Protesting pupils blockade French high schools again, testing a weekslong movement

PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across France on Tuesday in support of protests by school pupils demanding more education funding, increasing pressure on the government of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.

As pupils again blockaded high schools, large crowds waving flags and placards gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities. The demonstrations showed how protests that began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September have grown into a nationwide movement — the latest of many that have marked Macron’s nearly decade-long tenure.

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“We need to listen to them,” said Léa Monimart, a demonstrator in the northern city of Lille. “They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.”

The Interior Ministry estimated that 86,000 people took part in demonstrations outside Paris on Tuesday morning. More were gathering in the capital for a protest scheduled for the afternoon.

More than two weeks of class boycotts and school blockades, and policing that has led to more than 6,100 arrests, mostly of minors, have become a flashpoint in the early days of the presidential election campaign.

Felix Barney, a university student, described the police response as disproportionate. “It doesn’t have any sense to hit minors,” he said.

“Riot police, batons, rubber bullets, tear gas,” said Aurélien Le Coq, a lawmaker with the far-left France Unbowed party. Its presidential candidate is strongly backing the protests.

The violence is “absolutely unbearable,” Le Coq said.

The teenage protesters have struck a chord amid widespread discontent in France. Frustrations extend beyond immediate difficulties, such as fuel prices that have soared because of the Iran war, to broader concerns about constraints on public spending, rising poverty and wealth inequality under Macron, who cannot run for a third consecutive term.

Against that backdrop, pupils’ complaints that education funding shortfalls are endangering their futures have found a sympathetic audience.

“You say ‘young people are the future,’ so listen to them,” read a handwritten placard attached to a metal barrier outside a Paris school.

Ministry offers online portal for complaints

At the Hélène Boucher lycée, or high school, in Paris’ 20th district, protesters tipped trash cans and bicycles on their sides to create a makeshift barricade.

Like hundreds of others around the country, the school was closed. Authorities began shutting schools last week to take some steam out of the demonstrations after widespread damage to schools and mounting injuries among staff, students and police. Classes were totally or partially suspended Tuesday at 891 schools, according to the Education Ministry.

Facing accusations that it was ignoring protesters, the ministry launched an online portal inviting high school students to anonymously describe the difficulties they face at school and the changes they want to see.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Tuesday defended policing methods used against high schoolers, despite a growing list of gruesome injuries blamed on officers’ riot-control weapons. The latest was a 15-year-old boy who lost a hand on Monday in an incident involving a police stun grenade.

Nunez said the police response has been proportionate in “almost all cases.”

The widespread use of arrests, tear gas and riot-control weapons against teenagers is fueling defiance and angering some parents and teachers. Nunez said protests transformed at times into rioting, requiring police intervention. He said 715 officers have been injured.

Student protests have drawn attention to rundown classrooms

At Hélène Boucher, parents and other adults positioned themselves Tuesday between protesters and police keeping watch.

“They are our children. Teachers, parents, federations, we all share the same goal: the protection of children’s rights, and it is a legitimate right to demonstrate and to make demands,” said Emilia Sichili Suriam, who is a member of an association of parents.

Demonstrators have voiced a range of grievances, often centering on a lack of resources and opportunities for students in disadvantaged schools despite the promise of France’s national motto: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”

Students have drawn attention to rundown classrooms that lack basics such as desks and chairs, become sweltering in summer without air conditioning and, in some cases, are infested with rats. Other common complaints include staff shortages and exhausting workloads. French high school students’ compulsory classroom hours are among the highest in Europe.