France closes up to 500 schools Monday over student protests

Up to 500 schools across France will be partially or totally closed on Monday after clashes between riot police and student protesters in recent days, the French education minister said on Sunday.

Lessons will be “totally or partly suspended” in some “400 to 500” high schools as security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, Édouard Geffray said.

He also said 24 schools had been “burned or ransacked” since the start of the protests.

Thousands of students have been demonstrating over education standards and the protests, which started last week, have spread from Paris to other cities, including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille.

High school pupils and others have objected to a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and run-down buildings.

On Friday, French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 735 of France’s 3,700 schools had been affected “one way or another” by violent protests.

The education minister warned the number of schools potentially affected on Monday could be comparable to Friday’s figure but promised a “partial, progressive return to lessons”.

“There are activists – particularly from the far-left – who have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence,” Édouard Geffray claimed.

“Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students,” he said. Geffray added that 78 staff members in education had been wounded, which he described as “something we have never seen before”.

On Friday 1,747 people were arrested, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

Over 5,000 people have been arrested altogether since the start of the movement, according the AFP news agency, with around 85% of them minors.

Organisers of the protests have called for the demonstrations to continue on Tuesday after accusing the government of a lack of “concrete measures”, according to AFP.

On Sunday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said his government is taking further steps to “address the difficulties faced by high school students and educational staff”.

He said this includes ensuring classes continue, improving facilities, better organising school days and making the French university admissions platform more transparent.

Lecornu also said the government is accelerating the review of its “vandal-pays” bill to ensure that people responsible for damage bear the cost of their actions.