France: New Wave of Student Protests With Greta Thunberg as Thousands Are Detained
A new wave of student protests began in France on Tuesday to demand better educational conditions, amid fears among authorities and participants that further violence could erupt.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 23, joined the demonstrations, according to AFP. She became internationally known as a teenager for organising school strikes demanding action against climate change.
Thunberg appeared outside Paul Éluard High School in Saint-Denis, one of Paris’s largest suburbs, where lawyers wearing their robes formed a human chain to protect teenagers amid allegations of police violence.
“Young people are not being included in the dialogue. Our future is being stolen from us,” she told AFP.
The protests, supported by trade unions and the far-left opposition party France Unbowed, include a march in Paris at midday on Tuesday, alongside demonstrations in other cities.
“They are not listening to us, so we will confront them,” the student union said on X.
More than 70,000 people took part in high school student demonstrations last Thursday as part of a protest movement that began in late September.
French authorities had hoped the protests would start subsiding ahead of the mid-term school holidays.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray told France Inter on Tuesday morning that “200 schools are expected to be blocked, fewer than last week”. Some businesses near protest routes closed their doors in anticipation of possible damage.
In the Paris region, teenagers blocked the entrances to several schools before dawn.
In the southern city of Marseille, students pushed wheeled rubbish containers in front of their high school.
Deteriorating Educational Conditions
High school students are protesting against poorly maintained buildings, overcrowded classrooms and absent teachers who are not replaced, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods.
During the protests, teenagers have piled up rubbish bins and set fire to barricades outside hundreds of high schools. France has approximately 3,700 such schools, serving students aged between 15 and 18.
Although the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, sporadic clashes with police have occurred.
The Education Ministry said eight education staff members were injured on Monday in connection with the protests, mainly in the Paris region and the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon.
Léo, a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris, said: “Students are not listened to enough, and the concerns they raise with authorities and elected officials are not taken into account.”
He added that demonstrators, many of them minors, were “upset by a level of repression that no student movement has experienced before”.
More Than 6,800 Detained
Authorities said fireworks discharged during the protests injured two school employees in Reims, another at a school in a Paris suburb and a police officer outside a school in Marseille.
Tuesday’s demonstrations supporting students are due to be followed by a broader public mobilisation next Saturday against rising living costs.
Naïla, a 17-year-old student from Rennes, expressed hope that the student protests would “converge” with Saturday’s wider demonstration.
Speaking to reporters at a motor show on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron urged protesters to exercise restraint.
“These issues deserve time, consultation, discussion and respect,” he said.
The Justice Ministry reported that police had detained more than 6,800 people during the protests, most of them minors.
Police have opened internal investigations into 24 allegations of violence against demonstrators.
The government has promised to deploy approximately 3,000 substitute teachers in the coming days to cover absences at the 114 most affected high schools.
On Tuesday, the education minister said 35% of the planned substitute teachers had been assigned.
Students are demanding an additional €10 billion, equivalent to $11 billion, in funding for secondary education.
