About 400 French schools closed as some student protests turn violent

• About 400 schools in France will remain closed on Oct 2 due to violent student protests over education issues, including teacher shortages and poor school conditions.
• Protests began in Paris and spread nationwide, causing injuries, hundreds of arrests, fires in schools, and clashes with police.
• Authorities claim hard-left politicians, including La France Insoumise members, initiated the protests, but this is denied by LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard.

PARIS – About 400 schools in France are expected to remain closed on Oct 2 after student protests that began over education-related grievances turned violent in some places.

The protests against teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings erupted in the Paris region in September but have turned increasingly violent as they spread nationwide, with dozens injured and police making hundreds of arrests.

“There is an active and violent minority (participating in the protests)... We’re not entirely sure that they are even high-school students themselves”, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told RTL radio on Oct 2, adding that 2,000 people had been arrested since the protests began, with about two-thirds placed in police custody.

“We have gone from high-school student demonstrations to a public-order disturbance. When people target buses and set schools on fire, it is no longer simply a protest issue,” he also said.

In an interview with broadcaster France 2, French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on late on Oct 1 that “a little over 400 schools and other educational establishments” would remain closed on Oct 2.

Hard left

According to a source close to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Oct 1 that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard left, including members of La France Insoumise (LFI).

LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard denied the claim in comments to French broadcasters.

Student protesters started fires in at least two high schools on Oct 1, while teachers were inadvertently splashed with petrol at a third in the southern city of Marseille, officials said.

At least one car was torched in Strasbourg in the east and riot police clashed with youths in Toulouse in the south-west.

Some high school students in the city of Liege in neighbouring Belgium also began protesting on Oct 1.

According to local media, authorities in Liege announced that all schools in the city would close on Oct 2. A spokesperson for the municipality did not immediately confirm the closures. REUTERS