In Pictures
Photos: French students protest, public workers strike before budget cuts
More than 400 people have been arrested as protesting students clash with police.
French high school students have blockaded dozens of schools and public sector workers have gone on strike, protesting planned budget cuts before next year’s presidential election.
Tuesday’s action comes seven months before the vote and just two days before the government is due to unveil its draft 2027 budget, with opinion polls consistently reflecting deep dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron and his centre-right government.
Student protests have gathered pace in recent days over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages. The country’s Ministry of National Education said more than 330 high schools – just under one in 10 – were affected.
There were 440 arrests on Tuesday across the country, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, speaking to the BFMTV broadcaster.
In one lycee in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in a bid to protect them from the police.
Masked pupils gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire, according to the AFP news agency.
Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and various objects hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.
In the western city of Nantes, teens piled up dozens of bins to prevent entrance to the Lycee Gabriel Guist’hau, while in Paris there was an uneasy standoff between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school.
Similar clashes were also reported in cities including Marseille in the south, Bordeaux in the west and Lyon in the southeast.
Public workers join protests
Professional firefighters, who say this summer’s huge wildfires exposed dangerous resource gaps, joined marches in several cities.
About 11 percent of teachers and school staff joined the strike, the Education Ministry said, in a system where French teachers are paid less on average than many European peers.
Participation among other civil servants was below one in 10, with even fewer hospital staff stopping work, as the loss of a day’s pay weighed on turnout.
Civil aviation authorities warned of flight disruption at some airports.
CGT union leader Sophie Binet gave the government 48 hours to withdraw planned cuts, denouncing a fourth consecutive annual freeze in state employees’ base pay as part of a 2-billion-euro ($2.2bn) savings push and a wider 54-billion-euro ($61bn) austerity drive.
