Fires and blockades spread during French student protests

Fires damaged schools in France and blockades disrupted classes and transport Thursday as student protests over teacher shortages, crowded classrooms and deteriorating buildings spread across the country. University students joined the demonstrations, while authorities reported injuries among police officers, school staff and protesters.

The BBC reported that the Interior Ministry recorded 1,949 arrests Thursday and 305 injured police officers. Al Jazeera reported that police counted about 340 demonstrations outside high schools by midmorning, with more than 160 schools shut. A student union said access to about 30 university campuses was blocked, Al Jazeera reported.

The protests began last week at high schools, known in France as lycées, which serve students aged 15 to 18. In Strasbourg, 17-year-old Raphael described crowded, poorly maintained facilities to the AFP news agency. “There are 35 of us per classroom. With 35 degrees Celsius [95 degrees Fahrenheit] in summer, it’s unbearable. There aren’t enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms,” he said. “The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There’s zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors.”

In Nantes, fires broke out at two high schools after bins were set alight, the BBC reported. At Nelson Mandela high school, flames spread to the front of the building and damaged its entrance hall. A fire was also filmed engulfing a school entrance in Rouen. Regional education officials described the gathering outside one Nantes school as “marked by violence towards staff,” according to Al Jazeera.

Accounts of an incident at Victor Hugo high school in Marseille differed. The BBC reported that staff were splashed with petrol as protesters filled containers. Al Jazeera reported that local authorities said teachers were splashed inadvertently when a student tried to throw petrol into a rubbish bin; prosecutors had earlier said the teachers were assaulted and “doused in petrol.” At another Marseille school, police said a group surrounded a firetruck responding to a blaze, forced firefighters away and set the vehicle alight, according to Al Jazeera.

Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during Thursday’s blockades, Al Jazeera reported, citing education authorities and union representatives. The BBC reported that a headteacher in Auchel suffered an ear injury from a stray firework. Transport services were halted in Marseille and Strasbourg; authorities in Strasbourg said trams were stopped to restrict protesters’ movements, Al Jazeera reported.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting Thursday. The government later said the demonstrations had descended into “urban violence,” according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced internal police investigations into allegations of brutality involving three students, while Education Minister Edouard Geffray planned meetings Friday with staff unions and parent and student groups.

The unrest has also drawn political accusations. The government has blamed the hard-left La France Insoumise party for encouraging protests. Its leader, presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said his party supported nonviolent action and argued that blaming the left would not address students’ grievances. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen called the unrest “riots organized by professionals” and urged passage of a new anti-rioting law, the BBC reported.