French students 'take' the Bastille: "We will continue until Macron gives in"

BarcelonaStudent protests in France are no longer just those of secondary school pupils. This Thursday, university students joined various demonstrations called across the French state, and more and more sectors are supporting the adolescents' mobilizations. Unions and student and teacher organizations have called for a new day of major mobilizations for October 13th, and on November 5th, the major French unions are also calling for a day of protest.

Meanwhile, this Thursday, at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, a setting charged with symbolism, new clashes were experienced between protesters and police. Officers tried to disperse the crowds with a water cannon, and the smoke from tear gas has once again clouded the French capital, while students made it clear with the throwing of cobblestones and pyrotechnics that they will not lower their demands. "As long as 10 billion euros are not put on the table, we will not stop the mobilization," warned Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Student Union, one of the main unions calling for the protests. From Marseille, representatives of the same organization insisted that the protests have a very clear horizon: "We will continue until Macron yields and satisfies our demands." According to the Ministry of the Interior, 71,500 people have demonstrated across the French state, including 24,500 in Paris.

Organizations speak of a "historic" struggle that goes beyond education. On Tuesday, the largest mobilizations were seen since the protests broke out on September 17th. School blockades across France have become routine in the last three weeks, and the students' protests have encouraged Francophone adolescents in Belgium to resume mobilizations in the country against the increase in university fees and cuts in education. This Thursday, the authorities banned gatherings of more than three people in the Walloon town of Liège, the epicenter of the Belgian students' protests, under the pretext of containing the disturbances.

In France, students are protesting against the lack of funding for the education system, which translates into a shortage of teachers and materials, very high ratios, equipment in poor condition, and significant inequalities between schools in wealthy areas and poor areas. Although they maintain specific demands in the educational field, the reasons driving many young people to take to the streets now go beyond education. Various protesters express to international media and through social networks a feeling of unease and indignation at the worsening of living conditions, and they show themselves to be against the cuts proposed by the new budgets of the Macronist government of Sébastien Lecornu.

An "emergency plan" that does not convince

The French Prime Minister appeared yesterday evening. Aware that the student revolt could fuel protests in other sectors already scheduled for this October, Lecornu announced an "emergency plan," with measures such as a reduction in diesel prices and an energy voucher for low-income families. The horizon of the presidential elections in the spring is very present in the executive branch, which does not enjoy much stability, and fears that a victory for the far-right or the radical left will complicate its task.

In this sense, Lecornu tried to calm the protests by recalling that the budget allocated to Education is one of the few that will not only not be cut, but will be increased. But the protesters are demanding to go beyond the 1.2 billion euros in additional funds provided for in the budget, as they consider that it falls far short of the amount necessary to reverse the situation in educational centers. Furthermore, with the global character that the student revolt is taking on, the cuts in healthcare or pensions foreseen in the budget do not help to calm the protests.