Thousands of protesters marched through central Paris on Tuesday as part of nationwide demonstrations supporting high school pupils who have been protesting for better classroom conditions, with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg taking part.
With just six months to go before elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron, French authorities had been hoping that the protests were easing ahead of half-term holidays starting at the end of this week.
But teenagers at high schools called lycees — backed by university students, teachers, unions and the far-left opposition party France Unbowed (LFI) — have said their demands have not been met.
French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was seen among the crowd of demonstrators in Paris.
Outside the Paris city hall, demonstrators — mostly university students — gathered in the early afternoon to the tune of an orchestra playing the The Rebel Fanfare from the Star Wars movies.
“I’m expecting a surge of solidarity,” said 20-year-old Patricia, not wishing to give her surname.
“We’re not giving up the fight, whether it’s for the high school students who were hit with a harsh crackdown, or for denouncing police violence,” she added, referencing multiple allegations of police brutality against protesters in recent weeks.
The education ministry said 214 schools were closed on Tuesday. Most of these were high schools out of the country’s 3,700.
University student union l’Union Etudiante reported that 90 percent of universities had closed nationwide to show support.
Thunberg, who became famous as a teen for school strikes to demand action on climate change, stood among pupils demonstrating outside a school in the capital’s largest suburb, Saint-Denis.
“Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us,” the 23-year-old told reporters outside the Paul Eluard high school.
‘Country without a future’
French students say they are determined to press their demands for solutions to too many absent teachers, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded class schedules and other grievances.
The protests, launched late last month, have seen teenagers pile up dumpsters and security barriers outside hundreds of lycees.
Rallies were also underway in other cities on Tuesday.
In the western city of Nantes, thousands marched behind a banner reading “Schools without money, a country without a future”.
“I think there are a lot of us in France who are still motivated,” 16-year-old Mariolino said.
“Those who think the anger will disappear with the holidays just don’t get it.”
In the northeastern city of Strasbourg, Adeline Ferier, 42, a middle school French teacher, said she was demonstrating to support her 16-year-old daughter.
“I think it’s great that young people are aware of inequalities and are getting involved,” she said.
More than 70,000 people took to the streets last Thursday in the last major event of the movement.
– ‘Issues that deserve time’ –
The demonstrations in recent weeks have mostly been peaceful, but clashes have occasionally broken out with police.
More than 6,800 people — largely minors — have been taken into police custody over the course of the protests, according to the justice ministry.
Police have opened internal investigations into 24 allegations of brutality against demonstrators.
Some 147 teaching staff members have been injured in the protests, the education ministry said.
Authorities said fireworks fired through tubes on Monday injured two school workers in Reims, one school worker in a Paris suburb and a police officer outside a school in Marseille.
Tuesday’s demonstrations supporting the students were to be followed on Saturday by wider public rallies against the rising cost of living.
Macron, speaking to reporters at a car show on Monday, urged restraint from protesters.
“These are issues that deserve time, consultations, discussion and respect,” Macron said just months before elections to replace him.
After last week’s nationwide demonstrations, the government promised that some 3,000 substitute teachers would be deployed in the coming days to replace absent staff at the 114 worst-affected high schools.
The education minister said on Tuesday that 35 percent had already been assigned.
High school students are demanding a 10 billion-euro ($11 billion) boost for lycees.