By Makini Brice and Clotaire Achi
PARIS, Oct 8 (Reuters) – French teenagers blockaded some high schools and marched through cities on Thursday after the government promised to address their grievances about teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings but gave no specific details.
The protest movement, now into its third week, has exposed deep tensions in France between popular demands for investments in deteriorating public services and a cash-strapped government under pressure from bond markets to reduce its debt and deficit.
It has also led to hundreds of arrests, dozens of injuries and a heated debate about the use of force by riot police against teenagers. On Wednesday, the government suspended the use of stun grenades in the policing of the protests.
The education ministry said 224 high schools were closed on Thursday morning, while 151 were partially reopening after closures. It said the number of closures had dropped by 30% compared with Wednesday morning, and that 94% of high schools were either fully or partially open.
Live footage on TV channels showed marches were again under way on Thursday in Nantes, Rennes, Bron, Toulon and Marseille, two days after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets nationwide. An afternoon rally was planned on Place de la Bastille in Paris.
Near Helene Boucher high school in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, a predominantly working-class area, a barricade formed out of rubbish bins had been erected and protesters chanted and held up banners. Scuffles with police broke out.
Charlotte Beaubeau, an English teacher, said she was at the blockade to show solidarity with the students and described the police response to the wave of protests as heavy-handed.
“There are a number of adults making sure that everything is okay for them,” she said.
POLARISED POLITICAL RESPONSE AS ELECTION LOOMS
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu addressed the nation late on Wednesday, pledging that the government would present “concrete, quick and fully funded responses” by late October, without offering specifics.
An online consultation platform set up for high-school students to express their frustrations and make their demands had drawn more than 43,000 responses in its first two days.
But the government is under pressure from a range of sectors demanding support, even as its borrowing costs have surged due to market concerns about strained public finances.
On Thursday morning, the agriculture ministry announced €2 billion ($2.24 billion) in interest-free loans for farmers, in addition to a €1.3 billion emergency aid package announced last month after this summer’s record heatwaves and droughts.
Six months out from an election to replace President Emmanuel Macron after the end of his second consecutive term, politicians’ responses to the wave of student protests have been starkly polarised.
Far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen has highlighted damage to schools caused by a minority of protesters and called for them or their parents to foot repair bills. On Tuesday, she outlined plans to slash public spending should she win.
Her hard-left opponent Jean-Luc Melenchon, who also has a chance of making the runoff, has praised the protesters as “incredible” and denounced police brutality.
According to an Elabe poll for BFM TV, 72% of French people think the students’ demands are legitimate, but 55% of them think the protests should stop.
The government has sought to tread a line between condemning violent incidents in which schools were set ablaze and staff injured, while also expressing sympathy with some of the students’ complaints.
STUDENTS PROTEST IN BELGIUM TOO
In Belgium, protests were taking place outside some schools in Brussels and outside Liege University, broadcaster RTBF reported.
In Liege, where local media have reported more than 100 arrests in connection with student protests this month, authorities have imposed a ban on public gatherings of more than three people until October 16. However, police said the university protest had been authorised.
Belgium’s foreign minister, Bernard Quintin, said hard-left activists had infiltrated the Liege school protests and were causing damage to property.
Julien Doeche, a member of the Liege Antifascist Front, told RTBF Quintin’s claims were “fantasies”.
(Additional reporting by Paris bureau and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Writing by Estelle Shirbon, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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