Students and police clash as France’s government struggles to calm student tensions

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Students fought running battles with police and several schools were ablaze Friday as a new day of violence gripped France with no end in sight to protests that have rocked the country.

The government announced more than 400 schools would be closed on Friday as it scrambled to calm tensions after days of demonstrations that have seen hundreds of teenagers taken into custody.

Young people in Strasbourg, eastern France, were building barricades in tear gas-clouded streets, while more peaceful protests were underway in Lyon and other cities Friday.

The protestors say France’s education sector is under-resourced and overstretched. Students complain that absent teachers aren’t being replaced and say schools are in a state of serious disrepair.

“We’ve moved from student protests to a question of public order,” Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said Friday morning, adding he feared the unrest would carry on through the weekend. Nationwide union-led protests in support of the high schoolers are planned for Tuesday.

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With no obvious off-ramp for the protests and tensions rising as the violence continues, the government is scrambling to contain the situation outside high schools.

French Education Minister Édouard Geffray will meet with representatives of students, parents and staff on Friday, but given the highly localized nature of the protests, this may not provide a quick resolution.

Authorities in several parts of the country banned gatherings around the schools that were closed Friday, but the measure appears to have had little effect.

Speaking to radio station RTL, Darmanin proposed making parents pay for the damage incurred by students, an idea shot down as “absurd” by the far-left France Unbowed party, whose politicians have drawn criticism for rallying with students. On Thursday, government officials called on parents to prevent their children from taking part in violent protests.

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Many of the protests at high schools are peaceful, but the images of arson and strong-arm police tactics are dominating the public debate in France. High schools in poorer suburbs of cities across the country have been at the center of the ongoing tensions with police.

As of Friday morning, some 2,000 people had been taken into custody over the student protests, 90% of them adolescents, according to the justice ministry. Two students suffered serious injuries after allegedly being struck by crowd-control rounds fired by police.

In a post on X on Thursday, the Paris police prefecture said that its officers had been “challenged by individuals determined to clash” during Thursday’s protests. Agathe Foucault, a spokesperson for French police, told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Friday that officers “are required to use force in a necessary and proportionate manner.”

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周五，法国再次陷入暴力冲突，学生与警察发生激烈冲突，多所学校燃起大火，席卷全国的抗议活动仍未见结束的迹象。

政府宣布周五将关闭 400 多所学校，以平息连日示威活动引发的紧张局势，此前已有数百名青少年被拘留。

周五，法国东部城市斯特拉斯堡的年轻人正在弥漫着催泪瓦斯的街道上设置路障，与此同时，里昂和其他城市也举行了更为和平的抗议活动。

抗议者称法国教育部门资源不足，不堪重负。学生们抱怨缺勤的教师没有得到补位，并表示学校年久失修，状况堪忧。

“我们已经从学生抗议演变为公共秩序问题，”司法部长杰拉尔德·达尔马宁周五上午表示，并补充说他担心骚乱会持续到周末。全国范围内的工会组织声援高中生的抗议活动计划于周二举行。

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由于抗议活动没有明显的结束途径，而且随着暴力事件的持续，紧张局势不断升级，政府正竭力控制高中外的局势。

法国教育部长爱德华·热弗雷将于周五会见学生、家长和教职工代表，但鉴于抗议活动的高度局部性，这可能无法迅速解决问题。

该国多个地区的当局禁止在周五关闭的学校周围聚集，但该措施似乎收效甚微。

达尔马宁在接受RTL电台采访时提议，让家长赔偿学生造成的损失。这一提议遭到极左翼政党“不屈法国”的强烈反对，该党政客因与学生一起集会而备受批评。周四，政府官员呼吁家长阻止子女参与暴力抗议活动。

萨拉·梅索尼尔/路透社

许多高中的抗议活动都是和平的，但纵火和警方强硬手段的画面却主导了法国的公众舆论。全国各地城市贫困郊区的高中一直是与警方持续紧张关系的焦点。

截至周五上午，据司法部统计，约有2000人因学生抗议活动被拘留，其中90%为青少年。两名学生据称被警方发射的防暴子弹击中，身受重伤。

巴黎警察局周四在X网站上发帖称，其警员在周四的抗议活动中“遭到一些意图冲突者的挑战”。法国警方发言人阿加特·福柯周五告诉CNN附属电视台BFMTV，警方“必须以必要且相称的方式使用武力”。