Nearly 400 schools in France are facing vandalism, arson and riots. The riots are spreading rapidly to include universities and neighbourhoods as well.
The wave of protests began at the Saint-Exupéry school in Créteil in the Paris region, where several teaching posts were unfilled. Le Monde dates the start to 21 September. The student organisation Union syndicale lycéenne subsequently called for the blockades to be extended across the whole country.
In the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood of Saint-Denis in Paris, chants of “We are all children of Gaza!” were heard. There are many such videos and many Palestinian flags at the demonstrations.
Among other things, the pupils have been protesting against a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, long school days and poor school buildings. The protests spread throughout the Paris region and on to cities including Lille, Marseille and Lyon.
In Lille on Tuesday, masked youths set fire to rubbish bins outside the César-Baggio school. Bus shelters and advertising hoardings were vandalised, and bottles and paving stones were thrown at the police, who responded with tear gas.
In Strasbourg, all six tram services were suspended on Thursday morning. The transport company CTS cited several demonstrations in the city area. At the same time, disturbances were reported at several secondary schools.
In Lyon, too, a fire was reported on the façade of the Lumière School. In Pantin, north-east of Paris, a large rubbish bin fire was set alight by the fence of the Marcelin-Berthelot School.
In Marseille, the headteacher and three other members of the school management team were attacked and doused with petrol, according to the regional authorities in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, as reported by Nice-Matin and BFMTV.
The violence has sparked a bitter conflict between the government and La France insoumise (LFI), which has supported the student protests.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has accused LFI politicians of exploiting the pupils’ anger and encouraging them to escalate the protests whilst the violence is ongoing. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has described parts of the events as urban riots.
Following the fire in Nantes, LFI politician William Aucant claimed that violent individuals from an outside group had joined the student protests. He said that the students’ own mobilisation was peaceful.
Christelle Morançais, President of the Pays de la Loire region, for her part, condemned those who, in her view, seek to create chaos and cause destruction without putting forward any demands.
On Wednesday, the Minister for the Interior stated that 625 people had been arrested in connection with the school blockades that day, and that 83 police officers and gendarmes had been injured. The Minister for Education stated that 119 pupils and school staff had been injured since the unrest began. These figures cover the whole of France.
There have also been attacks on the emergency services:
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