Guest of TF1 this Monday morning, Sophie Binet provided the CGT's support for the mobilization of high school and university students. While she was questioned about the rallies planned for Tuesday, the general secretary of the union assured that “the CGT will be there” and that its activists would be present “to protect high school students”. She also expressed “the full support of the CGT for the injured staff and students”.
Sophie Binet strongly criticized the management of the first mobilizations. “We never manage a high school mobilization like that, we don’t send the police like that,” she said, judging that on the contrary it was necessary to “let the educational staff open the dialogue.” “Violence always undermines demands,” she insisted.
The union leader also pointed out the deterioration of study conditions. “Study conditions have rarely been so degraded,” she said. While the 2027 budget is currently being debated in the National Assembly, it is calling in particular for the cancellation of the 1,588 cuts to teaching positions provided for in the text.
The “road map” sent by Sébastien Lecornu on Sunday to his ministers to deal with the high school mobilization is a simple exercise in “communication”, denounced this Monday morning on France 2 Jean-Rémi Girard, French teacher and president of the national union of high schools, colleges, schools and higher education (SNALC). “At some point, we will have to put concrete things on the table, not just letters,” he adds. Prioritize teacher replacements? “We don’t have any replacements. Where are we going to find them?” Arrange the premises? “It doesn’t depend on the State so it doesn’t cost much to say it. It depends on the region.”
Thus, the SNALC “supports” the demands of the high school students, and Jean-Rémi Girard says he is “very annoyed” because the “realities” denounced “are not new”. “The school is not doing well, it is in crisis, it’s crazy that we only realized it today. […] We defend the fact of being able to demonstrate without preventing those who want to go to class from going to class. But nothing happened, the system deteriorated little by little, and when dialogue doesn't work, some people move on to something else... It's sad that we have to start breaking things and setting fires so that the government suddenly reacts. Where was he when high school was already not going well?”, he continues.
The president of the SNALC, however, calls on his colleagues to be “cautious” during the coming days, which promise to be “extremely complicated”. “Many of us have witnessed things that are sometimes very violent,” says Jean-Rémi Girard, who specifies that 80 education personnel have been injured since the start of the movement. “There, what scares us is that national education personnel are attacked,” while teachers are “also victims of the degradation of the education system.”
“All our politicians must de-escalate,” calls Jean-Rémi Girard. “They need to stop passing the buck and yelling at each other, they need to work together. […] We must do something for our high schools, our high school students, our school, and that the message be one of political consensus.”
In a letter addressed this Sunday to his ministers, first and foremost the Minister of National Education, Sébastien Lecornu, urges his government team to “initiate five projects to respond to the difficulties of high school students and staff”. This work, which must result in proposals “before the end of October”, must “extend the dialogue initiated with high school representatives, trade union organizations and parents, in establishments and academies”, explains the Prime Minister, after a week of high school blockades marred by tensions and violence.
In his letter, Sébastien Lecornu wants classes to resume on Monday October 5 wherever security allows, and sets a timetable to respond to some of the demands, on the eve of a dreaded day of mobilization.
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Hundreds of high schools will close at least partially again on Monday, on the eve of a new day of mobilization, which unions are calling for to join, and while calls for a hard blockade are flourishing on social networks. The start of a “black week”?
Of the 3,700 high schools in the country, classes will be “totally or partially” suspended on Monday in 400 to 500 establishments where security conditions are “not met,” Minister of Education Édouard Geffray said on Sunday. In Ile-de-France, more than a third of high schools will be closed on Monday, or more than 160 establishments, according to the LR president of the region, Valérie Pécresse.
The High School Union promised an “Act III” on Tuesday, feared by Matignon, who believes that the movement has shifted towards “urban violence”. A large national education union called for participation in Tuesday's mobilizations. The CGT promised to be “alongside” high school students, in particular to “secure” the demonstrations, and called on energy employees, on strike, to join them.
Calls for a “black week” have also flourished on social networks, with daily blockages. “The high school students are not going to give up, the students even more so (...) it is really going to be a dark week: blockade, blockade, blockade, blockade,” assured Sunday, at the gathering in Saint-Denis, a mobilized student, Leila Nehari.
As in recent days, gatherings will in theory be prohibited on Monday near many schools. In Nancy, demonstrations will for example be prohibited throughout the city center from Monday at 6:00 a.m. until Wednesday 7:00 a.m., according to the prefecture.
