Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined a demonstration outside a high school in a working-class suburb of Paris on Tuesday as French pupils staged another day of protests over poor school conditions.
Now in its fourth week, the nationwide movement has highlighted teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating facilities. It has involved marches and blockades at hundreds of schools, with some demonstrations escalating into clashes with police.
Pupils gathered outside several schools in Paris and other cities in the morning, carrying placards and megaphones and chanting slogans. More marches were planned later in the day.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray told France Inter radio that about 200 schools were closed, although he suggested some had shut as a safety precaution because they were along planned march routes.
Greta Thunberg ‘Inspired’ by French School Protests
Thunberg, who rose to prominence as a teenage climate activist and has since broadened her campaigning, said French pupils deserved wider support.
“They should know that all over the world we are following these developments. We are inspired by the young people who are demanding their basic rights,” she told reporters outside Lycee Paul Eluard in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, one of the schools where the protest movement first gained traction.
“Whether it's not funding schools enough, or the climate crisis, or social injustice crises ... it's about time that young people are stepping up and reclaiming that future.”
Thunberg also criticised the police response, describing it as “extremely violent” and accusing authorities of protecting the status quo while ignoring young people’s demands.
Riot police have used tear gas and charged at protesters during numerous incidents, injuring hundreds and arresting thousands.
The government suspended the use of stun grenades last week after a teenager lost a hand.
Left-wing politicians have criticised the police response, while far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and others have blamed violent protesters, pointing to damage at schools and injuries to staff and police officers.
The protests have added to a sense of uncertainty and crisis in France six months before a presidential election that could bring the country’s first far-right government since World War Two, led by Le Pen’s National Rally.
The cash-strapped government has promised to address the pupils’ concerns but has little room to manoeuvre as worries over national debt and the budget deficit push borrowing costs to their highest levels in years.
Le Pen, the frontrunner to replace President Emmanuel Macron according to opinion polls, has said she would cut spending to bring public finances under control.