[Anchor]
The protests in France, which have been ongoing for over a month, began with students demanding improvements to their educational environment.
Correspondent Kwon Yeongin met directly with a student representative to hear why students had no choice but to blockade schools and take to the streets.
[Reporter]
Pierre Sourzat is the representative of a French high school student organization.
Although university entrance exams are approaching, he has been spending even busier days voicing the students' concerns.
[Pierre Sourzat / Representative, French High School Student Organization "Les Lycéens": We have a lot of meetings these days. We met with the Minister of Education, were received by President Macron, and discussed countermeasures with Prime Minister Lecornu.]
Poor facilities where there are fewer chairs than students, teacher shortages resulting in months without classes, and university entrance exams suspected of unfairness.
He says the government's measures regarding the problems pointed out by students fell far short.
Local governments, which are responsible for improving school facilities, are already saddled with debt, yet the central government is attempting to solve the issue through loans rather than direct support.
[Pierre Sourzat / Representative, French High School Student Organization "Les Lycéens": Despite having so many meetings, I can clearly say that we are by no means satisfied. The government's measures are only half-measures.]
Because of this, despite some progress, they maintain their stance that they will not stop the protests.
They plan to join this weekend's rally and next week's general strike.
They also plan to resume the school blockades, which sparked the current protests, starting next Monday when the two-week autumn break ends.
[Pierre Sourzat / Representative, French High School Student Organization "Les Lycéens": When school reopens (next week), we will start again. The school blockade protests will start up again. We will show the fact that we are not satisfied.]
He drew a line against allegations raised by the political circle that extremists are behind the movement.
[Pierre Sourzat / Representative, French High School Student Organization "Les Lycéens": It is us who are urging students to take action. This movement is by no means being manipulated by political parties.]
Another large-scale protest has been scheduled for this weekend across France, including Paris.
French authorities expect up to 400,000 people to participate, and plan to respond by mobilizing 70,000 police officers and military special forces, just as they did last week.
Tensions are running even higher as this weekend coincides with Halloween, raising concerns over violent nighttime protests.
(Video by Kim Si-nae | Video Editing by Kim Ho-jin)
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