France: Hundreds arrested as student protests escalate

Security forces in France on Wednesday detained over 600 people as protests at high schools in parts of the country have intensified.   

Authorities said violent clashes and arson attacks have also left dozens of security personnel wounded.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez condemned what he called an "escalation of violence" outside certain schools.

The violence left 83 police officers and gendarmes wounded on Wednesday, he said, adding that 32 teachers and pupils were also injured. The protests affected 356 schools, the minister noted.

He slammed the "targeting of law enforcement officers, the throwing of projectiles, acts of violence, verbal abuse, attempted arson, and what amounts... to urban violence."

Why are students protesting?

Teenagers at French lycées (equivalent to US high schools) have been blockading their schools since last week.

They are protesting overcrowded classes, heavy workloads, poor-quality learning materials and teacher shortages.

"There are cockroaches and rats everywhere in the school," Fadila, a 17-year-old student, told the Reuters news agency. She said temperatures in classrooms could swing from sweltering to below freezing, depending on the weather.

The movement began in the Ile-de-France region around the capital, Paris, but has since spread to other regions.

The cities worst affected Wednesday include Paris, Bordeaux in the southwest and Lyon in the southeast, and the northern city of Lille, where police again used tear gas in clashes, the AFP news agency reported.

What did the government say?

President Emmanuel Macron said the young people's concerns were legitimate but could in no way justify violence and attacks on police officers and teachers, among others.

"High schools are meant to be open and to share knowledge. They are not meant to be blockaded or to have trash ⁠cans set on fire," he told reporters in Madrid.

Both Macron and Nunez accused far-left groups of inciting violence during the protests.

"We observed that, in certain places, ⁠there were ​individuals acting as agitators — people who, moreover, moved from one school to another to stir ​up high school and other students and incite them to commit acts of violence," Nunez said.

Over the past few days, officials and politicians have denounced the left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed or LFI) party and its presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon for rhetoric they said was stoking students' anger.

On Monday, Melenchon had accused the government of implementing a "crackdown" with "obvious racist undertones."

"Hands off our youth!" he wrote on social media, while encouraging LFI activists and officials to support the protests wherever they could.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the accusation of racism "an insult" and accused Melenchon of "racializing a debate about student security and adding to division where a responsible politician should be looking to restore calm."

Edited by: Sean Sinico

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