{"id":2330,"date":"2026-10-08T15:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T10:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2330"},"modified":"2026-10-08T15:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T10:03:47","slug":"france-suspends-use-of-stun-grenades-to-police-student-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2330","title":{"rendered":"France suspends use of stun grenades to police student protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The French government said on Wednesday it was pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of student protests<\/a>, after a 15-year-old \u200bboy\u2019s hand was blown off<\/a> during a clash with riot police, fuelling protesters\u2019 accusations of police brutality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Protests showed no sign of easing, with more than 500 schools closed a day \u200cafter demonstrations swept across the country, and unions representing high-school students, teachers and other workers planning more marches for Thursday.<\/p>\n

The wave of protests has been going on for more than two weeks and has exposed widespread public anger six months ahead of an election to replace President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the nation on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the government would review the demands made by students and present proposals at the end of October on issues ranging from renovating buildings \u200bto make more teachers available, but gave no details.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, too many promises were not kept, quite simply because they were untenable,\u201d Lecornu said. \u201cWhat I want are concrete, quick and fully \u200bfunded answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of an immediate government response, which was decried by student leaders after talks at the education ministry earlier on Wednesday, appeared unlikely to \u2060quell the protests. At Lycee Lamartine, a high school in central Paris, protesters sang the Marseillaise, chanted slogans and performed Mexican waves as they blockaded the entrance to the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw there were lots of \u200bcrumbling walls, a shortage of teachers in public schools, absent teachers,\u201d said Gabriel Fillieule, who used to attend a public school but now goes to a private one. He and others said they were protesting to \u200bdemand better learning conditions for all.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Police\u2019s use of force being investigated<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While most of Wednesday\u2019s blockades were peaceful, police used tear gas and pushed back protesters in a street barricaded by rubbish bins outside Sciences Po university in central Paris.<\/p>\n

Rights groups, labour unions, students and some opposition politicians have accused the police of using disproportionate force to quell the wave of protests.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he had ordered the suspension of the use of stun grenades following an incident in the northern \u200bcity of Lens on Monday in which there was a \u201cstrong possibility\u201d the firing of a stun grenade had caused a teenager to lose his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am suspending their use for the high-school students\u2019 movement until \u200blight has been shed on what happened in this case,\u201d said the minister, who added that 18 incidents in total had been referred to the police inspectorate for investigation.<\/p>\n

Protesters have said they blame poor learning conditions for a sharp \u200cdrop in French \u2060teenagers\u2019 scores in reading and maths over the past decade.<\/p>\n

French 15-year-olds scored 43 points lower in reading in 2025 than in 2015, according to the OECD\u2019s Programme for International Student Assessment, the biggest drop among the OECD countries. Their maths scores also dropped the most.<\/p>\n

But the government, under pressure to tame public debt amid weak growth, has little spare cash to address students\u2019 complaints of teacher shortages, ageing school buildings and inequalities between schools in affluent and poor areas.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Twenty-four high schools damaged by fire or vandalism<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has acknowledged the \u201clegitimate\u201d demands of France\u2019s students but also described the unrest as the most violent student demonstrations in decades.<\/p>\n

Education \u200bMinister Edouard Geffray told parliament that 24 high \u200bschools had been damaged by fire or vandalism \u2060to the extent that they would remain closed for weeks, meaning some 30,000 students would receive no in-person teaching until they reopened.<\/p>\n

He estimated it would cost \u20ac20 million to \u20ac30 million ($22 million to $34 million) to fix the damage.<\/p>\n

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner according to opinion polls, said those who damaged schools should pay \u200bfor the repairs rather than taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The government has adopted a similar stance and has a bill going through parliament that aims to set up such \u200ba system.<\/p>\n

According to an Elabe \u2060poll for BFM TV, 72% of French people think the students\u2019 demands are legitimate, but 55% of them think the protests should stop.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Unrest elsewhere<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Elsewhere in Europe, where budgets have been under pressure as governments respond to successive cost-of-living and energy crises, students in parts of Belgium staged similar protests.<\/p>\n

In the Belgian city of Liege in the southern French-speaking Wallonia region, at least 107 people have been arrested in connection with student protests this month, the Belga \u2060news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Teachers \u200bare also on strike.<\/p>\n

In Portugal, the main teachers\u2019 union FENPROF launched an indefinite strike in mid-September over working conditions, with teachers \u200brefusing to do any unpaid work beyond the 35 hours a week mandated by law.<\/p>\n

And in Spain, teachers\u2019 unions have been protesting conditions in state schools. Teachers in Madrid plan a strike on October 14 to press demands including a reduction in hours, smaller \u200bclass sizes and higher salaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French government said on Wednesday it was pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of student protests, after a 15-year-old \u200bboy\u2019s hand was blown off during a clash with riot police, fuelling protesters\u2019 accusations of police brutality. Protests showed no sign of easing, with more than 500 schools closed a day \u200cafter demonstrations swept across the country, and unions representing high-school students, teachers and other workers planning more marches for Thursday. The wave of protests has been going on for more than two weeks and has exposed…<\/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-2330","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\/2330","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=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}