Students fought running battles with police and several schools were ablaze Friday as violence gripped France with no end in sight to protests that have rocked the country.
More than 400 schools remained closed on Friday as authorities scrambled to calm tensions after days of demonstrations that have seen hundreds of teenagers taken into custody.
Young people in Strasbourg, eastern France, were building barricades in tear gas-clouded streets, while more peaceful protests were underway in Lyon and other cities Friday.
The protestors say France’s education sector is under-resourced and overstretched. Students complain of overcrowding in classrooms and say that absent teachers aren’t being replaced and schools are in a state of serious disrepair.
Demonstrating in the Paris suburb of Pantin, 15-year-old Kesia told Reuters: “We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one hour lunch break (is too short) for everyone to get food.”
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin expressed fears that the unrest would carry on through the weekend, saying on Friday: “We’ve moved from student protests to a question of public order.”
Nationwide union-led protests in support of the high schoolers are planned for Tuesday.
With no obvious off-ramp for the protests and tensions rising as the violence continues, the government is scrambling to contain the situation outside high schools.
After meeting with French Education Minister Édouard Geffray, parents and staff on Friday, student representatives called for non-violent protests to continue.
“We disassociate ourselves from the urban violence,” said Nathanaël Combary, of the student union Renouveau Lyceen. “These are people who are not there to champion our demands.”
Authorities in several parts of the country banned gatherings around the schools that were closed Friday, but the measure appears to have had little effect.
Speaking to radio station RTL, Darmanin proposed making parents pay for the damage incurred by students, an idea shot down as “absurd” by the far-left France Unbowed party, whose politicians have drawn criticism by center-right and far-right lawmakers for rallying with students.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday criticized elected officials for appearing to condone the violence.
“In no case can those politically responsible (elected officials) – it’s a term that’s perhaps poorly chosen – legitimize violence,” he said.
Officials from the hard-right National Rally party have blamed their hard-left political opponents, who are currently positioned to reach the presidential run-off next year.
On Thursday, government officials called on parents to prevent their children from taking part in violent protests.
Many of the protests at high schools are peaceful, but the images of arson and strong-arm police tactics are dominating the public debate in France. High schools in poorer suburbs of cities across the country have been at the center of the ongoing tensions with police.
In the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, damage from the unrest is estimated at 7 million euros ($7.9 million), according to regional authorities, with 3 million euros’ worth of damage estimated in the southern region of Occitanie.
Police said some 2,000 people had been taken into custody over the student protests on Thursday alone. Two students suffered serious injuries after allegedly being struck by crowd-control rounds fired by police.
Amnesty International accused the police of using disproportionate force against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. “Authorities must prioritize dialogue and de-escalation, not resort to weapons,” Amnesty said on X. The interior ministry said it had opened three investigations into police violence, Reuters reported.
In a post on X on Thursday, the Paris police prefecture said that its officers had been “challenged by individuals determined to clash” during Thursday’s protests. Agathe Foucault, a spokesperson for French police, told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Friday that officers “are required to use force in a necessary and proportionate manner.”
CNN’s Kara Fox contributed reporting.
