France: 400 schools closed as student protests continue

"Protest is a fundamental right," reads one placard. "You don't want to hear our words; you just fire tear gas," reads another.Image: Sarah Meyssonnier/REUTERSAdvertisementOver 400 schools and colleges across France remained closed on Friday as student protests over education-related grievances continued — with some turning violent.

"There are over ⁠400 schools and other educational establishments that I know of that will be closed," confirmed French Education ​Minister Edouard Geffray on broadcaster ​France 2 late on Thursday night.

The protests ​against teacher shortages, dilapidated school buildings and a lack of learning materials erupted at lycées (equivalent to US high schools) in the Paris region last month before spreading across the country this week.

Police have made around 2,000 arrests and scores of people have been injured, including 40 high school principals, according to Geffray.

Fires were started in at least two high schools on Thursday, while teachers were reportedly inadvertently ​splashed with petrol ⁠at a third in the southern city of Marseille, according to officials.

At ​least one car was torched in the eastern city of Strasbourg while riot police clashed with youths in Toulouse in the southwest.

In the southeastern region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, authorities claimed that "at least €25 million" of damage has been done in their jurisdiction alone.

On Friday, more clashes between student protesters and police were reported in cities across the country, including in Loire, where several officers were injured, and in the capital Paris.

But students have also criticized what they see as a heavy-handed police response.

"You don't want to hear our words; you just fire tear gas," one student wrote on a placard outside the Lycée Voltaire in central Paris (see main photo above).

"Protest is a fundamental right," read another sign.

Minister Geffray told broadcasters on Friday morning that "violent individuals" were "infiltrating groups of students" and "taking the movement hostage" and called on parents to prevent their children from joining the protests.

"What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger," he said.

Geffray was planning to meet with student representatives and trade unions on Friday, saying: "Today will be a day of dialogue."

According to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, French domestic intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the movement has been initiated by politicians from the left-wing party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed or LFI) – who have denied the allegations.

Veteran LFI leader and 2027 presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has indeed supported the protests but called on students to use non-violent methods.

"Students, teachers and educational staff are facing the same state of neglect and their positions and claims should be respected," he wrote in a statement earlier this week, calling for "disciplined struggle, no panic, no irritation."

Meanwhile, student union bodies have called for a day of mass protest next Tuesday, October 6, under the slogan: "Police out of schools! No to the repression of student mobilization!"

"The police have no place in front of educational establishments," read a statement. "We support the ongoing mobilization and call for it to be reinforced."

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