The government will open on Monday a “consultation platform” to which “all high school students will be able to contribute” and will organize a “national restitution event” to “provide structured responses”, the Minister of National Education announced on Wednesday, after several days of mobilization in establishments.
“They will be able to express all their requests, their concerns, their anxieties, their misunderstandings, their demands too, in a territorialized manner,” he declared at a press conference.
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The prefect of police Patrice Faure has taken legal action against the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) Bally Bagayoko for “alleged acts of provocation to commit an offense” as part of the movement to block high schools, the entourage of the state representative announced on Wednesday.
The police prefect made a report under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure to the Bobigny prosecutor, this source specified in a message to AFP. Patrice Faure criticizes the mayor of Saint-Denis in particular for comments presenting “the violent reaction as potentially being an understandable or legitimate response to the action of the police”.
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Six hundred and twenty-five people were arrested on Wednesday during actions to block high schools, said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who spoke of an “extension of the movement” and deplored a “rise in violence” in front of certain establishments.
In addition, 83 police officers and gendarmes were injured on Wednesday during this mobilization which affected 356 establishments, added Laurent Nuñez to the press. The minister deplored an “attack on civil servants, the throwing of projectiles, violence, declarations, attempts to set fires, and what is similar” according to him to “urban violence”.
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The mobilization of high school students continues, punctuated by violence that President Emmanuel Macron condemned, with the High School Union calling for a convergence of struggles with students and for an “act two” on Thursday.
In Lyon, the situation became tense around several high schools and its surrounding area. The police made 14 arrests. “Violence around several establishments is not acceptable. I unreservedly call for de-escalation. I salute the mobilization of our municipal police,” reacted Grégory Doucet, the environmentalist mayor of Lyon.
The councilor, however, welcomed the mobilization of Lyon high school students who are demanding “respect for the Republican promise: equality!” Their aspirations and demands must be heard. “It is necessary that a space for dialogue be opened to discuss with them and find solutions,” he indicated.
“The rebels call for non-violent methods of struggle,” assured on X the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while his party is on the front line to support the actions to block high schools which continue in France. “The mobilized high school students, when they have the floor, are clear about their demands: more resources for their education,” underlines the presidential candidate, targeted by Emmanuel Macron, traveling to Madrid, who judged that political leaders were “not there to stir up fears and make the worst happen.”
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI, described on X the declarations of the President of the Republic as “grotesque”. “The rebels are supporters of non-violence as they have always defended it. Their elected officials are not in front of the high schools to “excite”, but to support and relay legitimate demands.”
While LFI is mobilizing with protesting high school students, who denounce a lack of resources, teachers or even unsanitary conditions, Jean-Luc Mélenchon affirmed that “everyone must be respected in their person and in their demands”. He also called for “the dissemination of images of police violence”, judging that it served as “protection for our young people”.
“The government must stop trying to make the situation worse and respond to demands instead of leading a political fight against the rebels,” he added, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu denounced on Monday an “irresponsible overbidding” of elected officials from the radical left movement. Jean-Luc Mélenchon then accused the tenant of Matignon of having “ordered the repression” of high school student movements “with an obvious racist aftertaste”.
A 16-year-old minor was brought before the Toulon public prosecutor's office on Tuesday after his arrest the day before in front of the Georges Cisson Professional High School on the sidelines of the high school students' protest movement. He is accused of obstructing traffic and having in his possession two knives, an electric shock gun, wire cutters and an icebreaker hammer.
This Wednesday, five people were referred, including a teacher. This woman in her thirties, who has been off work for several years, is accused of having threatened a police officer and inciting high school students to disobey the police.
Overflows were noted this morning in Wattrelos, in the North, alongside the high school blockades. Around 8:30 a.m., a car was thrown against the gates of the Émile Zola high school, Le Figaro learned from a police source.
The driver probably “passed his vehicle between the city posts, crossed the square” before throwing his car against the gate of the establishment. He got out, dressed entirely in black and wearing a balaclava, and set it on fire before fleeing on foot.
The fire was extinguished by firefighters. The perpetrator of the damage is currently being sought.
Two public transport agents in the Nantes metropolitan area were injured “following an explosion in a burning trash can,” announced the Force Ouvrière de la Semitan-Naolib union in a press release published on Facebook.
This incident occurred near Chantenay station, during an operation to secure a bus, “in the context of the blocking of a nearby school”. The two MSR agents (network security mission) were taken care of by the firefighters. “At this stage, their condition does not cause vital concern. Nevertheless, the shock caused by such an explosion is very real,” specifies the union. A health, safety and working conditions committee (CSSCT) is planned for the afternoon to take stock.
Emmanuel Macron insisted on Wednesday that the mobilization of high school students in France did not justify “violence” and that political leaders were “not there to stir up fears and make the worst happen”, comments aimed at those responsible for La France insoumise.
“I hear and I understand the anxieties sometimes, the anger that our youth can have (...) On the other hand, none of these debates, none of these fears legitimizes violence. And under no circumstances can political leaders (..) legitimize outright violence,” declared the French president during a press conference in Madrid alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The political leaders “are there because there is a democratic mandate, because they were elected in a calm manner, in an organized framework, and they are not there to stir up fears and make the worst happen,” he added.
The mobilization of high school students continued this Wednesday in front of several establishments, notably in Saint-Denis, Strasbourg and Lyon, with the High School Union calling for a convergence of struggles with the students and for an “act two” on Thursday.
According to the Ile-de-France Region, 75 high schools were disrupted, “of which 36 high schools are the scene of violence, clashes and damage”. On RTL, the Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, expressed his concern about the use of violence, while emphasizing that certain demands of high school students were “legitimate”.
The Minister of the Interior indicated on Tuesday that 440 arrests took place during the blockades, mainly of minors.
