France Braces for New Student Protest

France is preparing for another round of nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday as students continue weeks of protests over deteriorating school conditions. 

The demonstrations, supported by trade unions and the far-left France Unbowed party, were expected to include a march through Paris starting at 1200 GMT, alongside rallies in other cities.

The latest mobilisation follows Thursday’s protests, which drew more than 70,000 people across the country and led to about 500 arrests.

Authorities had hoped the movement, which began in late September, would lose momentum ahead of the half-term holidays. Students have been blocking entrances to high schools, known as lycees, with bins and other obstacles, while some demonstrations have escalated into confrontations with police.

The Education Ministry reported that only 130 of France’s 3,700 lycees were closed on Monday. However, it warned that although the number of closures was declining, the level of violence was increasing.

Separately, a 14-year-old boy was arrested near Marseille on Monday after a headmaster and a teacher at a middle school were shot with a hunting rifle. Police are treating the shooting as an incident unrelated to the student protests.

The ministry also reported that eight members of the teaching staff were injured during protest-related incidents on Monday, mainly in the Paris region and in the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon. The figure did not include the shooting near Marseille.

Although most demonstrations have remained peaceful, students say they intend to continue pressing the government to address staff shortages, deteriorating school buildings, overcrowded timetables and other problems affecting their education.

Leo, a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris, said students felt their concerns and proposals were not receiving sufficient attention from government officials and elected representatives.

He also criticised what he described as an unprecedented level of repression against a student movement, noting that many participants were minors.

The protests have also raised concerns about injuries linked to police tactics. One young demonstrator reportedly lost a hand after being struck by a police stun grenade, while another lost several teeth after a tear-gas canister was fired at close range into his face. A third demonstrator lost an eye.

Human rights organisations and students have accused police of using excessive force against demonstrators.

Police officers and teachers have also sustained injuries. Authorities said fireworks launched through a tube on Monday injured two school workers in Reims, another school worker in a Paris suburb and a police officer outside a school in Marseille.

Tuesday’s demonstrations were expected to be followed by broader rallies on Saturday against the rising cost of living.

Naila, a 17-year-old student in Rennes who planned to join Tuesday’s protest, said she hoped the student movement would link up with Saturday’s wider demonstrations.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that addressing the students’ concerns would require time, consultations and dialogue. He also urged demonstrators to exercise restraint.

More than 6,800 people, most of them minors, have been taken into police custody since the protests began, according to the Justice Ministry.

Police have also launched internal investigations into 24 allegations of brutality against demonstrators.

Following last week’s nationwide protests, the government pledged to deploy about 3,000 substitute teachers in the coming days to cover staff shortages at the 114 most affected high schools.

A government spokeswoman said on Monday that the process of assigning the replacement teachers had begun.

However, the national students’ union criticised the initiative as inadequate, describing the promised support as mere crumbs. It is demanding an additional €10 billion, equivalent to about $11 billion, for lycees.

The demonstrations have also sparked concern among some parents and students over the amount of classroom time being lost. Others fear that opposition political parties could be using young people to advance their political interests.

Some parents have called on students to end the blockades at schools in Paris.

A mother identified by the pseudonym Gladys described the blockades as undemocratic, arguing that they prevent students who want to attend classes from doing so.

Clara Juillet, a university student in Tours who has been unable to attend lessons for a week because of the protests, also criticised the disruption, saying it was unfair to prevent students who wished to study from accessing their classes.