French leaders say they’re listening to students. Will it be enough?

After a heavy-handed response to the student protests sweeping France , the government has changed tack.

It has banned police from using stun grenades after a student’s hand was blown off earlier in the week and there are promises to listen more to protesters’ demands.

But with hundreds of schools still facing blockade and calls for more protests, will it be enough?

“Empathy” and a little more “pedagogy” is what French President Emmanuel Macron demanded of police forces facing student protesters, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, following a massive day of protests on Tuesday.

“The president recalled the necessity to maintain order, intervene each time there’s serious violence, all while asking us to act with the greatest proportionality,” Nunez told radio station RTL Wednesday, after an emergency ministerial meeting.

Nunez, a former chief of Paris’ police, said that he had ordered forces to refrain from using the type of stun grenade linked to a teenager losing his hand in protests on Monday.

“We don’t deal with a movement of highschoolers like we deal with a movement of adults,” Nunez said.

France’s Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu told lawmakers Tuesday that high schools would replace lessons until the end of the week with a “period of internal democracy” to air grievances and discuss solutions.

While refuting any suggestion of police repression, Lecornu condemned violence on the margins of protests, which were mostly peaceful Tuesday, despite the dramatic scenes that dominated coverage. Lecornu is due to address the French nation on Wednesday evening.

Tom Nicholson/Reuters

The proposal for discussion is a tried and tested tactic of Macron, who has historically favored attempts to integrate public debate into policy making. His government tried to calm the Yellow Vests protests with a similar listening campaign in 2019.

Meanwhile, 18 investigations into officers’ conduct during the protests have been opened by police internal investigators, Nunez said, adding they would examine the proportionality of police actions. Police forces “are there to protect the high schoolers,” he said.

On Wednesday, more than 500 educational institutions were due to be partially or fully closed because of blockades – a 41% decrease from Tuesday, according to the education ministry. That will leave 86% of schools open, the ministry added. According to the interior ministry, 488 people were detained around the high school protests Tuesday.

The student blockade actions on Wednesday were a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who marched with workers’ unions Tuesday in support of students across France. But it’s a sign of the rancor among students that protests are continuing day-to-day.

Blondet Eliot/ABACA/Shutterstock

Student unions have called for a day of protests on October 17 and five major teaching unions said they would strike Thursday in solidarity with their students, with little sign that school blockades will halt in the meantime.

More teachers, smaller class sizes and buildings better adapted to the climate are the most common demands of high school protesters.

Student union leaders, who represent some of the young people protesting, have also called for a 10-billion-euro ($11.2-billion) investment in high school and university-level education.

A 10-point list of proposals drawn up by student unions included rethinking student workloads, ending a controversial university admissions system, ending police violence against students and creating more student accommodation.

Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson of the Student Union federation of unionized students, told BFMTV that blockades would continue until their demands were met.

Abdul Saboor/Reuters

Anaïs Ella, spokesperson for Les Lycéens, a student association, told CNN that Lecornu didn’t address the demands laid out by student unions.

She said that some of the prime minister’s proposals – including filling teaching posts in exam-year classes – “was the basics of the education system.” She said that money would solve some of their demands but that a deeper reset in relations between the government and students was needed.

“We are the ones most directly affected by the national education system, yet we aren’t actually listened to,” she added.

Since the weekend, there have been concerted efforts among students to reject the violence that has marred protests.

Student Angelo Via, 19, who protested in the street Tuesday, told CNN there was a feeling of “powerlessness” in the face of violent police actions, despite many students protesting peacefully. He hopes the protests will bring about “radical change,” especially regarding education budgets.

There will be relief in France at the interior minister’s decision to ban one type of police grenade, as the injuries suffered by some teenage protesters has sparked widespread horror. But the proposal for time for debate has been met with skepticism in some quarters.

The main union for school directors, SNPDEN-UNSA, said that the single day set aside for discussions was insufficient to respond to problems in depth.

Nicolas Bonnet, national secretary of the union, told BFMTV that, “something other than a mere consultation period was required to get out of this crisis.”

France’s student protests highlight a debt crisis that could spill over to the rest of Europe

There are whispers in France of these protests transforming into another Yellow Vests movement, which was leaderless, nationwide and unified a broad church of grievances.

Mimicking the months-long violent protests – the longest in French history – that rocked Macron’s first term, students and journalists have already begun referring to the next day of protest set for Thursday as “Act IV.”

Additional reporting by Lucie Lepellec.

在对席卷法国的学生抗议活动采取强硬手段之后，政府改变了策略。

本周早些时候，一名学生的手被眩晕弹炸断后，当局已禁止警察使用眩晕弹，并承诺会更多地倾听抗议者的诉求。

但是，目前仍有数百所学校面临封锁，并有人呼吁进行更多抗议，这些措施是否足够呢？

法国总统马克龙要求警方在面对学生抗议者时展现“同理心”，并多一些“教育技巧”。内政部长洛朗·努内兹在周二大规模抗议活动后表示。

“总统重申了维护秩序的必要性，每次发生严重暴力事件时都必须进行干预，同时要求我们采取最恰当的行动，”努涅斯周三在紧急部长级会议后告诉RTL电台。

前巴黎警察局长努涅斯表示，他已下令警方不要使用与周一抗议活动中一名青少年失去一只手有关的眩晕弹。

努涅斯说：“我们处理高中生运动的方式与处理成年人运动的方式截然不同。”

法国总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努周二告诉议员们，高中将暂停课程，直到本周末，实行“内部民主”时期，以便表达不满并讨论解决方案。

勒科尔努否认了任何有关警方镇压的说法，同时谴责了周二抗议活动边缘发生的暴力事件。尽管媒体报道中充斥着戏剧性的场面，但总体而言，周二的抗议活动是和平的。勒科尔努将于周三晚间向法国全国发表讲话。

汤姆·尼科尔森/路透社

提出讨论建议是马克龙惯用的策略，他历来都倾向于将公众辩论融入政策制定过程。2019年，他的政府就曾试图通过类似的倾听活动来平息“黄背心”抗议活动。

与此同时，努涅斯表示，警方内部调查人员已就警员在抗议活动期间的行为展开18项调查，并将审查警方行动的合理性。他强调，警方的职责是“保护高中生”。

据教育部称，周三，由于封锁，超过500所教育机构将部分或全部关闭，比周二减少了41%。教育部补充说，这将使86%的学校保持开放。内政部表示，周二在高中抗议活动附近，共有488人被拘留。

周三的学生封锁行动只是周二数十万声援法国各地学生的工会游行示威者的一小部分。但抗议活动持续不断，也表明学生之间的矛盾依然存在。

Blondet Eliot/ABACA/Shutterstock

学生会呼吁在 10 月 17 日举行抗议活动，五大教师工会表示将于周四罢工，以声援学生，与此同时，几乎没有迹象表明学校封锁行动会停止。

高中抗议者最常见的诉求是增加教师人数、缩小班级规模以及建造更适应气候的校舍。

代表部分参与抗议的年轻人的学生会领导人也呼吁对高中和大学教育投资 100 亿欧元（112 亿美元）。

学生会拟定的十项建议包括重新思考学生的学习任务、结束备受争议的大学招生制度、停止警察对学生的暴力行为以及创造更多的学生住宿条件。

学生会发言人萨布琳·哈尔巴赫告诉BFMTV电视台，封锁行动将持续到他们的要求得到满足为止。

阿卜杜勒·萨布尔/路透社

学生会 Les Lycéens 的发言人 Anaïs Ella 告诉 CNN，勒科尔努没有回应学生会提出的要求。

她表示，首相提出的一些方案——包括填补应届毕业生的教师空缺——“是教育体系的基础”。她指出，资金可以解决他们的一些诉求，但政府与学生之间关系的深度重塑才是根本之道。

她补充说：“我们是受国家教育体系影响最大的人，但我们的意见却没有被真正听取。”

自周末以来，学生们一直在共同努力，反对破坏抗议活动的暴力行为。

19岁的学生安杰洛·维亚（Angelo Via）周二走上街头参加抗议活动。他告诉CNN，尽管许多学生以和平方式抗议，但面对警方的暴力行为，他们感到“无力”。他希望抗议活动能够带来“根本性的改变”，尤其是在教育预算方面。

法国内政部长决定禁用一种警用手榴弹，此举令法国民众松了一口气，因为一些青少年抗议者在使用过程中受伤，引发了广泛的震惊。但关于允许一段时间进行辩论的提议，在某些方面却遭到了质疑。

学校校长的主要工会 SNPDEN-UNSA 表示，预留的一天讨论时间不足以深入解决问题。

工会全国秘书尼古拉斯·博内特告诉BFMTV，“要摆脱这场危机，需要的不仅仅是协商期。”

法国学生抗议活动凸显了可能蔓延至欧洲其他地区的债务危机。

法国有传言称，这些抗议活动可能会演变成另一场“黄背心”运动，这场运动没有领导者，遍及全国，团结了各种各样的不满情绪。

效仿法国历史上持续时间最长的、持续数月的暴力抗议活动——这场抗议活动震撼了马克龙的第一个任期——学生和记者们已经开始将定于周四举行的下一次抗议活动称为“第四幕”。

Lucie Lepellec亦有贡献。