“If we pay taxes, it’s so that our schools do better”: Tahar Rahim defends high school students

“If we want order too much, we end up creating chaos,” wrote Victor Hugo in 1862 in Les Misérables. A maxim whose echo still resonates today, while the high school protests are in full swing. It was on the occasion of the promotion of the film adaptation of the novel by Fred Cavayé that Tahar Rahim, who plays Javert in the film, was the guest of Yann Barthès in “Quotidien” on TMC this Wednesday, October 7.

It's impossible for the presenter not to make the actor react to the news of recent days. “The images of young people in the street, what do they arouse in you?” he asked the actor. “When I see them, it gives rise to hope because I was a student and I experienced student precariousness at a time when it was very complicated. Student poverty continues to increase. I was in my work, we don't see everything. One day, I was walking in the streets of Paris, I think it was towards the Paris mosque where they gave meals to the students. I see a queue going all the way around the neighborhood and I say to myself: “Ah yes, at this point!”, testified Tahar Rahim.

The opportunity for the actor to give his opinion on the high school movement: “When I see that, I have hope and I understand them. In truth, they have to keep this idealistic light because what they are doing is they are fighting not only for themselves, for their civil rights. If we pay taxes it is so that our schools do better. And also they do it for our children, for the entire educational body, for teachers, for everyone, for the future. So yes, my heart goes out to them.”

Since last week, high school students across France have been mobilizing to demand more human and financial resources for the country's 3,700 high schools, where around 2.2 million adolescents study. Secondary school students denounce in particular too many teachers who have not been replaced, timetables that are too heavy and the advanced state of deterioration of certain school buildings. The demonstrations underway for several days have given rise to numerous clashes with the police and more than 6,500 arrests.