More than 600 young people have been arrested in the protests in front of French institutes, which have caused harsh confrontations with the Police throughout the country and have provoked the direct intervention of Emmanuel Macron upon his return from Spain. "In no case can political leaders legitimize violence," declared the French president, in the midst of an intense debate about the role of the leader of France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the youth insurrection that has taken shape in the streets, with barricades in front of dozens of high schools and even fires like the one declared on Thursday at the Nelson Mandela Institute in Nantes.
The protests had been brewing since last week in Paris and broke out with all the virulence on September 29, coinciding with the demonstrations that brought together more than 300,000 people throughout France, in protest against the announced cuts of 58,000 million euros in the 2027 budgets. High school students joined the events with the symbolic blockade of more than 300 educational centers, demanding more teachers and more resources, less students per class and less strict schedules.
In an instruction addressed to the prefects, the Minister of the Interior Laurent Núñez demanded "strict proportionality but not inaction" in the face of the protests, taking into account that the majority of the protesters are minors. The police warned, however, of the presence of masked youth and "small, extremely structured and violent ultra-left groups" at the protests.
In the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, considered the bastion of La France Insoumise, the mayor, Bally Bagayoko, went to the Paul-Eluard institute to support the "legitimate demands" of the students. Speaking to the BFM channel, with a burning garbage can in front of the school in the background, Bagayoko went so far as to say that "violence can be legitimate at a given moment, although it is better to avoid it."
The leader of France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon directly accused the Prime Minister, Sebástien Lecornu, of having ordered a "police offensive" against the students. "Police brutality is irresponsible and has a clearly racist tone," Mélenchon wrote on his X account last Monday. "Leave our youth alone! LFI activists and elected officials, intervene where you can!"
The centrist Lecornu weighed in and blamed Mélechon for having caused an "irresponsible escalation." "The duty of any elected official of the Republic is to protect the youth and ask for calm. Exploiting their anger for partisan purposes is a mistake."
In light of the latest incidents, Mélenchon was forced to make a call for "non-violence" on Wednesday. Given the spread of the student revolt, with serious incidents such as the fire declared at the Nelson Mandela Institute in Nantes or the burning of a truck in Marseille, Lecornu convened an inter-ministerial emergency cabinet on Thursday to deal with the situation.
"This is what the supposed revolution promised by Jean-Luc Mélenchon leads us to, to acts of violence against teaching staff and law enforcement," wrote the president of the National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella in his X account, besieged in recent days by accusations of anti-Semitism. Bardella defined LFI as "a seditious party that incites chaos and leads young people to a dead end."
RN leader Marine Le Pen also joined the debate with a very direct accusation, says Mélenchon: "The extreme left seeks to enter into conflict with any excuse and aspires to brutalize the political climate to the point of making the atmosphere unbreathable due to its excesses and violence."
