France, students take to the streets – fires, clashes and hundreds of arrests

Students across France clashed with police on Wednesday and Thursday, escalating protests that have been under way for almost a week.

Around 625 people, mostly students, were detained or arrested on Wednesday, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who also said 83 police officers were injured. According to the government, 159 students and teachers have been injured during the protests.

Videos that have been published allegedly show two teachers being attacked by students, prompting a reaction from the French president, government officials and teachers’ unions.

The protests began last week at several schools and intensified on Tuesday, when violent incidents overshadowed a nationwide day of protest by unions, workers and students against the forthcoming state budget. Tensions outside secondary schools rose further on Wednesday.

On Thursday there were fresh clashes with police in several cities, while a fire broke out at the Nelson Mandela secondary school in Nantes, and university students also joined the protests. The prime minister called an interministerial crisis meeting to deal with the situation.

At the heart of the students’ demands are staff shortages in the education system and the poor condition of many school buildings, at a time when the Macron government is trying to rein in high public debt without further burdening already strained public spending. Secondary schools in the poorest suburbs have been at the centre of tensions with police. Violent clashes and arson inside or near school premises have been recorded in Toulouse, Nantes, Rennes, Lyon and Lille, among other places.

In Saint-Denis, one of Paris’s poorest suburbs, videos showed students setting fires outside Lycée Paul Eliard, one of the main protest sites, and part of a fence collapsed. Barricades were erected outside several schools and rubbish bins were set alight. “There are no windows, no water in the prefabricated toilets, there are cockroaches and mice everywhere in the school. The canteen is very expensive, there is no toilet paper in the toilets and we have to ask the supervisors for it,” 17-year-old Fadila, a pupil at Paul Eliard secondary school, which is currently being renovated, told Reuters.

“The buildings are dilapidated. In winter, temperatures in the prefabricated rooms fall to -5 degrees Celsius and in summer they reach 40,” she added.

Around 400 schools across the country have been affected by the student blockades, which in some cases are also supported by teachers.