France Student Protests Escalate into Nationwide Unrest
France Student Protests Escalate into Nationwide Unrest
M.U.H
02/10/202610
TEHRAN: Student protests over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating school buildings have escalated into riots and arson across France, as the unrest converges with nationwide public-sector strikes.
The protests, which began last month in the Paris region, have spread to cities including Marseille, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse and Strasbourg, with authorities reporting hundreds of arrests and injuries among students, teachers and police officers.
Initially focused on school blockades using bins, pallets and fencing, demonstrations became increasingly confrontational as masked youths joined some gatherings and clashes with police intensified.
In Marseille, protesters set fire to barricades near Lycée Saint-Exupéry before attacking a fire truck that arrived to extinguish the flames, forcing firefighters to abandon the vehicle before it was set ablaze.
At Lycée Victor Hugo, an attempted arson attack involving waste containers sent petrol onto the school principal and vice-principal, who sought shelter inside the building with teaching staff.
Student protesters also started fires in at least two high schools on Thursday, while teachers were inadvertently splashed with petrol at a third school in Marseille, officials said.
Elsewhere, a car was torched in Strasbourg and riot police clashed with youths in Toulouse, while emergency services faced attacks in several cities.
French riot police and gendarmerie units have responded with tear gas, flash-bang grenades and baton charges, while police in the Rhone region reported being targeted with projectiles, fireworks and, in seven documented cases, containers filled with hydrochloric acid.
Despite the violence, student leaders say the unrest reflects deeper problems in France’s public education system, including overcrowded classrooms, unfilled teaching positions and deteriorating school buildings that lack adequate insulation, ventilation and climate control.
The protests have also been fueled by opposition to the government’s proposed €54 billion savings package, which includes spending reductions, a freeze on state employee salaries and cuts affecting public services.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s government says the measures are needed to address France’s rising public debt and structural deficit, while opponents argue that further cuts would worsen already strained public services.
Meanwhile, the student movement has merged with a broader labor campaign, with public-sector workers, hospital personnel, transport employees and firefighters joining demonstrations organized by trade unions.
The CGT union has given the government 48 hours to withdraw the proposed spending cuts and salary freezes, raising the prospect of wider industrial action across transport, energy and logistics.
"There are a little over 400 schools and other educational establishments that I know of that will be closed," French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said in an interview with broadcaster France 2 late Thursday.
The escalating unrest has revived comparisons with previous waves of student and labor protests in France, while the government faces growing pressure to contain the violence without further aggravating the grievances that brought students and public-sector workers onto the streets.
