Unprecedented student protests are rocking France. Here’s why they’re angry

Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

France is struggling to contain its biggest student protests in decades. What started as a demonstration in support of striking teachers at a suburban high school to the north of Paris has snowballed into a national crisis.

Hundreds of schools have been forced to close and more than 5,000 people have been taken into police custody, most of them minors with no previous criminal records. Students, teachers and policemen have been injured. One student in the north-east city of Lens lost his hand after reportedly picking up a grenade and another in Tours, the use of an eye.

The next big test for the government will come Tuesday when thousands of people are expected to join protest marches across the country.

The original protest at Saint-Exupéry high school in a Parisian suburb on September 21 attracted little attention. Pupils had joined their teachers to protest a lack of staff and resources. When their demands were met and extra staff sent to the school, the strike ended, but by then the match had been lit. According to student leader Manès Nadel, it spread like wildfire.

“It’s an unprecedented number of schools that are now involved,” he said, adding that France’s Education Ministry had been “totally overwhelmed by the crisis.”

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Pupils at lycées in Paris and the surrounding region began blocking entrances, and within days similar scenes were reported across the country, from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south. Images of students setting alight trash cans, manning barricades, assaulting teaching staff and clashing with police led to questions about the police’s response and the far left’s involvement. More than 100 high schools have been damaged since the start of the protest movement.

Critics have accused the police of a heavy-handed response. One policeman was captured on camera using a headlock on a girl in Alençon, a technique now prohibited by law.

The violence and the speed with which the protests have grown have taken many by surprise, but the grievances are long-standing — an overcrowded, ill-equipped and understaffed education system that many students feel is no longer fit for purpose. Videos have circulated for years showing classrooms with too few desks or chairs, or students finding their classes cancelled when an absent teacher is not replaced.

A fertility spike in France in 2010 has led to a rise in the number of high school students now attending schools that have seen years of real-terms funding cuts. Secondary schools now have fewer teachers than in 2008, despite an extra 250,000 students enrolled. In the public sector, 70% of classrooms have more than 30 pupils per class.

Critics say the government’s response has been slow and tin-eared. Initially much of it was focused on the far-left LFI party and its presence at the barricades. The party, led by Jean-Luc Melanchon, who’s expected to do well in the country’s presidential election next spring, has repeatedly defended both the students’ right to protest and his party’s right to be there. There’s also been a lot of focus on the need for a firm police response and the cost of the protest. Damage to schools in the greater Paris region alone is estimated at 7 million euros ($7.84 million).

There was an initial concession over the fees at technological high schools that had been planned for 2027 but this has now been removed from the government’s budget. “The government’s response has been irresponsible and it confirms exactly why the students are angry, because they are never heard,” said Manes. “They are responding only with repression.”

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The protesters do now have the government’s full attention, especially after a spike in violence late last week, when the interior minister noted a shift from student protest to urban violence and some 2,000 people were taken into custody in a single day. On Friday, Edouard Geffray, the education minister, met with student leaders. No agreement was reached, however, and the student leaders called for a massive turnout on Tuesday immediately afterward.

The government’s response is being hampered by the poor state of the public finances. It is trying to pass a 2027 budget that narrows the deficit to around 5 percent of GDP, a feat that can only be achieved by painful belt-tightening. Last week France’s 10-year bond yield briefly topped 5 percent last week, its highest since 2002, as the protests compounded concerns about the country’s fiscal outlook.

The unrest has fired the starting gun on what promises to be a vicious race between the far right and far left for the presidency, with much of the center floundering in the polls. For the far left, the pupils are a natural constituency. For the government, they’re a source of disorder and of spending pressure at the worst possible moment.

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Historically, student protests have not gone well for French governments. The student protest of May 1968 turned into the largest strike in French history, in a country that knows a thing or two about strikes. One of its slogans was “be realistic, ask for the impossible.”

The difference now is that the students who’ve taken to the barricades once again don’t feel they are asking for much. In fact, they say they are demanding the bare minimum: an education system that allows them to learn.

萨拉·梅索尼尔/路透社

法国正努力控制数十年来规模最大的学生抗议活动。这场抗议最初是声援巴黎北部郊区一所高中罢工教师的示威活动，如今已演变成一场全国性的危机。

数百所学校被迫关闭，超过5000人被警方拘留，其中大多数是未成年人，且此前并无犯罪记录。学生、教师和警察均有受伤。据报道，东北部城市朗斯的一名学生捡起一枚手榴弹后失去了一只手，图尔市的另一名学生则失去了一只眼睛。

政府面临的下一个重大考验将在周二到来，预计届时将有数千人参加在全国各地举行的抗议游行。

9月21日，巴黎郊区圣埃克苏佩里高中爆发的最初抗议活动并未引起太多关注。学生们与老师们一起抗议学校人手和资源短缺。当他们的诉求得到满足，学校增派了教职工后，罢工结束，但此时导火索已经点燃。据学生领袖马内斯·纳德尔（Manès Nadel）所说，这场抗议如同野火般迅速蔓延开来。

他说：“现在卷入其中的学校数量是前所未有的”，并补充说，法国教育部“完全被这场危机压垮了”。

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巴黎及其周边地区的高中学生开始封锁校门，几天之内，从北部的里尔到南部的马赛，全国各地都出现了类似的场景。学生们焚烧垃圾桶、设置路障、袭击教职员工以及与警察发生冲突的画面，引发了人们对警方应对措施以及极左翼势力参与其中的质疑。自抗议运动开始以来，已有超过100所高中遭到破坏。

批评人士指责警方应对措施过于强硬。一名警察在阿朗松被拍到用锁喉的方式制服一名女孩，这种做法现已被法律禁止。

暴力事件的发生以及抗议活动迅速升级令许多人措手不及，但民众的不满由来已久——教育系统人满为患、设备简陋、师资不足，许多学生认为这样的系统已经无法满足教学需求。多年来，网上流传的视频显示，教室里桌椅稀少，或者老师缺勤后无人顶替，导致学生的课程被取消。

2010年法国生育率激增，导致高中生人数上升，而这些学校多年来实际经费却持续削减。尽管入学人数增加了25万，但中学教师人数却比2008年有所减少。在公立学校，70%的班级学生人数超过30人。

批评人士称，政府的反应迟缓且充耳不闻。起初，政府的关注点大多集中在极左翼政党“法国团结阵线”（LFI）及其在抗议活动中的存在上。该党由让-吕克·梅朗雄领导，预计他将在明年春季的总统选举中取得佳绩。梅朗雄一再捍卫学生的抗议权利及其政党在抗议活动中活动的权利。此外，政府还高度关注警方采取强硬措施的必要性以及抗议活动造成的损失。仅大巴黎地区学校的损失就估计高达700万欧元（约合784万美元）。

政府最初曾计划在2027年降低科技高中的学费，但现在这项计划已被从预算中移除。“政府的回应极其不负责任，这恰恰印证了学生们的愤怒，因为他们的声音从未被倾听，”马内斯说道，“政府的回应只有镇压。”

Benoit Pavan/Hans Lucas/法新社/盖蒂图片社

抗议活动现在已引起政府的全力关注，尤其是在上周晚些时候暴力事件激增之后。当时，内政部长指出，抗议活动已从学生抗议演变为城市暴力，一天之内就有约2000人被拘留。周五，教育部长爱德华·热弗雷会见了学生领袖。然而，双方并未达成任何协议，学生领袖随即呼吁周二举行大规模示威活动。

政府的应对措施受到公共财政状况不佳的制约。政府正努力通过一项2027年预算，将赤字控制在GDP的5%左右，但这只能通过痛苦的紧缩开支来实现。上周，法国10年期国债收益率一度突破5%，创下2002年以来的最高水平，抗议活动加剧了人们对该国财政前景的担忧。

这场动乱拉开了总统大选的序幕，极右翼和极左翼之间的竞争预计将异常激烈，而中间派的支持率则普遍低迷。对极左翼而言，学生是天然的票仓；而对政府来说，学生在此时此刻却成了制造混乱和财政压力的源头。

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从历史上看，学生抗议对法国政府来说往往并不有利。1968年5月的学生抗议演变成法国历史上规模最大的罢工，而法国对罢工可谓驾轻就熟。其中一句口号是“要现实，不要提不可能的事”。

如今的不同之处在于，再次走上街头抗议的学生们并不觉得自己提出的要求过分。事实上，他们说他们只是要求最基本的：一个能够让他们学习的教育体系。