{"id":2068,"date":"2026-10-02T19:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2026-10-02T19:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:03:48","slug":"students-and-police-clash-as-france-struggles-to-quell-school-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2068","title":{"rendered":"Students and police clash as France struggles to quell school protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Riot police clashed with high school students in cities across France on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government battled \u200bto contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tear gas clouded the streets in the eastern city of \u200cStrasbourg, fireworks were aimed at police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west.<\/p>\n

In Paris, where there were also skirmishes, students waved placards reading \u201cWe have a future to build, not to endure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Six months before next year\u2019s presidential election, opinion polls consistently show the deep unpopularity of \u200bMacron and his centre-right-leaning government. Planned budget cuts, which exacerbate the funding crisis in education, have fuelled the discontent.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Minister says parents should pay reparations<\/h3>\n

The protests erupted in the Paris region last week but have turned increasingly violent as they spread \u2060nationwide.<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio that police had arrested 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, since the protests began. He \u200bsaid that parents of those inflicting damage to property should be made to pay reparations.<\/p>\n

Four hundred high schools \u2014 roughly 1 in 10 \u2014 were closed \u200bon Friday due to the unrest, and Education Minister Edouard Geffray urged parents to dissuade their children from protesting in the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the streets, the children are in danger,\u201d Geffray told BFM TV.<\/em><\/p>\n

Several students in the Paris region whom Reuters<\/em> spoke to outside high schools earlier in the week said they were staying away \u200bfrom the protests on Friday due to the escalating violence.<\/p>\n

Darmanin said the student protest movement had been hijacked by \u201coutsiders\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Education to get below-inflation budget increase<\/h3>\n

Students blockading their high schools have voiced anger over overcrowding in classrooms, regular shortages of teachers and dilapidated buildings, blaming years of underinvestment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are 35 per \u200cclass, \u2060we don\u2019t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one hour lunch break (is too short) for everyone to get food,\u201d 15-year-old Kesia told Reuters<\/em> in the Paris suburb of Pantin before running off as the police used tear gas.<\/p>\n

Under the draft 2027 budget presented by the government on Thursday, the education budget is set to increase by a below-inflation 1.7% to \u20ac65.53 billion, excluding teacher pensions.<\/p>\n

Education is traditionally the largest budget item, but that \u200bchanges next year with debt servicing costs \u200bexpected to reach \u20ac74.5 billion, according \u2060to the draft bill.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Hard-left LFI denies stoking protests<\/h3>\n

Intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI). Senior LFI lawmakers rebutted the allegations and \u200baccused the government of politicising the protests ahead of the election to replace Macron.<\/p>\n

Students and rights \u200bgroups have accused the \u2060police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International cautioned against the excessive use of police force.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents must be protected, not beaten with batons,\u201d the advocacy group said on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

The interior ministry on Friday said that \u2060they had \u200bopened three investigations into police violence against protesters.<\/p>\n

In a sign the protests may spread \u200bbeyond French borders, some high school students in the city of Li\u00e8ge, in Belgium, began protesting on Thursday. A city hall spokesperson said high schools were closed on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riot police clashed with high school students in cities across France on Friday, as President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s government battled \u200bto contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding. Tear gas clouded the streets in the eastern city of \u200cStrasbourg, fireworks were aimed at police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west. In Paris, where there were also skirmishes, students waved placards reading \u201cWe have a future to build, not to endure\u201d. Six months before next year\u2019s presidential election, opinion polls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}