France, the protest in schools does not stop: nearly 2,000 detentions in one day
On October 2, the mobilization of French students and high schoolers involved hundreds of institutions across the country, with closures, injuries and investigations opened after episodes of tension in front of the blockades.
The mobilization of French high schoolers and students did not lose momentum on October 2, the third consecutive day of protests demanding more resources for public education. France’s Ministry of Education counted 735 institutions affected by actions or disruptions on that day alone, of which 400 were completely closed. These are figures that capture a protest now widespread on a national scale, far from being a phenomenon confined to a few cities.
According to Le Parisien, there were 900 actions in front of high schools over the course of the day, with nearly 2,000 detentions recorded by law enforcement. This is a figure that marks a leap compared to the more contained mobilization days seen in other contexts, and that reflects the growing tension surrounding the blockades of institutions in various regions of the country.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray provided a tally of the injured in the school sector: 235 people involved, including 65 staff members and 160 students. These are figures the minister made public during the day, and they give a sense of how far the protest has in some cases exceeded the bounds of peaceful demonstration, spilling over into episodes of direct clashes near the blocked institutions.
In relation to precisely these episodes, the General Inspectorate of the National Police — the IGPN — has opened three separate investigations following the injury of high schoolers during the blockades of some institutions. These are internal proceedings within the French law enforcement, opened to verify the circumstances under which some students were injured during operations to clear or contain the blockades.
The picture emerging from the Ministry of Education’s data and from Le Parisien’s findings is one of a mobilization that, on its third day, retains intact its capacity to involve hundreds of institutions throughout France, with no signs of waning in participation numbers. The three investigations opened by the IGPN remain, for now, the instrument through which French authorities intend to shed light on the injury episodes recorded during the blockades, while the tally of 400 closed institutions remains the most immediate figure from the day of October 2.
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