Protests in France escalate
Police fired tear gas 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 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 at times turned violent, 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.
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.
"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' prestigious Henri IV school.
Schools were facing a list of problems from water leaks to rat infestations, she added.
Thousands Of Arrests
The government has responded to the demonstrations with riot police.
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.