Hundreds of schools in France blockaded in biggest day of student protests so far

Police in France use tear gas, water cannons against student protesters

Marching students' complaints include overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages

Police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters blockading French high schools on Tuesday, as students, teachers and parents took to the streets on the biggest day of action in a wave of demonstrations against understaffed and dilapidated classrooms in the country.

In ‌Marseille and Nantes, protesters held up signs marked with "The state has killed national education" and other messages in largely peaceful rallies. In Toulouse, parents linked arms at the front of a march through the city.

But in Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes, the demonstrations turned violent at times, with police firing tear gas and protesters lighting fires in the streets and hurling projectiles.

"There is such a gap between the elites and us," said Hugo Vetzel, a recent high school graduate ​in Strasbourg.

Protesters rally on Tuesday during a demonstration of high school students in Nantes, France. (Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP/Getty Images)

The protests began in September in the deprived suburbs of Paris, before spreading nationwide, presenting ​a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron's cash-strapped government at a time when it faces strong economic headwinds.

The High School Students Union said more than half of France's high schools were blockaded or would close for the day. Some local education authorities have tried to move classes online.

Students blockade their school in Paris on Monday. (Tom Nicholson/Getty Images)

"We ​want more money for the national educational system so that high schools are renovated," said Roberta, another recent high school graduate, at a protest outside ⁠Paris's prestigious Henri IV school.

Schools were facing ⁠a list of problems, from water leaks to rat infestations, she added.

The government ‌has responded to the demonstrations with riot police.

A police officer gestures over a protester in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Rights groups, students and parent groups have accused authorities of using disproportionate force against minors. The government says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and morphed into urban violence.

France's Interior Ministry said 6,100 people have been arrested since the protests began, the overwhelming majority of them minors. More than 1,800 people are ​being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, the Justice Ministry ⁠said, without specifying the crimes.

A person holds a rose in front of riot police during a demonstration in Bordeaux, France, on Tuesday. (Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)

At least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been injured in clashes, according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's office.A ​teenager's hand was blown off as high school protesters clashed with riot police in northern France on Monday. The regional newspaper La Voix du Nord said the 15-year-old lost his hand and part of his lower arm after picking up a police dispersal grenade.

Teenager loses hand in violent France school protests

"They want to divide the young people into good and ‌bad protesters," said Omar Slaouti, a high school teacher in Argenteuil, a northwestern suburb of Paris.

"If there were no trash cans on fire, the government would not have stepped back and become aware of the issues at stake," he added.

Six months before an election to replace Macron, his government and Marine Le Pen's National Rally party have accused hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) lawmakers and mayors of stoking the protests. LFI denies the accusation.

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Lecornu has ordered his ministers to tackle the leading demands of the students. Those include ensuring absent teachers are replaced, reviewing the length of the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. school day and the need for longer lunch breaks.

The government would also look at repairs needed ‌to aging school buildings, said Lecornu, who demanded ministers send in their first proposals by the end of October.Speaking at a protest outside the ⁠Hélène Boucher school in Paris, parent Emilie Lhomme said that the government's words were not enough. "That's all fine and dandy, but that's not what's going to change the daily lives of our children."

A youth is detained by an anti-riot officer during clashes in Nancy, France, on Monday. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images)

Finding ⁠spare cash to implement educational reforms will be difficult.

The government is under pressure to try to narrow a ballooning budget deficit as investor concerns about France's growing debt pile, weak growth and reluctance to rein in spending have pushed bond yields higher. The yield on France's 10-year bonds briefly ​hit a 24-year high of more than five per cent last week.

A protester wearing a mask depicting Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of French far-left opposition party LFI and candidate for the 2027 French presidential election, stands in front of French police in Paris on Tuesday. (Abdul Saboor/Reuters)

The surge in French borrowing costs has started to spill into the broader euro area, with the sliding euro currency the latest alarm bell ⁠for policymakers. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Tuesday there was no need for the European Central Bank to step in.

Marine Le Pen, ⁠the far-right euro-skeptic populist leading the presidential race ahead of next spring's election, set out plans to slash public spending if elected, seeking ⁠to establish her ⁠fiscal credibility as the bond market crisis deepens.

A student reacts near a burning barricade as high school students demonstrate in Toulouse, France, on Oct. 1. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)