On Tuesday, France experienced one of the most tense days in recent years. Hundreds of thousands of high school students, university students, and teachers took to the streets across the country, in what unions have called “Act III” of the mobilization, write CNN and BMF TV.
The figures differ: while the Ministry of Interior counted 256,000 protesters, of which 56,000 in Paris, student and pupil organizations speak of 450,000, with 100,000 just in the capital.
Classes have been completely or partially suspended in 891 educational institutions. Marches have traversed Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Rennes, and dozens of other cities.
An unprecedented balance
Since the beginning of the protests, 215 students have been injured. In addition, 85 education employees were harmed, among them 34 principals and vice principals, as well as 715 police officers and gendarmes.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu spoke before the deputies about the “most serious balance of the last decades” in education, regarding the number of injured employees.
“Ultraviolence has knocked on the doors of high schools and must be condemned unconditionally,” declared the prime minister.
The police have made over 6,000 arrests. More than 5,000 people have ended up in custody, and 87% of them are minors. Most of them have never had any trouble with the law.
Mélenchon, on the street alongside students
The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, marched in the Paris rally.
“What you are doing is incredible and you don’t even realize it. It’s the most powerful youth movement I’ve seen in the last 50 years and no one can say you’re not right, because you are right,” he told the high school students. (….)
Trump: “It’s not about schools”
The protests have also reached the agenda of the White House, and the American president Donald Trump has blamed immigration and Islam, without providing any evidence.
“What is happening in France is nothing more than a massive migration that has gotten out of control. It’s not about schools, but about Islam wanting to take control of a once great country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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