French school protests: Lecornu warns against escalation after 164 arrests

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned on Monday, 28 September, against an escalation of school protests after authorities reported 164 arrests and said 180 schools had been affected. Students protesting conditions in France's lycées have called for further blockades on Tuesday, putting access to schools and the government's response under renewed scrutiny.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez gave the arrest and school figures after gatherings and blockades near schools on Monday. The 180 figure counts schools affected; it does not establish that every one was blocked. The reports reviewed did not provide details about the people arrested or a nationwide count of schools closed.

Why students are protesting

The movement began the preceding week in Île-de-France, the region around Paris. Students have cited overcrowded classes, missing teachers and other staff, and overloaded timetables. AFP reported that students in Lille also complained about canteen prices and conditions in a boarding facility, including broken showers.

By Monday, the protests had spread beyond the Paris region. AFP reported activity in Marseille, Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Sedan. In the Paris metropolitan area, 28 lycées were temporarily blocked, according to the Paris police prefecture, a more specific count than the nationwide figure for affected schools.

Tuesday's call coincided with a wider day of public sector mobilisation. Teacher, hospital and civil service unions had also called for walkouts over issues including pay and working conditions, the BBC reported. The planned action indicated that the school dispute could continue, although the available reports did not establish Tuesday's eventual turnout or disruption.

Injuries and competing accounts

The Interior Ministry reported injuries to 12 security personnel, eight education staff, including three headteachers, and about 12 students, according to AFP. Those are ministry figures, not independently audited totals. AFP also reported that nine police officers, a headteacher and a student were injured in the Paris metropolitan area; those local figures should not be added to the national tally.

Nuñez characterised some incidents as urban violence and said people wearing masks and carrying projectiles had sought confrontations with security forces. He argued that the incidents were unlike a typical protest movement. Lecornu condemned reports of fireworks, fires and violence near schools, while saying the difficulties faced by lycées needed to be heard and addressed.

Student and teacher representatives presented a different emphasis. The student union called the protests a legitimate response to school conditions. Sophie Vénétitay, head of the Snes-FSU secondary teachers' union, told AFP that students should be able to express their demands peacefully. She also criticised what she described as indiscriminate police interventions.

AFP reported that the Paris police prefecture denounced violence during interventions intended to maintain access to schools. In the southern Alpes-Maritimes department, the prefecture said 10 lycées had experienced disruption, mainly around Nice, Grasse, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Menton, but that events there had generally been calm. Police nevertheless made 10 arrests in the department, according to AFP.

What happens next

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said he had asked rectors to convene student life councils at schools affected by blockades or attempted blockades by the end of the week. The proposed meetings offer a channel for discussing school conditions, but the reports did not establish what decisions those councils might make.

The dispute has also become political. Lecornu accused elected members of the left-wing France Unbowed party, known as LFI, of encouraging the blockades to spread. LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the government of ordering a crackdown. Those are opposing political claims; neither account resolves what happened at each school.

For families and school staff, the immediate questions are how many schools can operate during Tuesday's planned mobilisation and whether officials and students can agree on a response to the underlying complaints. Monday's reported total of affected schools does not answer how many lost teaching time, and the available accounts give no outcome for the next day's action.