Pupils and students in France have been protesting against the cancellation of classes and poor learning conditions for two weeks, with 250,000 participants on Tuesday being the high point so far.
The protests raise questions about young people's trust in the state and their future prospects in France, as many young people feel that the state is not fulfilling its promise of equal opportunities.
The demonstrations are mostly peaceful, but there are occasional serious clashes with the police; the damage is estimated at at least 30 million euros.
The UN Human Rights Office urges the police to avoid excessive force. After criticism, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez suspended the use of certain stun grenades and announced an emergency plan.
Paris. At many schools in France, the barricades were cleared away over the weekend. But the protest movement is by no means over. For two weeks, pupils and students have been demonstrating against the cancellation of classes and poor learning conditions. On Tuesday alone, 250,000 people took to the streets - the peak of the wave of protests so far. The fact that young people are demonstrating for more education is in itself a political alarm signal. In doing so, they are demanding something that the state should actually guarantee them as a matter of course.
But the protests have already left deep marks. France is grappling with a double question: How much trust is left between the state and its citizens? And what perspective does the country still offer its young people?
The anger of many young people stems from a contradiction that they experience every day: they spend hours at school, sometimes longer than in Germany, until the evening. The state requires attendance and performance - but does not reliably provide the lessons that young people need.
It's about more than just missed hours. Many young people have the feeling that the state is no longer keeping a central promise: equal opportunities for everyone.
What value does the future have?
17-year-old Abdelkader Abderrahman from Créteil criticizes the fact that the French motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” which is found in many schools, does not apply to students in the same way. Anyone who goes to school in a suburb does not have the same learning conditions and opportunities as young people in Paris, he told the Franceinfo broadcaster.
The protests are a symbol of the cracks that are running through French society. For years, politics has been more concerned with the concerns of pensioners than of younger people. The political scientist Bruno Cautrès even describes a deep alienation between young people and the state. Young people are confronted with the feeling of “not being heard and not being treated with dignity by French society”. The central question for him is “what place is given to young people in our society,” he told the newspaper “Le Parisien”.
However, the protest movement is also overshadowed by violence. According to the Interior Ministry, the demonstrations were mostly peaceful. Nevertheless, serious clashes continued to occur. Facades, police cars and garbage containers burned, emergency services were attacked with stones, fireworks and so-called mortars. As of Thursday, 6,800 people had been taken into custody, most of them minors. The damage is estimated at at least 30 million euros.
The election campaign before the presidential election is also mixed in with the protests. The La France Insoumise (LFI) party is accused of politically exploiting the student protests and further inflaming the confrontation with the police. Some representatives of the extreme left aggressively portray the police operations as systematic repression.
Criticism of the brutal actions of the police
But it's not just the violence on the part of individual demonstrators that is causing outrage. The police's actions are also increasingly being criticized. French media shows images of teenagers confronting police officers in riot gear. Particularly shocking was the case of a 14-year-old whose jaw and several teeth were shattered after being hit by a tear gas grenade.
In Lens, a 15-year-old lost a hand in an incident involving a police grenade. Criticism of police operations is therefore becoming increasingly louder. To this day, the experience of the yellow vest protests - with massive riots but also heated debates about police violence - shapes the security logic of the French state.
Sophie, a mother from Paris, looks horrified at the pictures of the past few days. “It's about our youth, and the police are arming themselves as if they were at war,” says the woman in her mid-fifties. Her two children are 25 and 27 years old and no longer in school. “Our youth need a future, we have to fight for it.” In polls, almost 50 percent support the demonstrators.
Even the UN Human Rights Office commented on Friday. One looks with “concern” at the “incidents” at the high school student demonstrations in France. “We call on everyone to ensure that these demonstrations remain peaceful and that law enforcement does not use disproportionate force,” said spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo in Geneva. The right to peaceful assembly must be protected.
After the outrage continued to grow, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez temporarily suspended the use of certain stun grenades against students. The government has now also announced an “emergency plan” to calm the situation. In the short term, more than 3,000 substitute teachers are to be deployed, and more resources are also possible.
But it doesn't look like relaxation. The next big day of protest has already been announced for Tuesday. The movement is now spreading to other countries. In Belgium, too, students took to the streets to demand more equal opportunities.
