After student protests degenerated into violence with institutions set on fire and principals attacked, the French Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, receives the student and parent associations today in Paris. Yesterday alone, around 2,000 people were stopped, 90% of whom were minors, today another 600. "Since the beginning of the week, over a hundred schools have suffered serious damage. Among the 65 public education employees who were injured, there are 40 principals," said Geffray.
In a long message on At least 100 schools remained closed today, while the protests continue, even if the mobilization is less intense than yesterday.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin asked prosecutors to enforce the civil liability of parents for damage caused by their children during the protests, in order to make them "pay reparations". A third of those arrested were held for violence against people, Darmanin specified.
In Paris today, a police car was the target of throwing stones and objects in the 12th arrondissement. A tram was also targeted. The "hottest" area of the capital is Place de la Nation, where some young people set fire to waste bins. The situation was also tense in Lyon, near the Edouard-Herriot high school, with the police throwing tear gas at the demonstrators. The Students' Union announces that 25 university campuses have also been blocked in protest.
On Thursday, students set fires in at least two high schools, while at a third school, in the city of Marseille, some teachers were accidentally hit by petrol, authorities said. In Strasbourg, in the east of the country, at least one car was set on fire, while in Toulouse, in the south-west, there were clashes between riot police and some young people.
Meanwhile, at the end of an emergency crisis summit convened on Thursday, the government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise (LFI) of fomenting urban violence. Accusation flatly rejected by the sender by the Insoumis.
According to the prime minister's offices there is a "shared assessment by the intelligence services on the origin of the movement". It would, in fact, be a "maneuver orchestrated by France Insoumise and its representatives of the far left".
An accusation also supported by Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National, in pole position in the polls ahead of the race for the Elysée. So much so that his dolphin and president of the far-right party, Jordan Bardella, proposes that "the damage bill, in millions of euros", be divided "between the families of the arsonists and the party that incites chaos: France Insoumise".
"I invite the government not to fall into conspiracy theories and the infantilization of high school students", replies the coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard, guaranteeing that "this spontaneous movement was born from exasperation in the face of absolutely unworthy school conditions".
Starting about a week ago from some schools in the Parisian suburbs, with the declared support of LFI, the mobilization has not stopped growing, to the point of also involving university campuses (about thirty according to the student union between Paris, Strasbourg, Marseille, Lyon 2, Reims, Poitiers and Nanterre).
Today, the number of blockades or incidents linked to student mobilization has further increased, reaching "900 protest actions", according to security sources cited by France Presse, according to which the movement now involves all departments (provinces) across the Alps and, since yesterday, the authorities have detected "a turning point, with a more radical change of tone" and "episodes of urban violence near high schools".
Among the students' demands are, more human and financial means for public education, the suppression of the contested 'Parcoursup' reform, the replacement of teachers in case of absence and the renovation of school buildings considered old.
