▲ Trash cans and bicycles burn during a student protest in central Paris on the 2nd (local time).
Protests by French high school students over poor educational conditions are intensifying day by day, compounding the difficulties faced by a French government struggling with a fiscal deficit.
Although the government attempted dialogue to calm students' anger, student unions dismissed the official response as unsatisfactory and announced large-scale rallies for next week.
French Education Minister Édouard Geffray stated that, as of the 2nd (local time), a total of 735 out of the country's 3,700 high schools had been affected "in some form" by student protests.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced that a total of 1,747 people had been arrested at protest sites that day, stating, "Projectiles were hurled, and there were attacks targeting law enforcement, teachers, journalists, and passersby."
The cumulative number of arrests since the 28th of last month has exceeded 5,000.
Violence at the protest sites is growing increasingly severe on both sides, among demonstrators and police alike.
According to the daily Le Parisien, a police officer in Belfort, eastern France, was knocked to the ground and beaten by a group of multiple people that day.
Videos posted on social media also captured a masked man spraying a makeshift flamethrower into the face of a female passerby who tried to block a group of rioters attempting to vandalize a bus shelter in Marseille the previous day.
The woman, who suffered facial burns, has filed a complaint with the police.
In Annecy, a female school supervisor was also assaulted by a male student.
Police crackdowns have likewise crossed the line.
According to the media outlet La Nouvelle République, 16-year-old Maël, who participated in a protest in Tours on September 30, lost sight in his right eye after being struck by a rubber bullet during a standoff with police.
Testimonies are also pouring onto social media claiming that teachers who went out to protest sites to protect students were struck by police batons and shields.
Amnesty International France raised issues on the 2nd regarding the police use of force, stating that officers used tear gas, grenades, and batons, and carried out mass detentions of students during the protests.
In an interview with BFM TV, Education Minister Geffray stated that about 170 students and at least 65 teaching staff members have been injured since the student protests began.
The Ministry of the Interior estimates that more than 300 police officers and gendarmes have been injured.
To pacify student grievances, Minister Geffray held a meeting with student representatives, parents, and teachers on the afternoon of the 2nd.
Following the meeting, Geffray stated that work to improve how student voices are reflected within the educational system would begin immediately.
He also added that plans would be announced next week to accelerate the replacement of absent teachers and that a broad review of school timetables would be initiated.
However, student representatives stated during the meeting that concrete measures they demanded were not produced and that they would organize a massive nationwide protest on the 6th.
Students are demanding improvements to poor educational environments—such as chronic teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and aging school facilities—along with the expansion of educational personnel and budgets.
Voices are also calling for the improvement or abolition of Parcoursup, France's university admissions support platform, arguing that it deepens competition and inequality in the college entrance process.
The demands of students pouring into the streets are further cornering the French government, which is already suffering from a fiscal deficit.
France's fiscal deficit ratio is projected to rise from 5.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year to 5.4 percent this year.
In response, the government proposed a 43 billion euro (approx. 65 trillion KRW) spending cut plan on the 1st.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) analyzed that the government, which is pursuing fiscal soundness, faces the difficult task of appeasing protesters demanding more resources for schools while avoiding new large-scale spending commitments.
The protests have already forced one policy retreat from the government.
The government had included a plan in next year's budget to charge tuition fees for certain students preparing for universities and Grandes Écoles after high school graduation, but withdrew it as student protests intensified.
This plan was among the policies that fueled the backlash from protest participants.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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