack of air conditioning, temperatures in classrooms rise significantly during heat waves, while in winter it can be freezing cold. Students point to deferred maintenance, leading to leaking roofs, cockroaches, and rat infestations, as in Saint-Denis. According to activists, these problems are often greatest in schools in socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods.
Parcoursup, the platform through which students apply for further education, is also under fire. Sometimes students have to wait months before they know whether they have been admitted to their chosen study. According to many of them, the system causes uncertainty and extra stress about their future.
Police violence
The first demonstration was still fairly peaceful, with a few trash bins set on fire. But images of it spread rapidly via social media and protests spread to other cities outside Paris.
The movement immediately received support from the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI), which has a strong following among young people. That support is electorally important, because some of the students will be allowed to vote for the first time in next year's French presidential elections.
Right-wing politicians accuse the party of fueling and politicizing the protest. For example, the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko, said that violence "in some cases is legitimized." Those words, which according to Bagayoko were taken out of context, caused much uproar. The center-right presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau wondered whether LFI should be banned.
LFI leader Mélenchon states that his party only supports the movement and does not organize it. He wants the demonstrations to be peaceful and points to what he describes as the "brutality" of the police. According to him, officers frequently used tear gas and batons to disperse demonstrators.
Yesterday in the French city of Lens, a 15-year-old student lost his hand after picking up a flash grenade thrown by riot police. Nearly 200 students and teachers have been injured so far.
Despite the disturbances, the demonstrators continue. Today there were at least 250,000 people on the streets. According to one of the unions, there were even 450,000.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Lecornu wrote a letter promising to come this week with concrete commitments for students, including making school buildings better able to withstand the effects of climate change.
In addition, the budget, which still has to be approved by parliament, allocates an extra 1.2 billion euros for education. He also announced that no lessons will be given in high schools until Friday in the hope that schools and students will then engage in dialogue.
But the fear is that the genie is already out of the bottle and that the protest movement could grow into a much broader popular movement. This is also because there is much frustration in France about the high fuel prices. For example, the Yellow Vests movement, which largely paralyzed France in 2018, has announced it will take to the streets again on October 17.