Students and police clash as France struggles to quell school protests

Riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday and unions called for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron's government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding.

Tear gas clouded the streets in the eastern city of Strasbourg, fireworks were aimed at police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west.

In La Ciotat, near Marseille, a youth sprayed petrol at a teacher, said a spokesperson for that region's educational authority. In a social media clip broadcast by BFM TV, a man is seen clutching his face after a hooded person wearing a facemask sprays a liquid from a bottle at him. Reuters was not able to verify the circumstances.

Protesters in Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, set items including fences on fire and threw firecrackers at riot police, before running away.

After a government crisis meeting on Thursday, a source close to the prime minister said the demonstrations had morphed from a protest movement to urban violence, and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has said it had been hijacked by "outsiders".

Teachers' strike planned

Six months before next year's presidential election, opinion polls consistently show the deep unpopularity of Macron and his centre-right-leaning government. Planned budget cuts, which exacerbate the funding crisis in education, have fuelled the discontent.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 65 education staff have been injured during the unrest, including 40 headteachers.

Several students in the Paris region whom Reuters spoke to earlier in the week said they were staying away from the protests on Friday due to escalating violence.

Trade unions meanwhile called a teachers’ strike for Tuesday, a week after public-sector workers walked out.

"(The violence) is regrettable, but ... when demands go unheard for years, and given the political and geopolitical context, there are several conditions that put ... students in a real state of anxiety," teacher Sandra Champain-Seller said.

Minister says parents should pay reparations

The protests erupted in the Paris region last week but have turned increasingly violent as they spread nationwide.

Darmanin told RTL radio that police had arrested 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, since the protests began, adding that parents of those damaging property should pay reparations.

Four hundred high schools — roughly one in 10 — were closed on Friday due to the unrest, while Geffray urged parents to keep their children from protesting.

Some parents supported the protests. Vincent Martin joined his daughter outside Helene Boucher high school, in Paris, saying students were "fundamentally right to demand ... better learning conditions".

Education to get below-inflation budget increase

The students blockading the high schools have voiced anger over overcrowding in classrooms, regular shortages of teachers and dilapidated buildings, blaming years of underinvestment.

"We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one hour lunch break (is too short) for everyone to get food," 15-year-old Kesia told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin before running off as the police used tear gas.

Under the draft 2027 budget presented by the government on Thursday, the education budget is set to increase by a below-inflation 1.7% to €65.53 billion ($73.77 billion), excluding teacher pensions.

Education is traditionally the largest budget item, but that changes next year with debt servicing costs expected to reach €74.5 billion, according to the draft bill.

According to the OECD global policy forum, French spending on education is in the middle of the range among member countries and increased between 2015 and 2022, but its share of the budget has slightly decreased.

Accusations of police violence

Intelligence agencies told the crisis meeting that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI). Senior LFI lawmakers rebutted the allegations, accusing the government of politicising the protests ahead of the election.

Rights groups have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. French authorities have opened four investigations to examine accusations of police violence. One such probe will examine the case of a 16-year-old, who suffered an eye injury after police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters, according to his friends.

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