The student revolt that began discreetly a week ago with blockades in some institutes in the Paris region has intensified these days and has not only spread throughout the country, but has led to episodes of violence and clashes between police and protesters in the main French cities. This Thursday alone, almost 2,000 people have been arrested, there are 1,800 in police custody, of which 90% are minors. In addition, there are 305 injured police officers. with more than a thousand detainees in recent days. The Government accuses the La Francia Insumisa (LFI) party, founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of being behind this movement, which was started to denounce the lack of resources in education and “has led to urban violence.”
The French intelligence services “consider that the movement to block institutes is a maneuver organized by LFI and its ultra-left satellites,” said the team of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who had convened a crisis cell this Thursday given the tone that the protest is taking. Lecornu asked the ministers to cancel their trips so that the prefectures (government delegations) can concentrate their resources on trying to quell the situation.
The blockades were started to denounce the lack of resources and personnel, the cutting of scholarships or discrimination in some schools in the most remote areas. These demands on the banners have been robbed of the spotlight in recent hours by images of fires, burning of containers and street furniture and violent clashes between protesters and agents in cities such as Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg, Lille, Lyon and Paris, where the protests began in the Seine Saint-Denis institutes on the outskirts of the capital. Some LFI leaders, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon or the mayor of Saint Denis, Bally Bagayoko, have encouraged students these days to continue with the blockades.
In Nantes, the entrance to an institute caught fire and was completely burned to the ground, and in Marseille, France's second city, a fire truck was set on fire and several buses were attacked. The prefecture decided to interrupt public transport to avoid further acts of vandalism and in Strasbourg it was also restricted to "limit the movements of protesters." In the Paris region there were incidents in more than 200 centers and dozens of faculties joined the blockades. The escalation of violence has made “the continuity of public service in some institutes practically impossible, exposing teaching staff and students to dangerous situations,” said the prime minister's entourage.
The protests have caught the Government by surprise, despite the fact that they have been spreading since last Monday, when there were already 164 detainees. On Tuesday there were 440 and another 625 on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, urgently summoned the prefects in a video conference to take measures and ask for a “firm response” to the rioters.
The Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, denounced acts of "extremely serious violence. No claim can justify this type of act" and announced that in centers where students cannot be accommodated safely, distance classes will be followed. The minister recalled that “each person must measure the responsibility of their words and their calls for mobilization,” in reference to the LFI leaders.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged on Wednesday “non-violence in the methods of struggle” after having denounced the violent police repression of the demonstrations the day before. The mayor of Saint-Denis, the rebel, Bally Bagayoko, went to one of the blocked centers on Monday to support the students in their “legitimate demands.”
In addition to the Government, the rest of the parties have denounced the instrumentalization of the movement by the insubordinates. The presidential candidate of National Regroupment, Marine Le Pen, accused Mélenchon of “bearing a heavy responsibility for the situation in the country” by having called for the insurrection. The president of the party, Jordan Bardella, wants La Francia Insumisa to pay the bill for the damage. In the Paris region alone the cost of degradation rises to one million euros, according to the president of the region, Valérie Pécresse.
