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More than 250,000 people rallied across France on Tuesday in support of high school students demanding increased education funding, with riot police firing tear gas in Paris and other cities as protests intensified pressure on the government.
The Interior Ministry estimated that 266,000 people took part in demonstrations nationwide, including 56,000 in Paris, where small groups of protesters clashed with riot police at a city square after an otherwise largely peaceful march.
Nearly 500 people were detained, the ministry said.
The protests have grown from demonstrations that began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September into a nationwide movement, adding to a series of protests that have marked President Emmanuel Macron’s nearly decade-long tenure.
Students blockaded schools while large crowds carrying flags and placards gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities.
“We need to listen to them,” said Léa Monimart, an adult demonstrator in Lille. “They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.”
The widespread use of arrests, tear gas and other riot-control weapons against teenagers has fuelled anger among some parents and teachers. Some student groups have called for further protests on Thursday.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the police response had been proportionate in “almost all cases”, arguing that some demonstrations had turned into riots and required police intervention.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the government and school authorities must listen to students’ concerns and find solutions.
Questioned in parliament about the protest movement, Lecornu condemned what he called “ultra violence” threatening schools. Responding to criticism of police tactics, he pledged that any “accidents” would be investigated and rejected allegations that police were acting in a racist manner as a “lie”.
More than two weeks of class boycotts and school blockades, coupled with policing that has resulted in more than 6,500 arrests, mostly involving minors, have become a major flashpoint in the early stages of the presidential election campaign.
Felix Barney, a university student, described the police response as disproportionate.
“It doesn’t make any sense to hit minors,” he said.
“Riot police, batons, rubber bullets, tear gas,” said Aurélien Le Coq, a lawmaker from the far-left France Unbowed party, whose presidential candidate has strongly backed the protests.
“The violence is absolutely unbearable,” Le Coq said.
Nuñez defended the police response despite a growing number of serious injuries reportedly linked to riot-control weapons. In the latest case, a 15-year-old boy lost a hand on Monday in an incident involving a police stun grenade.
Nuñez said 715 police officers had also been injured.
The teenage protesters’ demands have resonated amid broader discontent in France. Frustrations range from immediate economic pressures, including soaring fuel prices linked to the Iran war, to concerns over public spending constraints, rising poverty and wealth inequality under Macron, who cannot seek a third consecutive term.
Against this backdrop, students’ complaints that inadequate education funding is putting their futures at risk have drawn widespread sympathy.
“You say ‘young people are the future,’ so listen to them,” read a handwritten placard attached to a metal barrier outside a Paris school.
At the Hélène Boucher lycée in Paris’s 20th district, protesters overturned rubbish bins and bicycles to create a makeshift barricade.
Like hundreds of schools across France, the school was closed. Authorities began shutting schools last week in an effort to ease tensions after widespread damage to school property and rising numbers of injuries among staff, students and police.
Classes were fully or partially suspended at 891 schools on Tuesday, according to the Education Ministry.
Facing criticism that it was ignoring students’ concerns, the ministry has launched an online portal allowing high school students to anonymously describe difficulties they face at school and suggest changes they want to see.