French School Blockades Persist After PM’s Unspecified Promises
French teenagers blockaded some high schools and prepared to rally again on Thursday after the government promised to address their grievances about teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings but gave no specific details.
The protest movement, now into its third week, has exposed deep tensions in France between popular demands for investments in deteriorating public services and a cash-strapped government under pressure from bond markets to reduce its debt and deficit.
The education ministry said 224 high schools were closed on Thursday morning, while 151 were partially reopening after closures.
It said the number of closures had dropped by 30% compared with Wednesday morning, and that 94% of high schools were either fully or partially open.
Student rallies backed by teachers and trade unions were planned, including on Paris’s Place de la Bastille, two days after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets nationwide.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu addressed the nation late on Wednesday, pledging that the government would present “concrete, quick and fully funded responses” by late October, but offered no specifics.
