Hundreds of French high schools will shut Tuesday as teacher unions join a student-led protest movement demanding more money for education.
The protests, calling for smaller class sizes, building renovations and a reform of the system that allocates university places, started in the Paris region in September before unexpectedly gaining steam last week with hundreds of blockades, some marred with fires, and violent clashes with the police.
Leading unions, including Unsa, the CFDT and the CGT, have called for teachers to strike and join students in their protests, with a main demonstration expected in Paris in the afternoon.
The government warned that the unrest had turned into “urban violence” and blamed the far left for being behind the movement. About 6,000 individuals have been arrested, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in an interview on Tuesday on France Inter radio.
The level of intensity of the protests is “unprecedented,” with a “lot of violence,” coming from the perpetrators, Nunez said.
About 400 high schools — or lycées — were closed or disrupted on Monday, out of about 3,700. An Odoxa poll for Le Figaro published Thursday showed that 62% of the French support the student mobilization.
In an effort to ease the tensions, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sent a letter on Sunday to his ministers, calling on them to make proposals on the issues raised by the students. The letter noted that the government’s initial budget proposal contained an increase of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) next year for education.
Tensions on markets
Yet there’s little room for costly reforms. The unrest comes against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny in financial markets as investors dump French assets on concerns over a bloated budget deficit and political instability.
The government is trying to get parliamentary backing to sharply restrain public spending to pare the fiscal shortfall to 5% of economic output in 2027 — the target it missed this year. But opposition groups who have twice toppled prime ministers over budget plans in the last two years are reluctant to compromise with less than seven months until presidential elections.
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On Tuesday, far-right leader Marine Le Pen — the candidate who leads polling for the first round of voting — will present her budget proposals and a longer-term plan for €125 billion of savings if she’s elected.
On the immediate issue of the 2027 finance bill, her National Rally has indicated its willingness to cooperate but not offer a “blank check,” lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy said on Sunday.
“We want to avoid the worst - an escalation of the bond market crisis,” he said on Europe 1 radio. “It’s obvious that censuring the government could contribute to the escalation and we don’t want that.”
The students unrest add to a wider cost-of-living crisis in the country, linked to a surge in fuel prices sparked by global conflicts. Fishermen blockaded several ports in late September. Meanwhile, calls are multiplying on social media to resume the Yellow Vest protests, a grassroots movement that started in 2018 and later morphed into nationwide riots.
Another day of general protests is planned for Oct. 17, touted by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed party. And five unions have called for a nationwide day of strikes on Nov. 5 in support of higher pay, public services, jobs and industry.