The main union of school heads, SNPDEN-UNSA, refuses to set up the standard day of discussions announced by the government to appease the high school protests, its national secretary said on Wednesday, believing that these consultation times will not make it possible to respond to the fundamental problems.
Asked about the “internal democracy” exchange times announced by the government, Nicolas Bonnet, national secretary of the union and principal of the Henri-Brulle vocational high school in Libourne, indicated on franceinfo that the school leaders did not intend to organize them immediately, as long as “the climate is not calm”. “I believe that, to emerge from this crisis, we will need something other than simple consultation,” continued the union leader.
He recalled that the demands of high school students largely match those made by school leaders, citing in particular the lack of resources, timetables considered inconsistent, the stress linked to Parcoursup or even the absences of teachers who have not been replaced.
“We need resources, we need teachers,” declared Nicolas Bonnet, adding that they “exist”, since “there are a certain number of contract teachers who were not rehired at the start of the school year” and who could, according to him, be mobilized to fill vacant positions. “The President of the Republic must take control of the situation, he must receive young people, he must listen to them and he must give a certain number of answers,” he demanded.
“A method of diversion.” It is in these terms that the mayor of Nice and head of the UDR Éric Ciotti described Sébastien Lecornu's proposal to replace part of the courses at the end of the week with a “time of internal democracy”. “All of this won’t be of much use,” he added, denouncing a movement “manipulated by LFI, rioters and Islamist movements.”
“We must restore order with the greatest firmness and arrest the thugs,” according to Éric Ciotti, who expressed his “total support” for the “700 police officers and gendarmes” injured during the demonstrations of recent days. The mayor of Nice calls for “dissuasive criminal sanctions” and for the families of the thugs to pay. “I would even say that we could send the bill to Mr. Mélenchon because he is behind all of this.”
The head of the UDR group in the National Assembly announced that he would vote for the government's break-the-pays bill, while amending it. “The payment limit today is 10,000 euros. A high school that burns costs 30 or 40 million euros. I tabled a bill which is much firmer,” recalled Éric Ciotti. “The full damage must be paid.”
“In life you have to work,” he added while high school students complained about the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule. “If we start not working at high school…” For Éric Ciotti, the “education system is collapsing. (…) We are the country that devotes the most resources to education and we have a country that is collapsing!”
How can we reduce the level of violence that accompanies the blockade of high schools? Nicolas Isnard, the LR mayor of Salon-de-Provence and the president of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, has his idea. “We must temporarily ban access to social networks, those that young people use to launch actions against establishments and teaching staff. All the leaflets and videos broadcast on these circuits have an amplifying effect and push young people to commit abuses,” he denounces.
With these networks temporarily out of service, the elected official is convinced that the high school in his town would not have been burned down last Saturday. A blockage which would also have prevented the circulation on the web of a leaflet demanding the execution of a teacher from his region. On this document, since withdrawn, we read derisory recriminations: “too much homework, not enough time to eat”. But also a real call for murder: “Let’s kill him, let’s burn him. »
“We are facing a large-scale social movement,” said the deputy from the North, Sébastien Chenu, on RTL this morning. “But it is manipulated, organized by the extreme left and on the other side of the demands to which we must be attentive. […] To hear them, you have to anticipate things and this government has been there for 10 years,” he regretted.
To remedy this, the MP proposes to “raise the remuneration of teachers by 3%”, but also to “break with the logic of Parcoursup”. “We need to move more towards learning and get away from the dogma according to which we must send all high school graduates to college. We must encourage guidance earlier, in order to bring young people into the job market.”
For a week, the background has been the same: burning trash cans, students and principals attacked, Islamist terrorists cheered, anti-Semitic raps proclaimed, police attacked and, in the chaos, too many kids injured. In such a climate, can we continue to calmly debate the dilapidated buildings, the absence of teachers, the “symbolic violence” of getting up early every morning, the “microaggressions” suffered by students who have a two-hour gap in their schedule?
A high school mobilization under close surveillance. Once again peppered with violence and excesses. This Tuesday, October 6, at the call of the High School Union (USL) and the Student Union, Act III of the high school student protest movement was held. Between 450,000 people and 256,000 people demonstrated in France, including 56,000 in Paris. In total, 488 people had been arrested by the end of the day, and 43 members of the police were injured.
Without waiting for the end of the day, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu promised before the National Assembly to “correct” what “we (could) correct” on Parcoursup. He also announced a weekend suspension of classes in high schools to organize a “time of internal democracy”.
Return to class or continuation of high school blockades? The High School Union and the Student Union are calling for the blockades to continue on Wednesday, and for new processions on Thursday, for an “act 4”, in Paris and other cities.
