Police fired tear gas to control crowds in Paris and elsewhere in France on Tuesday as more than a quarter of a million people rallied nationwide to support high school students demanding more education funding, according to government figures. The protests increased pressure on the administration of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.
As pupils blockaded high schools, large crowds waving flags and placards gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities. The demonstrations showed how protests that began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September have grown into a nationwide movement — the latest of many that have marked Macron’s nearly decade-long tenure.
“We need to listen to them,” said Léa Monimart, an adult demonstrator in the northern city of Lille. “They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.”
The Interior Ministry estimated that 266,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris, where small groups of protesters clashed with riot officers at a city square at the end of a largely peaceful march.
Just to note that many strikes like this one have ended with the government giving in (or giving back what they took away).
2006 strikes changed a law about contracts for people under 26, the 2014 ecotax strikes, the thing in Guyana, the airport project, the yellow vest strikes, the retirement strikes, the strikes against making it illegal to film police, the farmers.
The parents present at these strikes were maybe students themselves during the 2006 strikes, so they know this. They also know that the police are using a lot more force than 20 years ago.