Protesting students in France blockade high schools, demanding more resources for the system

PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across France on Tuesday in support of protests by school pupils demanding more education funding, increasing pressure on the government of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.

As pupils again blockaded high schools, large crowds waving flags and placards gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities.

The demonstrations showed how protests that began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September have grown into a nationwide movement — the latest of many that have marked Macron’s nearly decade-long tenure.

“We need to listen to them,” said Léa Monimart, a demonstrator in the northern city of Lille.

“They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.”

The Interior Ministry estimated that 86,000 people took part in demonstrations outside Paris on Tuesday morning.

More were gathering in the capital for a protest scheduled for the afternoon.

More than two weeks of class boycotts and school blockades, and policing that has led to more than 6,100 arrests, mostly of minors, have become a flashpoint in the early days of the presidential election campaign.

Felix Barney, a university student, described the police response as disproportionate. “It doesn’t have any sense to hit minors,” he said.

“Riot police, batons, rubber bullets, tear gas,” said Aurélien Le Coq, a lawmaker with the far-left France Unbowed party. Its presidential candidate is strongly backing the protests.

The violence is “absolutely unbearable,” Le Coq said.

The teenage protesters have struck a chord amid widespread discontent in France.

Frustrations extend beyond immediate difficulties, such as fuel prices that have soared because of the Iran war, to broader concerns about constraints on public spending, rising poverty and wealth inequality under Macron, who cannot run for a third consecutive term.

Against that backdrop, pupils’ complaints that education funding shortfalls are endangering their futures have found a sympathetic audience.

“You say ‘young people are the future,’ so listen to them,” read a handwritten placard attached to a metal barrier outside a Paris school.

Follow The Gleaner on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.