As security forces continue intervening and making arrests during high school protests in France, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said action had been taken against more than 5,000 people since September 28. Nunez said action had been taken against 1,747 people during the demonstrations the previous day alone.
Speaking to TF1, Nunez said the protests had affected 735 schools and that incidents of public violence had occurred near 158 of them. The minister claimed that various objects had been thrown at law enforcement officers, teachers, journalists and members of the public, and said he had ordered systematic intervention against disorder at the demonstrations.
Interior minister points to security forces’ equipment
Nunez said that 85 percent of those against whom action had been taken were minors. He said he had not instructed law enforcement officers to show restraint, but had instead asked them to use all the intermediate weapons at their disposal during the protests.
Nunez said five police officers were under investigation in connection with the protests and stated that the judiciary would decide whether they had acted proportionately. Law enforcement officers can take people against whom action has been taken to a police station for identification or place them under arrest.
Different assessments emerge over incident in Belfort
High school students gathered near Courbet High School in Belfort. A young man suspected of attempting to start a fire was apprehended by plainclothes police near the Savoureuse River.
Footage circulating online showed the young man with his hands and knees in the river as police attempted to apprehend him. Following the release of the footage, some politicians and internet users claimed that police had tried to drown the young man by holding his head underwater.
Belfort Public Prosecutor Paul-Edouard Lallois said the officer had moved to a different location to avoid becoming a target. Lallois said the young man resisted arrest as the officer tried to handcuff him, causing both of them to lose their balance and fall into the river; the officer then lifted the young man out of the water and handcuffed him.
Antoine Leaument, a lawmaker from the France Unbowed party, called on Interior Minister Nunez to urge law enforcement officers to remain calm. French lawyer Seydi Ba also approached the prosecutor’s statement cautiously and called for all eyewitnesses to be heard in the investigation.
Meanwhile, footage also emerged showing the plainclothes officer being beaten by several young people. Nunez had said that the officer, who lost consciousness, was taken to hospital. The Belfort Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the incident on suspicion of intentional homicide.
Royal calls for high school students to be released
Segolene Royal, a Socialist presidential hopeful in France, opposed Nunez’s remarks and called for all high school students to be released. Royal accused the government of provoking the students and said every police officer should respect the right to demonstrate.
Royal claimed that the government was driving the country toward bankruptcy and that the administration was nearing its end. Referring to France’s 2027 presidential election, Royal alleged that the government had lost control in the face of the protests.
170 students injured in high school protests
It was announced that Mael, a 16-year-old injured during high school protests in Tours on September 30, had lost vision in his right eye. Tours Public Prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard said a forensic examination found that the damage to the eye was consistent with being struck by a plastic projectile used in LBD-type defensive weapons.
Another 16-year-old was injured in the eye in Argenteuil on October 1. The teenager claimed that the injury had been caused by a projectile fired from the same type of weapon, and an investigation was opened into the incident.
A total of 170 students have been injured so far in protests organized by high school students demanding better educational conditions. In France, police may use LBD-type defensive weapons to disperse protesters. The French Ombudsman had previously called for a ban on these weapons, which can cause serious injuries.
New day of action called for October 6
Citing a lack of “concrete measures,” high school and university student organizations are continuing the mobilization, and university campuses have joined the protests. Ryad Rani, president of the Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), called on students to keep up the movement and join its “act III” on Tuesday, October 6, while a broad coalition of national education unions has called for participation, “including by striking.” Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced an upcoming “action plan” to “accelerate the replacement” of teachers.
24 high schools burned or ransacked
French Education Minister Édouard Geffray said on France Inter and France 2 on Sunday that 24 high schools had been “burned or ransacked” across France on the sidelines of the protests and blockades, and that 78 members of Education Ministry staff had been injured. He said classes would remain suspended on Monday in 400 to 500 high schools. The high school protest movement began on Sept. 17.
