Paris: Thousands of protesters marched through central Paris on Tuesday as part of nationwide demonstrations supporting high school pupils who have been protesting for better classroom conditions, with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg taking part.
With just six months to go before elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron, French authorities had been hoping that the protests were easing ahead of half-term holidays starting at the end of this week.
But teenagers at high schools called lycees — backed by university students, teachers, unions and the far-left opposition party France Unbowed (LFI) — have said their demands have not been met. French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was seen among the crowd of demonstrators in Paris. Outside the Paris city hall, demonstrators — mostly university students — gathered in the early afternoon to the tune of an orchestra playing the The Rebel Fanfare from the Star Wars movies. “I’m expecting a surge of solidarity,” said 20-year-old Patricia, not wishing to give her surname.
“We’re not giving up the fight, whether it’s for the high school students who were hit with a harsh crackdown, or for denouncing police violence,” she added, referencing multiple allegations of police brutality against protesters in recent weeks.
The education ministry said 214 schools were closed on Tuesday. Most of these were high schools out of the country’s 3,700.
University student union l’Union Etudiante reported that 90 percent of universities had closed nationwide to show support.
Thunberg, who became famous as a teen for school strikes to demand action on climate change, stood among pupils demonstrating outside a school in the capital’s largest suburb, Saint-Denis.
“Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us,” the 23-year-old told reporters outside the Paul Eluard high school. –Agencies
