France's student protests escalate: 1,747 arrested as 735 schools disrupted
France's high school protest movement escalated on Friday with 1,747 arrests, more than 300 injured officers and 735 schools affected, ministers said.
Student protests across France escalated on Friday as pupils set fires and threw projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas, in the country’s most serious school unrest in years. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 1,747 people were arrested on Friday alone, with more than 300 police officers and gendarmes injured since the protests began.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 735 of France’s roughly 3,700 schools were affected in some way on Friday. At least 65 education staff, including 40 headteachers, have been injured since the mobilisation started, alongside around 170 wounded students, and more than 100 schools suffered what he described as severe damage.
In La Ciotat in southern France, a teacher was sprayed with petrol and physically assaulted, officials said, while in Tours a young man injured in clashes on Wednesday lost the use of his right eye, the city prosecutor said. Fires damaged the entrances of two high schools in Paris; in Brest officers used tear gas after pupils threw projectiles, and in Aubervilliers police used batons and riot shields.
“High school students are expecting concrete measures from this government, and so far we have not received them,” said Ryad Rani, head of the USL high school union. Geffray promised an action plan to speed up replacement of absent teachers but said the movement was being “held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups”. The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed party of influencing the protests, a charge LFI’s Manuel Bompard dismissed as “conspiracy theories”. Teachers’ unions have called a strike for Tuesday.
Sources: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/world/france-high-school-protests-students-police-clashes-arrests-s8np5hr7 | https://www.timesnownews.com/world/europe/france-student-protests-explained-how-school-grievances-turned-into-nationwide-violent-unrest-article-156265878 | https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/france-students-police-clash-protests-6428896
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