Political tensions in France around the high school movement and calls for a ban on LFI

“We have a party that is fascinated by violence, we have a party that calls for sedition, and we even have a party that tries to organize insurrection,” declared the president of the Republicans. According to him, “what is happening today in front of high schools is the dress rehearsal for what could happen in 2027 if Madame Le Pen won, they would organize an insurrection in the country”.

Bruno Retailleau then toughened his tone to the point of mentioning the ban on La France insoumise, which supports the high school protest movement. “I think today that a question arises: it is the question of the ban on LFI. I know that it is very difficult in law, but I am asking it, I am launching it into the public debate because we can no longer act as if nothing had happened, it is no longer possible. “There is a legal framework that exists in the Internal Security Code, (…) a certain number of conditions are required, are these conditions met?”, he added.

Bruno Retailleau finally cited several grievances against LFI: “to show solidarity with the Young Guard, to call for insurrection, to call into question our institutions, to put a target on the backs of our gendarmes and our police officers”. He called on the left “at its most republican” to “dissociate itself in the clearest way”.

“I maintain them,” reacted this Thursday morning the mayor of Saint-Denis regarding his comments in the context of the student strike movement. Tuesday morning, in front of the Paul-Eluard high school in his town, Mayor LFI told BFM that “violence, at a given moment, can be legitimate”, to show his support for the mobilized high school students. “But whenever we can avoid it, it’s better,” he immediately qualified. The prefect of the department made a report under article 40 for “suspected acts of provocation to commit an offense”.

“We must stop taking these words out of context,” argued Bally Bagayoko on France Info. “I was sprayed with tear gas myself.” For the LFI elected official, the police would tend to “create the conditions which can put young people in a position to react. (…) There are situations where you are dealing with young people, who have no helmets, no bulletproof vest, when you shoot them, it’s dangerous.”

The mayor of Saint-Denis has denied trying to excite teenagers with his presence, while videos show him dancing next to a burning trash can. “Fake news”, according to the elected official. “These students don’t need Bally Bagayoko to excite them.” Bally Bagayoko also refutes the idea that the high school union (USL) is a branch of LFI. Louis Boyard was its president and the current president was an LFI candidate for the municipal elections. “He can be a candidate and that has nothing to do with his associative activities,” replied the mayor of Saint-Denis.

Bally Bagayoko then reformulated his message to the students: “Your claim is legitimate. Don't take unnecessary risks, they are always used to drown out your message. Call for appeasement, including for the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education.”

The high school students, who are demanding in particular replacement teachers and more resources, hope to play “act two” of their protest, punctuated by violence, on Thursday with the students who should join them. The movement, which began about a week ago, affected 356 establishments throughout France on Wednesday, compared to 338 on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

On Wednesday alone, 625 people were arrested and 83 police officers and gendarmes injured. Since the start of the blockades, 119 students and staff have been injured, according to the report communicated Wednesday by Édouard Geffray.

The president of the USL, the High School Union, Ryad Rani, called on Wednesday during a joint press conference in Paris with the Student Union, for an “act two” asserting common demands. With the general secretary of the second student union, Eloïse Lefebvre-Milon, they call on “all trade union, associative and political organizations to join (them) in the mobilization” Thursday and Tuesday, October 6, and demand “massive financing of high schools and universities”.

Unef, the third student organization, also calls on students “to take to the streets everywhere in France” against the “massive elimination of places in universities” and the freezing of APL in particular. The government tried on Wednesday to put an end to the spread of the movement by announcing the opening of a “consultation platform” to which “all high school students will be able to contribute”. They will be able to submit their demands and concerns in a territorialized manner.

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 the leaders of a left-wing party.

The mobilization started from several high schools in the Parisian suburbs about a week ago with the stated support of La France insoumise (LFI, radical left) to ask for more resources. It comes seven months before the presidential election.

“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 IGPN, the “police of the police”, was seized of three investigations after high school students were injured during blockades of establishments, indicated the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez, according to whom the police intervened “with a lot of proportionality”. “These are minors who are facing the police. Obviously, there is a very proportional use of “intermediate weapons”, in particular tear gas, continued the minister.

These investigations concern events which took place in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), Saint-Ouen-L'Aumône (Val-d'Oise) and Tours, where a young man was injured in the head on Wednesday and was hospitalized. According to the prosecutor, his injuries are “compatible” with an LBD shot.