Students in several French cities set up barricades outside schools yesterday, protesting against overcrowded classrooms, with some classes of around 35 students, teacher shortages and poor school facilities.
Several school principals were assaulted and 305 police officers were injured, while 1,949 arrests were made across the country.
According to Interior Ministry figures, 1,027 of France’s 3,700 high schools were affected by the protests, with 222 under occupation.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has accused the left of instigating the unrest, a claim that Mélenchon’s party strongly denies.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned what he described as “uncontrolled violence.” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office said the protests had escalated into “urban violence” and cited intelligence services in support of claims that they had been organised by the radical left.
Manuel Bompard, a senior figure in the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI), rejected the claim, accusing the government of “sinking into conspiracy thinking” in comments to Agence France-Presse (AFP). LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon demanded to know which branch of the intelligence services had made the claim.
The latest wave of social unrest comes amid already heightened tensions over inflation, particularly soaring fuel prices, seven months before France’s presidential election.
Source: Le Monde
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