Greta Thunberg backs French high school protests over run-down schools

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Greta Thunberg on Tuesday threw her high-profile support behind high school protesters rattling the government in France, saying “the whole world is watching with awe.”

She joined and applauded hundreds of teenagers who demonstrated boisterously outside their school north of Paris under the watchful eye of police.

The surprise appearance of the 23-year-old Swedish activist, best known for raising awareness about the climate crisis, and another day of marches in the French capital together suggested that the high-schoolers’ push for more resources for run-down schools is far from running out of steam. That’s despite mass arrests, mounting injuries and the fatigue from more than three weeks of blockading and demonstrating outside schools.

Outside the Paul Éluard high school in Saint-Denis, where staff and students have long complained of dilapidated facilities and even rat infestations, Thunberg said French pupils are “fighting back, reclaiming their future that has been taken away from them” and are inspiring young people in other countries.

“The international community sees these students and they’re leading by example,” she said. “This generation is one that has been growing up with a sense of hopelessness for the future, when we can see our future and our rights taken from us,” she said.

“Of course people are going to fight back,” she added. “That is one thing that Gen Z has proven: That is we are not going to give up without a fight.

“And I hope that this inspires other young people to also see that when the adults around us are not stepping up for us, are not protecting us, we have to take it into our own hands. And I think this is a very clear example of that.”