Anger of high school students: Lecornu will find out with “Act IV” if his speech appeased the movement

Did Sébastien Lecornu manage to calm the anger of high school students with his speech on Wednesday evening? The Prime Minister will be fixed this Thursday with “Act IV” of the movement. High school and university students are once again called to demonstrate this Thursday, as the government increases signs of calm to end the crisis.

Madi, “Act III” was synonymous with strong mobilization to demand more resources. The demonstrators then numbered between 266,000 and 450,000 throughout France.

A call to continue the blockades of high schools

Student and high school organizations, which had urged the continuation of the mobilization on Tuesday, therefore reiterated their calls for rallies on Wednesday. “In the morning we block our high schools and our campuses,” said the Student Union on its X account, which then called for rallies in front of the prefectures of Ile-de-France between noon and 2 p.m. “And we’ll meet at 3 p.m. at Place de la Bastille!” », Launched Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the student union, shortly after a meeting with the Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste who left the representatives of invited high school and student organizations unsatisfied.

Regretting having “not even had a crumb of the slightest announcement”, the president of the Federation of General Student Associations (Fage) Suzanne Nijdam promised a continuation of the mobilization with “rallies planned from” this Thursday and “larger demonstrations next week”.

Standoff around Parcoursup

Among their demands, high school students and students are asking for 250,000 more places at university and the elimination of selection by Parcoursup. For the Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste, asking for the removal of this platform “is immense demagoguery”.

Several Education unions – Snes-FSU, CGT, FO and Sud – also called for a day of strike and demonstrations this Thursday, in support of the mobilization of high school students. There was a respite on Wednesday, with the Ministry of Education reporting a “clear decline” at midday, with 459 establishments experiencing a total or partial suspension of classes, compared to 891 on Tuesday.

Our articles on the High School Blockade

The high school students are now calling on Matignon: “we have costed proposals […] and that is why we are asking for a meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu next week,” declared Ryad Rani, president of the High School Union (USL). In a pre-recorded speech, the head of government estimated that “no one can be indifferent to the anxieties” of high school students, and that the police “are not instructed” to confront them. He also promised that the government will have studied the demands by the end of October, with the possibility of translating some of them into the 2027 budget by way of amendment.